Aimhigher - Environment

Highfield St Matthews CE Primary School, Wigan Year 6 worked with the denmaker, Graham Marsden. They worked collaboratively to create large panels that will ultimately come together to create an environment, that can be disassembled and reassembled very easily and can accommodate the whole class. This piece remains a 'live' work, to be continued with next years class 6 as they approach the end of their primary education. The form of the environment is very significant, symbolizing the sense of transition from one environment to another. The Year 6 children have created a space within which they can reflect on their experiences of primary school and look forward to their future. In that sense it is a space that enables them to reflect on past, present and future concerns. Graham encouraged them to approach their environment as a special place, connecting with the nomadic tradition of a central communal space, particularly with regard to quiet reflection and resolving of problems. The inner surface of the panels reflects ideas to do with aspiration and personal development. When they are bound together, these revolve around a central point and during the planning stage there was discussion about the symbolism of fires, the sense that the energy within the tent will evolve outwards into the atmosphere, like the smoke from a fire, reinforcing the sense of aspiration.