The ‘Big Idea’:
Landscape and green space makes an enormous contribution to social and physical health yet this resource is under used and under-funded. Our project will use the historic landscape of Runnymede, to provide a teaching resource to connect children to landscape and the history of democracy. This is a prototype for what we hope will become a major new Landscape Design Trust initiative throughout the country.
Why Us?
Landscape Design Trust (LDT) is a charity dedicated to the advancement of awareness and understanding of the landscape for the benefit of the environment and the community. We were set up over 25 years ago and have a great deal of specialist knowledge and expertise in landscape and related areas. This project meets all our core charitable aims and objectives.
The need:
British children are losing their connection with the outdoors. Play has become increasingly computer based and parents are reluctant to let their children play outside. Well documented evidence illustrates this trend and its detrimental impact on the physical, social and mental health of our population. The benefit which landscapes can offer society is, however, influenced by the quality of landscape, and the contribution landscape design and good management can make to biodiversity and green infrastructure. This aspect is still not always understood.
And how we intend to tackle the problem:
Through the provision of well-designed education packs and tutored location visits for local schools, we aim to reconnect children with their landscapes. By introducing children to a high quality, designed landscape with enormous historic implication such as Runnymede, we aim to raise awareness and understanding of green space, and the opportunities it offers children for learning, play and recreation. We also aim to increase understanding of the need for quality design and management, and the role landscapes play in the social well-being and history of our society.
Project aims:
We will prepare two education packs for local schools which allow children to explore and understand their local landscapes
Activities
- Use existing landscape archive materials showing the development of landscape architect Geoffrey Jellicoe’s design for the Runnymede memorials and landscape
- Involve two local schools in the development of materials (e.g. reactions to discovering landscapes, options for landscape trails, aspects of landscape important to young people etc)
- Prepare and produce two self-guiding education packs for two national curriculum key stages, which will raise awareness of, and involvement in, landscape and the importance of the Runnymede in our history
- run two free education sessions at the Runnymede site for the two local schools
- liaise with the teachers concerned, about post-visit learning activities and targets
- distribute packs to other local schools for them to use by themselves, thus broadening our impact
What long term changes will our project have?
The Runnymede project is a prototype for a larger initiative that will introduce children and their families to:
- the ‘outdoors’ and help to remove barriers to play and recreation in local landscapes
- the importance of good design and management of landscapes, to influence the standards participants will require of others and the aspirations for their own lives
- the historic/cultural importance of landscape and the role it plays in our lives
We will monitor the two schools using the packs and determine the value and frequency of use. We will ask for and assess brief but formal feedback from schools and use this to adapt and extend the programme at a larger scale.
Budget:
We need to raise £12,000 to fund this prototype project. We have already raised £3,000 in pledges which allows us to invite donations up to £6000 from the public and friends in December via ‘TheBigGive’ website. If successful this will trigger a matching £3,000 from ‘TheBigGive’, who will publicise our project at this time. Donors will receive a monthly email report on the project detailing on-going and forthcoming activities and any necessary changes that have been made to the project plans. Information will also be posted on our website.
How to donate:
‘TheBigGive’ Christmas Challenge will begin at 10am on Monday 5th December. This is your chance to donate to our project and have your contribution matched by the Big Give Sponsors and our own pledges. To read more about how you can play your part, either in the run up to the Challenge or during the Challenge Week, please click on http://new.thebiggive.org.uk or, to go direct to our project web page click on http://new.thebiggive.org.uk/projects/view/13416
