Cockton Hill Infant School

Monday 7th July- 2008 A fully operational steam locomotive visited a Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland school in BISHOP AUCKLAND, COUNTY DURHAM to help young people learn more about Mathematics in a fun and interesting way.

The 1/3 full size contractor’s locomotive visited COCKTON HILL INFANTS SCHOOL as the culmination of a six week project that has enthralled all 174 pupils across three year groups (the young people are aged between 5 and 7-years-old).

During the project the young people worked alongside three creative professionals to gain a different handle on some complex areas of Mathematics including measurement, symmetry, equations, size, space, scale and shape.

The pupils put their new found knowledge into motion by transforming the school playground into their very own 'railway landscape' fitted with station, bridge, tunnel, signal box and crossing.

The creative workshops, held in association with Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland, have been run by architects Christoph Oschatz and Jane Milner of Newcastle based xsite architecture and Richard Gibbon, a specialist locomotive historian.

The theme for the workshops was inspired by the donation of six large framed prints marking the centenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the enthusiasm the young people have for their own railway heritage.

There was also a 'Creative Agent' sent by Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland to assist in the valuable area of project management. Fiona Forsythe contributed her knowledge of education and heritage to help facilitate the exciting programme of events.

"This project has been a wonderful way of enriching the learning experience of everyone at the school from our pupils all the way through to the teachers." said Dr John Redman, Head Teacher of Cockton Hill Infant School.

Dr Redman talked of how he wanted to introduce a project into Cockton Hill that would inspire the young people and develop their creative skills in many different avenues. He underlined the pupils’ enjoyment of art but said he recognised the need to increase their understanding of scale and precision.

Trains seemed a great subject to focus on. The young people  compared the different sizes of components and gained a better understanding of proportion, for example by comparing the size of the train's wheels to the size of its carriages.

Trained architects were brought in to share their skills in producing accurate and precise work. As talented draughtsmen, these professionals produce plans and detailed drawings on a daily basis. This is where the blend of creativity and Mathematics came into its own, as they merge to form the final results.

Dr Redman continued: "We look to use exciting and interesting ways to relate subjects like Maths to the real world, putting what the young people learn into context and making it relevant to their lives."

Creative Partnerships is the Government's flagship creative learning programme managed by Arts Council England.

Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland (CPDS) aims to support young people by developing creative programmes which build their confidence, develop their 'critical' thinking skills and place creativity at the heart of their learning.

The young people were given the chance to learn new skills through interactive workshops, coupled by visited to local heritage sites, for example Weardale Railway that runs from Wolsingham to Stanhope.

It was the role Christoph Oschatz and Jane Milner of xsite architecture to introduce skills and knowledge that would allow the young people to better understand some of Mathematics’ more complex areas. These skills were delivered in fun and fascinating exercises that installed in the pupils the motivation and confidence to get involved in Maths.

The workshops built upon the pupils’ existing skills to communicate the importance of precision and accuracy. Included were drawing exercises that looked at how to duplicate information from one page to another, the idea of conveying messages on paper as well as how to design and build a railway bridge.

Fun games were also used to investigate measuring, scale and movement.

The architectural workshops were complemented by a focus on engineering, delivered by consultant Richard Gibbon (the former Chief Engineer of The National Railway Museum in York). Richard visited the school and talked about the interesting elements of railway heritage, giving the young people an opportunity to ask questions about the captivating machines they’d grown to love.

The final piece of the jigsaw will be put into place when Richard brought his self-built locomotive to the school - giving the young people a chance to gain hands-on experience about the workings of a train. The day involved problem solving, practical building of models / sets and the analysis of technical information like investigating measurements including the units of mph, metres, centimetres and kilograms.

"Railways and Maths are closely related. In fact, railways are a triumph of Maths and Physics over matter. As architects we use skills and notations such as precision, scale, ratio, symmetry, measurements, shapes and numbers in our everyday work," said Christoph Oschatz of xsite architecture.

Christoph adds: "Maths is all around us and we want the pupils to make that connection to their everyday life, by being curious and confident to ask questions. We see the miniature steam train and the activities around it as a great attraction that will help to translate those matters into reality."

"It is always a privilege to work with schools who are exploring new and sometimes brave ways to deliver the curriculum. Cockton Hill Infants School have done exactly that by looking for ways to engage and excite the pupils in Maths through their interest in railways." said Fiona Forsythe, a freelance consultant who works within the education, museum, libraries and archive sector.

Fiona has enjoyed every aspect of her role as a Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland 'Creative Agent'.

Fiona concludes by giving her final observation of her time spent on the project: "Hopefully the pupils will see that Mathematics is not a separate subject, but that patterns, shape and scale are all around them, especially in their model railways at home and in the rich railway heritage of Bishop Auckland."

Train Facts: The 200 kilo model of a 1927 locomotive measures one metre high by one metre long and half a metre wide; the machine is steam fired (using coal) and can travel at a top speed of 10 mph.

Richard Gibbon built the train from scratch over thirty years ago.

The Next Move: For further information about Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland please visit www.creative-partnerships.com

1). Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland (CPDS) is part of the Government's flagship creativity programme for schools and young people - aiming to support schools to build a commitment to creativity as part of the whole school framework and enabling teachers, young people and creative practitioners to work in collaboration to explore ideas, generate new creative work and develop new approaches to learning, teaching and cultural production.

Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland identifies the importance of research and the elements of observation and evaluation are introduced to a majority of its programme work - this enables the results to positively influence future learning.

2). xsite architecture provides a high quality design service aiming to delight clients with solutions that step beyond the ordinary. xsite is an architectural and cultural consultancy whose objective is to enhance projects through a focused, high quality approach to design as well as delivering what every client wants - good value and appropriate timescale.

Website: www.xsitearchitecture.co.uk

In 2009 the school is looking forward to celebrating its centenary year.

4). The Creative Agent:

Fiona Forsythe works freelance within the education, museum, library and archive sector. Her background is in education resource provision and prior to entering the freelance world she was Head of Library Services at one of the country's largest Further Education Colleges.

For further information about Fiona please visit http://www.forsythe.demon.co.uk/about%20us_new.htm