Room 17
St Albans School
10th May 2012
Dear Mrs Warren, Mrs Howison and Mr McKenzie,
Last term we visited Burnside Primary School. We loved their school - they had lots of room. We love our school too and the spaces we have to be in at lunch and play times. At our class meetings with Grace (our school councillor) we often say we think we need more quiet spaces for people to use at lunch times. Our experience at Burnside and an idea Ms Ashby saw in New York made us think about the spaces at St Albans school that we DON’T use.
We have come up with an idea to create another space children can use at lunch times and it’s FREE. It would mean there was more space on the other play equipment we have at school like the Big A. We have called the space the Possibility Patch, and it is the space between Room 17 and the neighbours’ fence.
You might be wondering what we can possibly do in this rather ugly, uninviting space. Well here is just a small example of some possibilities we have come up with using the Green thinking hat:
Music and dancing
Dirt and bark patch
Cars and toys
Gym and ballet lessons
Hip hop
Painting
Observational drawing
Free choice drawing
Ten pin bowling
Juggling
Reading, Writing and Maths clubs
Gardening
Nature crafts
We understand you might have some concerns about our idea. We have used the Black Hat to help us recognise some of the possible problems and the Green Hat to come up with some solutions. Some of our solutions will need some further investigation.
We could get dirty
- we could use art shirts and aprons
- children could use the room 17 sink to wash their hands before they return to their class
The space is small and many children may want to use it
- we would have a limited number of pegs - if you are a possibility patch visitor you need to have a peg on. This way when all the pegs are gone we know we are full.
- we would start the idea just offering it to year 3 children and see what demand is like
The area is unsupervised
- we will ask parents if they are available to supervise for a lunch time - it is a suitable place for their preschoolers. We would make a timetable once we know who is available and when.
- Room 17 helpers would wear a vest so people would know who was in charge
Children might behave badly there
- we would need to develop a set of rules so that everybody who comes there is safe and has a happy time. People could read these and decide whether they want to be involved or not.
- some rules we have thought of already are:
- don’t climb on, kick or hit the fence or the water tank
- think of others when you’re moving from space to space - is running a good idea?
- when you leave the Possibility Patch remember to leave the peg behind or pass it on to someone else
- use quiet voices
How will people know to come to this place?
- we could put welcome signs and notices up so people hear about it
- we could advertise at people’s assemblies
How would people get to the space?
- they would need to come through Room 17 this would help us to be sure we don’t have too many people there.
It looks like a cold space
- it gets sunshine during the lunch hour and it is sheltered by the fence and the classroom
- we would need to make some minor improvements to make it look a more inviting place to be
- if it is wet we have to be inside so we couldn’t have the Possibility Patch open anyway
- if the space is too damp or frosty we would have to let people know it was closed that day
Please consider our idea and let us know if we can go ahead with the next stage of our Inquiry. We are excited about the possibilities that the Possibility Patch offers us and the St Albans School community.
On Friday after lunch we had some visitors to Room 17.
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| They said they thought our proposal was excellent and that they had decided to let us go ahead with the Possibility Patch. |
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| We're very excited about that! |
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