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One of the three central tenets of Learning through Landscapes’ work is that the whole school community, including all children and young people, should have the opportunity to actively participate in the improvement, use and management of their school grounds.
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We know from experience that through participation, children and young people ensure that their needs are met and increase feelings of ownership and responsibility.
The process of change that we recommend encourages participation by the whole school community, and we have developed a number of programmes to demonstrate the impact this can have.
Our Children’s Champions programme in Wales empowered groups of children with resources, tools and funding to instigate and manage changes to their school grounds. This encouraged them to consult their peers, establish needs, develop sustainable solutions and ensure that the resulting improvements were monitored and managed in the future.
Our Skills for School Landscapes programme in London worked with the hardest to reach young people in secondary schools to provide opportunities for them to develop vocational skills in construction and horticulture. This programme provided a new motivation for these pupils and as a result improved their attendance at school.
Integral to social inclusion is the development of a sense of community, and school grounds improvement projects can provide an excellent catalyst for uniting communities around a common goal.
Our Learning Together programme encouraged parents and other members of the wider community to offer support to their local schools to bring about sustainable improvements and develop resources from which the whole community could benefit. |
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