| Education Project Manager: | Julia Barraclough |
| Horticulture Tutor: | Angela Hancock |
| Education Project Officer: | Jay Ibrahim |
| Lifelong Learning Manager: | Clare Dyson |
| Skills for Life Tutor: | Sue Edwards |
The Education Team works on a variety of projects aimed at a broad cross section of society including primary and secondary schools, unemployed 16-18 year olds, primary and secondary teachers and adult learners. Groundwork’s education projects are both innovative in their design but also effective in their approach which is reflected in the success of projects such as the HLF project, Link Up and the litter project.
The Trust ran a project ‘Past on Your Doorstep, Future in Your Hands’ from July 2005 to May 2007. The purpose of the programme was to engage with Primary and High schools within Stoke-on-Trent, to increase the pupils’ learning on the heritage of their local area through the impact of the coalmining industry, past, present and future. The Schools chosen were in close proximity to Chatterley Whitfield, a derelict colliery, situated on the north-eastern edge of Stoke-on-Trent. It is a very significant site of important heritage value and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, containing the most complete record of colliery buildings in England, and possibly Western Europe.
The project incorporated a visit to Apedale Heritage Centre, a converted coal mine site. An experienced miner took the children down the mine, introducing them to a life working underground, past and present. A tour of the museum followed, which included maps, photographs and mining artifacts, plus an authentic reproduction of a miner’s cottage providing an insight into past family life. After this initial stimulus a variety of classroom based activities followed.
A number of schools were given the opportunity to study ‘Victorian children at work’ with specific reference to working down the mines. This involved using different sources of information to help them investigate the past through drama, pictures, children’s reports and census material.
Others studied the local area through visits to the Chatterley Whitfield site, studying old ordnance survey maps; interviewing ex miner’s to obtain information about their life underground and consideration of future use and regeneration of the Whitfield Colliery.
For further information see HLF projects
The Trust has been delivering an education programme on ‘Our Environment and Litter’ to 12 schools Stoke-on-Trent since January 2007. Schools were chosen from 2 priority areas in Stoke-on-Trent that have targets to reduce litter.
The programme consisted of Education Project Officers from Groundwork working with 4 classes in each school to look at their environment, how it is changing and what they can do to look after it. The City Councils’ Street Scene Education Officer also ran sessions with each class looking at the role of the Council and how pupils can solve the problems of litter. Each class was given the opportunity to design a poster to go on the glitter bin outside their school. The last part of the project was the whole school having a theatre company ‘Quantum Theatre’ to perform a play called ‘Destination Earth’ all about the environment, pollution and litter.
Each school at the end of the project will receive a glitter bin outside their school, prizes for the poster competition and an education pack on how to teach the subject of litter in the school. The glitter bin and prizes have been sponsored by Hulme Associates, Michelin, Kier, Hanley Economic Building Society, David Wilson Homes, Beth Johnson and Touchstone.
This programme is a continuation of the previously successful Link Up programme, but specifically within South Staffordshire. Groundwork is delivering Skills for Life awareness training with voluntary and community groups through out the area, as well as frontline workers in local training providers, NHS trusts and local authorities.
The project has come to an end having trained 150 people on this programme. Additional funding has been secured from Groundwork West Midlands to train staff across the 4 West Midlands Trusts in Skills for Life awareness. Also, the Trust has been approached by Staffordshire University’s Professional Development Centre to act as their approved City and Guilds Centre for this qualification which means their students will be registered through Groundwork and Stoke and Coventry staff will provide assessment and verification support for the University.
The Skills for Life team offer support in a variety of ways, one to ones, group work and embedded numeracy and literacy in all programmes. We are an approved centre for the on-line National tests at level 1 and 2 and we have close links to local colleges and the North Staffs Dyslexia Association.
Teacher Information.
For information on our after school clubs and summer school sessions Click Here.
For information on secondary school programs Click Here.
Groundwork Enterprise Centre
Albany Works
Moorland Road
Burslem
Stoke on Trent ST6 1EB
T : 01782 829900
F : 01782
829901
E : stokeontrent@
groundwork.org.uk
