STOP PRESS: HOLD THE DATE!

Please hold the date for Wednesday July 11th 2012 at North Road Burial Ground where we will be celebrating the lives of local people at Our Remarkable People Event.

We'll be previewing the boards for the Heritage and Nature Trails, showing off the children's hard work, finding time to talk to each other and learn more about the people who made our Southend-on-Sea what it is today and eating cake made by our marvellous local bakers.  We will also be attempting to place a flower on every grave.

Everyone is welcome and if you only have ten minutes to pop in, we'd be delighted to see you there.

A Bug's Life at North Road Burial Ground

23rd April 2012

It may have been wet and cold but we didn't care at North Road Burial Ground on Monday morning.  We were hunting anything non-human or dog that was alive in North Road and thanks to the rather wonderful Roger Payne from Southend Museum we found some marvellous specimens!

Despite the damp conditions Year 4 found bees, earwigs, snails, worms, slugs, ants, flies and centipedes.  Other students identified yarrow grass, daisies, dandelions, holly bushes, buttercups and bluebells.

Danial presents his first exhibit, the snail!  There were so many insects and animals to find that we only just go started by the time we had to go back for lunch.  We hope to do more and build on all the information that Roger gave us for the North Road Nature Trail.

With over twenty species of birds to be seen at North Road, dozens of wild flowers and insects it was fascinating to realise that this is a wildlife haven for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks do go to Roger Payne and we hope to visit him at Southend museum very soon.

Brilliant Sunshine for Pick Up Your Poo!

Thanks to Turning Tides for putting up with all of Year 4, plus our community volunteers working together on Monday.  We had a lovely day putting up posters, gardening in our new flower bed (thanks to Steve Taylor and his team) hearing stories from relatives and ancestry experts (thanks to Fred and Heather Feather, Shelley Bridge and Clare Harvey) and a very successful rubbish hunt. 

All the photographs were taken by our Year 4 camera crew assisted by our very own Alastair Deacon.  

This was a very special day so there were cakes to celebrate all the hard work that has been involved by Year 4 and their Teachers and Teaching Assistants that were polished off at a remarkable rate.

We look forward to seeing everyone soon after the Easter Holiday!

Memories, Feathers and Glitter...

 Year 4 created works of art inspired by their memories both happy and sad.  We're going to be hanging them on the Memory Tree and North Road Burial Ground next week.  There were some beautiful creations with lots of thoughtful descriptions.
 
Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday -- please remember to wear your comfortable and waterproof shoes and warm coats in case it's a bit chilly!

The Great Poo Hunt!

Results to be posted soon but it is official there are too many dog owners in North Road Burial Ground who don't pick up their dog's poo.  The Shared Spaces Club is aiming to try and do something about this with a major poster campaign, free poo bags and writing to the local media.  Anyone who wants to join in please get in touch at sharedspaces@blade-education.org.uk !

Year 4 worked hard to find the evidence that we need to change the way people think about this cemetery, finding, photographing and marking on grids so we can start removal.  Anyone needs a photograph of some poo -- we have far too many!

Photographers, Portrait Takers and Party People!

Had a great session this week with Year 4 where everyone learned to take photographs of each other.  We learned about lighting, how to use the zoom and why it's easy to take a snap but not so easy to take a portrait!

Our first ever Shared Spaces Club started with us brainstorming the Summer Event and thinking about Fantasy Parties. There were some brilliant ideas from 32 metre marshmallow towers, to designer dresses (Amber Designs) and candyfloss hats...watch this space, we'll be talking more about how we can make our Special Event stand out from the crowd.

 See you on Monday!

Sunshine and No Snow!

It was great to be with Westborough's Year 4 students in the North Road Burial Ground on Tuesday 21st February on a lovely sunny day.  Year 4 pupils became Detectives choosing the memorials that they wanted to know more about.  We'll keep everyone posted on what we find out!

Please take a look at the lovely logos that have been designed for the Shared Spaces project by Year 4 on the Blade Education website:

http://www.blade-education.org.uk/projects.html

uploaded by Michael and posted by Alastair!

Ethan wanted to know more about the Elliott family plot -- if anyone knows anything please do get in touch!

Leyla is investigating Edmund Humphrey Speller's memorial -- please tell us if you know anything about this gentleman.

Year 4 Detectives start work on Monday on finding out more about their chosen people. 

Cold Day in Sutton Road Chapel

Team archive went to Sutton Road today to start the archiving.  It was rather chilly in the chapel in the Sutton Road Cemetery until we learnt to use the fan on the heater.  350 entries later we decided that very interesting Victorian handwriting is hard to read...

Hold the Front Page!

Congratulations to Year 4 for making the front of the Yellow Advertiser!

www.yellowad.co.uk/news.cfm?id=5019&commentsent=1&bid=0



Hope you all have a fantastic Half Term holiday and we'll see you on the Tuesday 21st February please remember your vests, coats, gloves and scarves!

Awesome Logos, First memories and Cub Reporters

Thanks again to Year 4 who have produced some really lovely logos for the project.  We're going to scan them all so everyone can see your brilliant work.

Today we learnt about some of the stories in North Road Burial Ground including that of Miss Snow and her cat Tiny that was supposed to kill the mice and rats at the local scrap yard, but instead visited Miss Snow.  Or the young girl who died in 1946 in an accident at Fairfax Drive whose name is no longer remembered. Or 11 year old Antonio Tiani, the son of the family that ran the sweet shot in North Road before the World Wars, who was killed by tuberculosis.  If anyone has more to add to our collection of stories please do get in touch at  sharedspaces@blade-education.org.uk we would love to hear from you!

We also learned about the first memories of everyone in Year 4 including that of
Ethan House who remembers being in a tigger suit as a baby and it being very comfortable!  If you'd like to see some more about this project take a look at two short films:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jtgu-Ufy_M
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1rG1lS4fXg

We'll be putting up the logos shortly on our website www.blade-education.org.uk and looking forward to seeing Year 4 after the half term holiday!

Balloons

Shared Spaces now has a new address at the Prittlewell Chapel in North Road Burial Ground.  We're looking really forward to working with Turning Tides and Catch 22 in the new office.

Also, the balloons that Year 4 chose to leave behind to cheer up the graveyard are still flying proudly and only one has been burst on a tree!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday!

If you want to know more about Shared Spaces in Westcliff-on-Sea

Shared Spaces Project

We are happy to announce that the Shared Spaces Project has been awarded Heritage Lottery funding, for more information please see the News page and for the latest updates on this project please see our Project Page...

Freezing cold but Year 4 you were magnificent!

Okay we realise it was very cold but you did brilliantly.  It was great to be joined by Councillor Morings, Katy Best from SBC, Steven Taylor and Gary Green as well as all the lovely photographers who came to take pictures.  Please let us know if you spot the project in the news anywhere!

Arron (age 9) said that it was "fun to learn about the people who were buried in North Road and how many people were in the graves."

We're looking forward to working with you on the logo and Al was very happy that you liked it!  See you on Monday!

Balloons, Grave Hunts and Badges

Beth and Al are looking forward to seeing all of Year 4 at North Road Burial Ground.  We have a few surprises and hope to be able to show you how brilliant you all are in a film when we get back in the warm!

Please wear warm clothes we're going to be in our thermals, gloves and scarves!

Shared Spaces Photocall on Tuesday 31st January 2012

Shared Spaces project will be launched at the North Road Burial Ground in Westcliff-on-Sea at 1100.  The children from Year 4 at The Westborough School will be on a hunt to find eight special graves and start their Outdoor Learning Project.