WyEd

Derby Primary Vote

Like many local authorities, Derby City Council are keen to encourage people to vote. Where better to start that with the younger generation? They asked WyEd to develop a scheme which not only enthused children about local government - yes, we believe this is possible - but through them engage their parents, families and the wider community too.

The teaching resources involve the children acting in role as councillors and includes opportunities for more than a full week of teaching across the curriculum, including Literacy and Geography. It is proven to generate great enthusiasm amongst this age group as well as stimulate the interest of parents too.

The scheme is provided free of charge to all Derby City Schools at www.derbyprimaryvote.co.uk by Derby City Council.

It is also available for purchase by other local authorities who might wish to make it available to their schools. For further information, please contact us.

Walk to School

The Environmental Transport Association (ETA) campaigns for sustainable transport and also offers a number of services such as breakdown cover for motorists who wish to lessen their environmental impact.

The ETA commissioned WyEd to create an online curriculum resource for teachers, enabling them to encourage children to walk to school. The material uses more than a week of teaching material in subjects as diverse as Literacy, Geography and ICT. Materials are currently available for Years 5 and 6, free of charge to all schools. It is hoped to develop further materials for other age groups in future.

This is a key message for ETA, but in providing the resource they also create opportunities to raise their profile. To see the result, visit www.eta-schools.co.uk.

Friends of Castle Green

We worked with local community organisation the Friends of Castle Green in Hereford to develop a pilot scheme promoting this ancient castle and historic park - it's history, current use and future plans - to local school children through the subjects of History and Geography. This involved both the development of curriculum materials and the delivery of workshops in schools and on site.

The project in 2006/7 was a success and funding is now being sought to extend it on a more permanent basis.

Laing Homes

From 2001 - 2003 Laing Homes employed Rob Hattersley to develop a comprehensive school and community programme, working from the PR & Marketing Department at Head Office.

• Multimedia and interactive assemblies were offered to schools near construction sites and company staff trained in delivering them
• Curriculum resources were developed in partnership with RoSPA*, based on a short video drama, that enabled schools to teach about building site safety through the medium of Literacy. Pupils could be involved in various reading and writing tasks all on the topic of building site safety
• Safe visits to building sites were organised in conjunction with site managers and safety officers
• Further Literacy and Geography resources about sustainability in housebuilding were developed and delivered in schools
• Design Technology workshops delivered positive messages about the company and the house-building industry, and included looking at the concept of "sustainable communities" through the innovative work being done at the time on photovoltaics, grey water recycling, re-use of building materials and so on
• A school grounds improvement programme was initiated in association with the leading charity in this field, Learning Through Landscapes

“Rob Hattersley created a leading school and community programme for Laing Homes that reaped numerous benefits for the business including excellent PR coverage at national and local levels, increased brand awareness, and credibility with local government and other key stakeholders. Schools loved it. If you have a key message to communicate I would highly recommend getting in touch with him.” Paul Healey, Laing Homes Managing Director, 2002-5

Virgin Trains

Virgin Trains operates the prestigious West Coast Main Line, and has undertaken research into the attitudes of ten year old children to rail travel with some very interesting results. WyEd has been tasked with using the survey as the focus for a schools scheme which will promote rail travel and look at the relative impacts of different travel modes on climate change.

Initial resources will be for the upper primary school phase, although it is hoped to extend the scheme over time. We are working on this scheme at the moment - check back for updates soon.