Press releases

Primary school children across the East of England are taking part in the search for a regional landmark. The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) is delighted to have partnered with Arts Council England, East in providing 50 free landmark east workshop packages to primary schools in the region.

The workshop programme is designed to get children thinking creatively about what they would like for a landmark in the East of England.  It is running alongside EEDA’s landmark east international ideas competition which was launched in October 2003. 

Information packs and application forms for the landmark east workshops for schools were distributed to all primary schools in the six counties with help from the local education authorities.  All workshops will be delivered between 9 February and 31 March 2004.  A list of participating schools is attached to this release.

The workshop package is extremely comprehensive and includes: CD Rom with background information on landmark east, homework questionnaire and modelling materials.  The workshop itself will be fun and inspirational.   It is aimed at school children aged 10 and 11 and will be delivered by Building Experiences, specialists in educational workshops for schools. 

Each workshop will last 2 – 2½ hours and is a flexible tool that can be adapted to support different areas of the curriculum.  It will look at the idea behind landmark east and inspire pupils to think about their local environment in a regional context, using a wide range of stimulus materials from the region, along with hands-on modelling ideas.  Modelling and display materials will be left with each school to develop their workshop ideas with a view to a series of events showcasing all the schools’ work later in the year. 

Feedback from the schools and pupils, including recurring themes and views will be summarised and passed to the judging panel for the landmark east ideas competition.

Yasmin Shariff, chair of the landmark east steering group said:

“Today’s children are our future and they have great ideas so it is vital that we talk and listen to them.  The landmark east workshop programme is a great opportunity for us to find out what they would like for a landmark in the region.  It also presents an excellent education platform with relevance to a wide range of curriculum subjects from geography to design and technology and life skills.”

Ends

Further information
Cheryl Martin/Marcie Bell, Omobono, Tel: 01223 307000

Should you wish to attend one of the, please contact the participating school direct.

Notes to editors:

1.   EEDA is the regional development agency for the East of England, responsible for driving economic development in the region which comprises Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk

2. For more information about the landmark east ideas competition go to: www.landmarkeast.org.uk.  The competition is open to anyone who can develop and deliver a visionary idea for a landmark – a sustainable icon representing the region to the rest of the world. The landmark(s) could be anything from a piece of music to a conservation project or a bridge. There is no assumption that it will be a building. The judges will be looking for ideas that will attract significant funding, stimulate tangible economic benefit and inspire a sense of pride and unity in the region.  The deadline for competition entries is 18 February 2004. The first stage judging will take place on 24 February 2004 - to agree a short list of 12 projects. These ideas will then be the focus for media and internet-led public consultation before the final judging at end of March 2004

3.  The workshops have been designed and will be delivered by Building Experiences.  For more information, go to: www.buildingexperiences.co.uk

4. The allocation of workshops for schools is on a pro rata basis according to the number of schools in each local education authority. 

5. The workshops are funded by a lottery grant from the Arts Councils England, East.

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