Autumn Schools Newsletter 2012

Please click on the newsletter below to read all about what we have been up to this term in a school near you!

A new group for Islington

In light of the overwhelming popularity of our Hackney based older peoples group the Senior BEE's, we are setting up a similar group for Islington. 

If you are over 55 and would like to develop your interest and knowledge of the fascinating history and architecture of Islington and learn about how new design will change it in the future, come along!

No previous knowledge is necessary, just an interest and desire to learn about the borough.

Mercers Maths and Models

Our Maths and Models project, funded by the Mercers’ Company, is now well underway. Since the beginning of term we have been working with three primary schools in Hackney and Tower Hamlets to explore the maths behind the architecture and design of buildings on their local high street.  At the end of the project we will have delivered four workshops to one class of Year 5 (aged 9-10 years) in each school.  The workshops are designed to encourage children to develop their knowledge and skills in several areas of the Key Stage 2 maths curriculum, including shape, scale, estimation and measurement.

The aim of the project is to bring maths alive by helping the children learn some complicated mathematical concepts though application to real life situations.  Each of the four workshops include model-making, and it is anticipated that the final outcome will be a scale model of the schools’ local high streets.   

We are delighted to have the support of architects from Hawkins Brown and SheppardRobson in developing and delivering this project.  Whilst the architects are keen develop their engagement skills, they will also give the children the opportunity learn how maths is used in the real world.

Watch this space as for how our model high street develops!

You can read more about this project here http://www.hawkinsbrown.com/studio/building-exploratory

The BEE's & the Cinemas of East London

Senior BEE's Facilitator Niamh Linnane tells us a bit about what the BEE's have been up to this term so far

'On Friday the 5th of October the Senior BEE’s Autumn term got off to a wonderful start with a visit to two Tower Hamlets cinemas, the Troxy and Genesis. We were joined by Richard Gray from the Cinema Theatre Association who gave a talk at each building. It was amazing to see the inside of the Troxy and one of the BEEs spoke about how he used to go there on a Saturday as a young boy. The BEEs really enjoyed talking about how going to the cinema used to be an outing. The buildings used to be spectacular, there was live music in the intervals, there were ushers in uniform and sweet stands. It was useful to compare the interiors of the two cinemas. The Troxy still has many original features while Genesis has a modern interior which required us to use our imagination. 

Continuing with the theme of Entertainment, two weeks later we had a tour of buildings in Islington that are or once were cinemas. Artist Sam Nightingale took us round as part of his project 'Islington's Lost Cinemas'. Some buildings were easy to visualise as cinemas and others were more difficult as the cinema has been knocked down and replaced by another building. The BEEs enjoyed hearing about these buildings, as you would never know by looking at them that they were once used as cinemas.  

I really enjoyed hearing the BEEs all speak about their experience of going to the cinema when they were children. They really bought the visits to life with their stories.'

You can find out more about Sam Nightingale's fascinating 'Lost Cinemas' project here:
http://www.islingtonslostcinemas.com/