Bishop Barrington School, County Durham
The facilitator for the Bishop Barrington group has written an account of what they have achieved so far:
13th December 2010
The School Council has been chosen to represent Bishop Barrington School as part of Living Street's Campaign in a Box. The first session involved a set up meeting with the group where we discussed their previous involvement in campaign activity. The group includes representatives from most year groups so the diverse age structure enabled wide ranging conversation and opportunities for the more experienced members to assist those that had not been involved in any campaign work before. The group was keen to allocate roles and responsibilities to complete the workbook and soon reached a consensus over their chosen definition of a campaign. The students involved varied in terms of the amount of walking they did and found that some were restricted not through choice but because of convenience if being transported by their parents, or friends' parents. The students discussed a number of routes to and from neighbouring housing areas and were enthusiastic about starting their campaign. They were happy to be able to conduct the street treasure hunt and understood that they could make improvements in their local area that would encourage people to walk more if they made the right connections in the wider community. The group accessed the toolkit and looked at the resources available before beginning to plan their route for the following session.
20th January 2011
The street treasure hunt took place in this session with the group undertaking a circular route from the school that would incorporate the majority of areas that other students would use. They looked in great detail at the street furniture and other features surrounding the school, and commented that they hardly even noticed most of them as they passed by every day! There are a number of schools in very close proximity to Bishop Barrington and it was also noted that any potential improvements could have a positive impact on them too. It is hoped that as the project progresses the schools may even begin to work in partnership on a more far reaching programme of improvements and links with the local community. One area in particular stood out as an ideal location for improvement if there was support from the local authority, and the group planned to look into that in more detail before next session. The students were amazed by the things they saw and the potential for improvement, and remained enthusiastic about the prospects of the programme and how their campaign could be realized. The group was left to try and develop their campaign ideas further before the next session where we could discuss opportunities to spend their budget.