Summer Wildlife Walk

Before the rain came down yesterday we managed to enjoy a riverside walk from Hammersmith Bridge towards Putney and then over the river to see the new improvements to Bishop’s Park and Fulham Palace. The new lake is fantastic and will be really beautiful once the planting has established and the play area for children with its sandy ‘beach’ is going to be really popular. 

Everyone enjoyed seeing the newly renovated walled garden in the grounds of Fulham Palace also. There were plenty of cormorants fishing in the river at low tide along the way and we saw this really handsome heron also

H&F Children’s Parliament on the Environment

This year’s Children’s Parliament on the Environment took place in the council chamber of Hammersmith Town hall on March 14th. Ten Primary schools were represented and Year 6 students gave lively presentations on a range of Environmental topics, including Energy Use at school, Fairtrade, fundraising for Uganda, recycling and waste and the regeneration of Earls Court. The winning teams were Avonmore Primary with ‘Spreading the Olympic Spirit” – Environmental Action Award, Sulivan Primary “River Thames Wildlife’ who won the  Research Award, Larmenier and Sacred Heart RC Primary- presentation award for “Recycling , Packaging and Waste” and Pope John- Children’s Award- for “Giving our Fairtrade Borough a Boost” Helen Binmore, cabinet member for Children’s Services praised the quality of all the presentations.

Meerkats Earls Court project

The Meerkats with teacher Mr. Hopper and the guests to their presentation

This week the Meerkats (year 5 of Fulham Primary school) completed their Earls Court regeneration project on the green spaces of the future Seagrave Road Housing Development. The children worked for 8 weeks with the Urban Studies Centre, finding out about green spaces and sustainability so that at the end of the project they could give their views and suggestions to the Earls Court project team from Capital and Counties who are working on the regeneration of the Earls Court area.

During the project they visited James Lee nursery school in Barons Court to look at their sustainable playground. They also visited Brompton park to play some environmental games and see what habitats are needed for local wildlife. They conducted an environmental quality survey of this popular local park. At the end of the project they designed and created their own miniature green spaces, including environmental features such as bike racks, green roofed sheds and wildlife ponds and features that are attractive to children such as play and sports areas. Last monday they showed off their model green spaces to members of the local community and the Earls Court project team and took the opportunity to ask them questions about their work or their interest in Earls Court.

Jeroen Bergman and Meerkats looking at the display of the Meerkats project work

George Cochrane admires their work

Young Olympians

Our new Young Olympians project – aimed at helping local children get active and involved in the countdown to London 2012, whilst learning about their own local Olympic heritage – got off to a winning start this autumn. Year 5 classes from Bentworth and Larmenier & Sacred Heart schools visited the original site of the first London Games (1908), learned how to play a new Olympic sport and use the Olympic values in everyday life, tried out fun healthy eating activities and even went to Stratford to see iconic buildings springing up and learn about what the changes mean for London. 

Thanks for expert help from HCGA, Active Planet and Tour Guides Ltd, and well done to both schools for getting into the Olympic spirit, and sharing and celebrating their work with an end of project school assembly. 

H&F Urban Studies Centre AGM

On 23rd September we held our AGM at the Lilla Huset. It was a big success, very well attended by friends and supporters. Moya O’Hara gave a presentation on the years work. The mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor Frances Stainton attended and presented a certificate and a book to Year 6 of Fulham Primary for their work on the Earls Court Project. Guests were able to have lunch while enjoying the ‘Our  Earls Court’ exhibition of photographs and drawings by the children.

H&F Urban Studies Centre AGM

Our Annual General Meeting is on Friday 23rd September between 12.30- 1.30.pm

at The Lilla Huset 191 Talgarth Road W6 8BJ

There will be an exhibition of the work of Fulham Primary school and St. Cuthbert with St. Mathias Primary school on their Earls Court Project.

Hammersmith Bridge by Adrian Lewis

Come along and find out about the work we do with children and young people in the local area.

Refreshments will be served.

RSVP moya@hfusc.org.uk

The Big Debate! Year 9 summer project

Year 9 students from Fulham Cross Girls’ School and Henry Compton School came out of school today to meet for an impassioned debate, over whether secondary education is best organised by ability ‘setting’ or in mixed-ability groups. 

 Both schools put forward 25 students each and Hannah and Sophie have been working with each group on a short workshop programme, exploring different sides of the topic and helping students develop new skills in speaking publically, researching in teams and writing effective presentations.

 Students from both teams stepped up to provide a brilliant heavy-weight debate, and worked hard to include some really impressive research to make both sides of the case.  Reference was made to a wide range of different reports and studies, and students also conducted their own surveys and interviews around school to get to grips this issue and really bring the subject to life.   Education Secretary Michael Gove was even contacted and asked about the government’s position, to be included in Henry Compton’s defence of ability setting.

 Prizes went to students from both teams for outstanding performance and contribution to the project, and although there was very tough competition with strong speeches and work on both sides, it was congratulations to Henry Compton, who were judged as overall winners of the debate, based on persuasive argument, presentation skills, and research contribution.

 We were really lucky to have teamed up with the Borough Youth Forum for this project.  Not only did Brenda Whinnett (who leads the forum) kindly come and chair today’s big debate, but Forum members were also involved in helping design the project, come up with the motion topic and in volunteering as part of the support team at the debating event and the pre-debate workshops.  Many thanks to all at BYF and we hope some of today’s students will be encouraged to find out more about what they do  in the borough and get involved themselves.

 Mrs Neoh from Henry Compton said “We all enjoyed the challenge and obviously are delighted with the result.  As an educational exercise it really demonstrated how the pupils can surprise us and themselves when expectations are high and there are unknown elements”.

A student poll conducted at the start of the project and at the end of the debate final speeches revealed a swing of opinion through doing the project work.  Numbers who agreed that ‘setting is better than mixed-ability for raising educational achievement in schools’ fell significantly from 69% to 51%, whilst those who disagreed almost doubled, from 21% to 41%. 

 A Fulham Cross student commented about the project, “I think it helped expand my knowledge and gave me a wider intake on the British schooling system.  I LOVED the debate and I hope it happens again”.