Context

“When I first visited the school’s rooftop playground, the predominant impression the place left on me was of feeling enclosed. At a little over 6ft, I was just able to peer out across the fencing and I couldn’t stop thinking about what it must be like for the children who play there. It was the type of space that changing:spaces had been waiting for!” - Nicky Goulder, Create’s Executive Director

Aims & principles

In 2005, Create formulate an idea for a project called changing:spaces, which would involve a group of volunteers transforming a uninspiring/neglected space within a primary school using the drawings and poetry created by the pupils themselves.  Create and the Art Co-ordinator of All Souls C of E Primary School were discussing how they could work together on a creative arts project when Nicky visited the school playground. The school is situated just off Oxford Street, in central London, where space is at a premium and therefore seemed to be the ideal school for the innovative changing:spaces project.

The visual art and writing project saw the transformation of the school playground from a bleak rooftop area into an inspirational space for play. The project began with a dedicated Arts Week with children and artists working together to create their own imagined world through the creation of artwork, stories and poetry. Over the summer holidays, volunteers from Hilton and Create’s visual artist transformed the playground into the children’s own ‘Imagined World’. The project culminated in an unveiling ceremony, which gave the children and Hilton volunteers the chance to explore the new area they had created together.

Summary

• To enable children to engage creatively with their own environment to transform the school’s playground into an inspirational space for play.
• To inspire and enthuse the children, teachers and Hilton volunteers by providing them with the opportunity to work with and alongside Create’s leading professional artists.
• To encourage children to explore the ‘space’ of their imagination and be creative.

In Practice

Phase 1

The school’s Arts Week took place in July 2006 with the Reception & KS1 children starting the week with a one-day storytelling workshop. Create’s writer led the children on a journey through different landscapes with children encouraged to contribute their ideas of what they could see, hear and smell on their way. The children’s images of rainbow-coloured creatures and talking snakes were then incorporated into a series of class stories that contributed to the final wall mural design.

Phase 2

Children in Years 2, 3, 4 & 5 took part in a one-day visual art workshop with each child representing an image visually. As the children worked, Create’s visual artist constructed four 3D “theatre sets”, each one representing one playground wall. With all the cut-out paintings complete, the classes thought about how their images could interact with the playground environment e.g. the water foundation being transformed into a gushing waterfall. The children were also encouraged to think about how the images could be grouped on the playground walls forming both little narratives and a larger story. e.g. The cupcake car would be featured on every wall, taking the observer from the land of 6ft ice-creams to the fire-breathing dragon and giant rainbow, at the edge of the world.

Phase 3

The final phase of the project involved Year 6 in a creative writing workshop. The children used the 3D theatre sets as a stimulus for writing their own character descriptions, poetry and stories.

The quality of their writing impressed all involved. One child described an image of the Carrot Man as “Guardian of the green/Defender of the vegetable patch” whilst another pupil wrote “I would be a dream-catcher protecting children from nasty nightmares” to describe a flower-shaped fairy character.

Final phase

In the summer holidays, under the guidance of Create’s visual artist, the Hilton volunteers spent two days transferring the children’s 3D theatre sets and words onto the playground walls.

Partnerships

Hilton in the Community Foundation
All Soul’s Church of England Primary School

Outcomes

“The murals have transformed the playground into a colourful, stimulating, creative environment to play in.”
The teachers found the wall murals so inspiring that they set up a creative writing table in the playground so that the children could use the artwork as stimulus for their own stories.

The project was successful in encouraging children to explore the ‘space’ of their imagination:
“Wow! It looks amazing. There’s my monster. This is so cool.”
“The idea of giving the children a stake in their environment was the most effective aspect of the project.”
“If you make stories you can let your mind do whatever it wants”

The project was successful in inspiring/enthusing teachers and enabling them to develop new ideas to use back in the classroom:
“It was amazing! [Create’s writer] got so much out of them! I’m definitely going to try that [creating a group story] with them another time.”

Resources

Visit Learning through Landscapes and sign your school up for National School Grounds Week.

QCA Geography Unit 8a - Changing places - Our school grounds

Contacts

For more information about Create’s changing:spaces project, please contact Create’s Marketing Manager, Katie Gilbert.
T: 020 7374 8485 E:

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