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Sense of Place Project Update
The Sense of Place Project is an environmental and heritage appreciation project for the young people of North Wales . The Project was designed to slot within the school time-table, complimenting and enriching the current syllabus. The Project consist of 3 topics for consideration; 'Where We Live' - a variety of interactive and creative activities to explore the locality, 'My Favourite Place' - environmental appreciation through the medium of art and creative writing, and 'Past and Present' - intergenerational oral history workshops to take a closer look at now and then.
Work on the North Wales based, 2-year project 'Sense of Place' began this year in the Northeast counties. A school from each county was identified to take part in the project over a period of 12-months. So far pupils across the Northeast have explored their local woodlands with the Forestry Commission, learnt of native butterflies with the Butterfly Conservation, identified birds through song with the RSPB, discovered their local history with local historians, visited local parks with country park wardens, spent time with storytellers and local artists, to name but a few, as part of their 'Where We Live' and 'My Favourite Place' Topics.
This December the Sense of Place Project will have reached over 420 school children in Northeast Wales , aged 3 - 15. Ysgol Brynteg in Wrexham, Connah's Quay High School in Flintshire, Ysgol Penmorfa in Denbighshire and Ysgol Craig y Don in Conwy are all set to complete their project work with the intergenerational oral history topic 'Past and Present'. Whilst Connah's Quay High are taking a more artistic approach, using the support of local artist Eleri Jones to create a community collage to be displayed at the community café, the other schools will be benefiting from the experience and creativity of storyteller and writer Elin Alaw to lead intergenerational workshops.
Exhibitions of work produced during the project have taken place in the Northeast counties.
With the Northeast County Schools rapidly on their way to completing the Sense of Place Project, discussions are currently being held with County Councils, and environmental & heritage bodies in Anglesey and Gwynedd, with regards to identifying a suitable and worthy school, in each of the two counties to take part in 'Sense of Place' 2008. Dependant on the location of the schools, a package of interactive and innovative workshops will then be tailor-made, and the project will be underway once more.
To mark the end of the project, in the winter 2008, work from across the 6 North Wales counties will be collated to form a final exhibition, which will go on tour for all to enjoy.
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The Welsh Assembly Governments Spatial Plan states that 'our future’ depends on the vitality of our communities as attractive places to live and work. We need to reduce inequalities between communities while retaining their character and distinctiveness', this project will develop and promote the concept of Community Landscapes and a sense of place.
The project will seek to instil a sense of place within the people involved and increase awareness of the benefits of understanding their own heritage landscape and environment. By giving people an opportunity to explore their own heritage in their own chosen innovative way, people will feel connected with their landscape and heritage.
Encouraging communities to identify, look after and celebrate their heritage is central to this project. This project will use the contacts, experience and partners developed in the pilot to develop a package for use in schools and with associated community groups.
The package will celebrate local history and landscape in a variety of ways such as poetry/storytelling sessions, visits to local Museums, with a proportion of the work based on intergenerational oral history. Comparing the past with the present. Emphasising the importance of learning from one another will be made possible from opening the project to both schools and the community. Reminiscence days will be held at schools where older members of the community will be invited to come along and share their experiences about their town, their youth, and the landscape. Children will develop interviewing and interpretation skills and facilitation techniques. In addition some museums in North Wales have surrounding woodlands, which will be used for environmental heritage work in partnership with the Woodland trust.
For more information on Sense of Place, please contact contact Head Office: 01938 552525.
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