Encouraging sustainable and safe ways to travel to school through visual arts

The School Travel Plan Team at Somerset County Council works with schools across the County to examine how people travel to and from school with a view to encouraging less car use and more walking and cycling for shorter journeys and more school bus use and car sharing for longer journeys. Walking and cycling are encouraged because they improve health and fitness and individual car journeys discouraged because they cause congestion and emit carbon dioxide, one of the principal causes of human induced climate change. At present children who travel to and from school by car, in Somerset alone, clock up more than 10 million miles a year!

The School Travel Plan Team aims to educate children about the benefits of more sustainable travel and to assist schools in decreasing the amount of car use on the school run. SAW and SPAEDA looked to encourage creative learning in schools via visual arts activities. The three partners came together to develop a project that would provide the young people involved with an opportunity to appreciate their environment and to engage with it safely, actively and creatively.

This project was planned and supported by members of the School Travel team at Somerset County Council, SAW (Somerset Art Works) Ltd and SPAEDA.

Through an arts based approach explore both the rational and emotional response to the journey to and from school, particularly at the time of transition from primary to secondary school.

To draw out and record young people’s responses to travel and through this gain a greater understanding of their needs.

A lead artist worked with children at three feeder primary schools during the summer term of 2006. The same children continued the project following their transition to St Dunstans secondary school in Glastonbury. Here they worked over six days during the autumn term with added support from a placement artist.

Lead Artist: Alison Cockcroft www.alisoncockcroft.co.uk

Alison produces highly individual metal sculptures and collages from her studio in Stroud. She exhibits her work widely as well as working on educational projects, residencies and commissions for public spaces. In education she has worked with all age groups. She has been involved in several high profile projects across different counties and also works regularly in schools and community projects in her local area. She was drawn to this project because of her strong interest and commitment to environmental issues and her love of the landscape and walking.

Placement Artist: Julie Starks www.juliestarks.com

Julie makes artwork that reflects her fascination with ecosystems, sustainability and the fractal nature of our world. She produces work for exhibition, to commission and with community groups, using recycled and reclaimed materials and photography. As an environmental artist her community work involves engaging people with their local environment, generating discussion and making that learning visible. Coming from a non-driving family and being a non-driver herself and keen cyclist, Julie applied for the placement artist as it addresses her emotional and environmental concerns and provided her with professional development with the lead artist.

“The children have been excited and engaged at every stage of the project, as have I. Creative research is a fantastic way to learn.” - Julie Starks, Placement Artist

The Project

This is a summary of the project carried out by Alison and Julie. The activities listed may act as a guide for others wishing to tackle the subject of sustainable journeys in a creative way.

The aim was to collect information from the children about their current journeys, their understanding of travel issues and their expectations of the changes they might experience.

The challenge was to record their thoughts in a visual way and to make the whole process fun. Two half-day visits were made to each school.

Where the *appears extra information and resources can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.

“This project has been a unique experience for the children. It’s been a richer and deeper exploration of a subject” - Jane Hawkins, Head of Art, St.Dunstans


Primary Phase

The children from the three primary schools undertook the following Activities:

• Filling in a questionnaire *about their school journey. This aimed to highlight personal experiences as well as factual information
• Discussion about the issues relating to different forms of travel and sustainability
• Good and bad points about different forms of transport expressed as collages, using drawings, words and images from newspapers
• A journey diary kept over the course of a week, recording observations along the route to school *
• Collages made that represented things seen and heard along the route and also including thoughts, feelings and conversations

“I’ve definitely noticed more things on my journey. I enjoy walking and feel more awake when I get to school.” - Pupil, Butleigh Primary School


Secondary Phase

The aim was to develop work from the information collected at the primary phase and to look at the changes to the children’s’ journeys. The children from the three primary schools were brought together to share experiences and work as one group.

Activities:

• Finding out about each other through games and mini interviews *
• Using the collages made at primary schools to explain their journey to others
• Discussion of how journeys have changed in transition between primary and secondary
• Wire and metal sculptures constructed showing routes from the villages leading to St Dunstans
• Plans drawn for figure sculptures that express ideas about travel issues
• Construction of life-sized sculptures of figures, some made in cardboard, some in willow. Details added to communicate the particular ideas of each group
• Placement and photographic recording of sculptures in the outdoor environment interacting with cars, crossings, road signs, buses etc.
• Development of particular images into a poster using Photoshop
• Video recordings of presentations from each group explaining their ideas and what they have gained from the project. *Download a PDF of the worksheets at the bottom of this page

School Journey Diary* / Sharing Journeys* / Safe Routes Questions*

Summary

This project has been a great example of how art projects can engage children with important issues and enable them to express their point of view. It has been a broad project touching on many strands of the school curriculum as well as being a valuable art experience. It reinforces the value of schools forming partnerships with other agencies and involving professional artists in extended projects.
- Alison Cockcroft, Lead Artist

The Partners

Somerset County Council School Travel Plan Team
School communities, in particular pupils, parents and teachers, are encouraged to investigate and discuss the ways they travel to and from school. The School Travel Plan Team provide advice and suggestions along with maps showing how pupils travel, survey forms and mode of travel data. The whole process is recorded in a document called the School Travel Plan, which concludes with measures to encourage more walking and cycling, school bus use and car sharing. Grants are available for the schools that complete School Travel Plans.



 

School Travel Plan Team
E-mail: schooltravelplan@somerset.gov.uk
Tel: 01823 358224
Further information on www.youngtransnet.com

Somerset Art Works (SAW Ltd.)
Email: info@somersetartworks.org.uk

Somerset Art Works (SAW Ltd.) exists to promote the visual arts and create opportunities for visual artists in Somerset by advocacy, promotion and development. SAW is an artist led organisation and Somerset’s only countywide agency dedicated to developing the visual arts. One of our aims is to deliver educational workshops, exhibitions and participatory events that are key to involving children and young people with the visual arts in Somerset.

Somerset Partnerships Arts Education Agency (SPAEDA)
Email: info@spaeda.org.uk
Website: www.spaeda.org.uk
 
SPEADA aims to enhance the life of every child and young person in Somerset through the arts. SPAEDA is a non-profit organisation working across all art forms to increase children’s and young people’s access to arts and cultural experiences. SPAEDA helps to raise the profile of the arts within education and enriches the learning experiences of young people by developing partnerships and sharing good practice in arts education and creative learning. SPAEDA’s placement scheme ‘emerge’ provided a framework to support learning and mentoring for the artists.

Thank you to pupils and teachers from Butleigh and St Benedict’s C of E Primary Schools, Meare Village Primary School and St Dunstans School, Glastonbury for taking part.
Funded by: Arts Council England and Somerset County Council

*You can download the project files in pdf below.

Aims of the Project