Winners of ‘Making Tracks’ project are presented with their prize
Friday, December 1 2006
A team of youngsters from Glendinning primary school in Galashiels were presented with their prize on Friday 24th November for winning the exciting new project based on the Waverley Railway Line called ‘Making Tracks’.
The 'Railway Returns' team from P7 at Glendinning Primary School received a cheque for £100 from the project sponsor Aitken and Turnbull Architects to go towards the primary school fund.
Irene Hogg, Headteacher of Glendinning primary school and teacher of the winning team explained how she thought the project was a success: "It was a very stimulating project in which the children were given the opportunity to work as a team and incorporate many skills from the curriculum including art, design and mathematics. This gave the teams of youngsters the chance to express their wide variety of unique talents."
The project was designed by the Borders Construction Industry Forum (BCIF) and involved teams of children completing a series of tasks over a two-day period during National Construction week in October. The tasks included designing an original design layout for the new Tweedbank Station, writing a newspaper article, designing a marketing poster and completing a health and safety quiz.
Connor Green, a P7 pupil at Glendinning primary school took part and described how he benefited from the challenging nature of the project. "It was fun because it was something really different which we had never done before. We also enjoyed working as a team and interacting with our team-mates during the project. We would definitely like to take part in it again, we enjoyed designing the posters, planning and working together."
Bruce Rutherford, Waverley Railway Project Director at Scottish Borders Council (SBC), said, "One of the main objectives of the new Waverley Line is to help encourage the young people of the Borders to remain in the area as they grow older and seek out increased opportunities. For that reason it is great to see how the children of Galashiels have embraced the challenge and produced some fantastic results. We will be printing the winning design in our quarterly newsletter."
Charlotte Waugh from the BCIF added, "The project was a great success with an extremely high standard of entries received. Over 130 youngsters took part and the evaluation sheets proved very positive. We now hope to further develop the project and hopefully next year, give all Borders schools the opportunity to become involved."
The judging panel included Andrew Lester – Senior Partner of Aitken & Turnbull Architects and sponsor of the project, Bruce Rutherford – Director of Waverley Railway project at SBC, Phil Orr - Enterprise Development Officer at SBC, and Tracey Graham – Education & Lifelong Learning’s Communications Assistant at SBC.
Notes to the Editor
Making Tracks is a pilot project partially funded and supported by the 'Determined to Succeed' (DtS) initiative which has led to a diverse range of enterprising teaching and learning approaches in all schools in the Borders. DtS encourages pupils to generate new ideas, be innovative, improve their communication skills and participate in projects that will boost their confidence and self-esteem and instill in them a 'can do' attitude for life and for work.
For more information on the DtS initiative please call Phil Orr on 01896 755110 or visit www.determinedtosucceed.co.uk For further information on the Making Tracks project, please contact Charlotte Waugh at the BCIF on charlotte@bcif.org.uk or call 01896 820469. For more information on the Waverley Railway Project please contact Craig Bowman on 0131 226 2363 or email craig.bowman@harrisoncowley.com
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