Mantle of the Expert–Eco Town Planners
Skills: Communication – speak effectively to different audiences, listen to and respond appropriately to
others, write fluently for a range of purposes. Information processing – locate and collect relevant
information; sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast. Reasoning skills – give reasons for opinions +
actions, draw inferences, make deductions, use precise language to explain what they think, make
judgements and decisions informed by reasons/ evidence
Values: make responsible use of talents and opportunities, respect others and exercise goodwill in their
dealings with others, work co-operatively with others, understand our responsibilities as citizens, promote
opportunities for all, preserve areas of beauty for future generations, repair habitats damaged by human
development and other means
Year group/ date: Year 1 Summer 1 2012
Mapping the curriculum:
DT 1abcde 2abcdef 3ab 4a
ICT 1a 2cd 5b
Geog 1abcd 2a bcde 3abcd 4a 5ab 6ab
What can the children do? How can we increase the challenge in each step?
What can we prepare as givens? What will the teacher do? What will the children do? What will we do together?
How will we publish what we know at each stage?
Step 1
Starting points
. Activate/Assess Prior Knowledge
Introduce a member of the team.
Convention 1 – the role actually present
TA in role as a lighting engineer working for
the town council
Step 3
Introduce the role of children as Town
Planners
Convention 23 – a letter read in the voice of
another
5 steps back
Step 2
Tasks
 What do you do in your free time? Where do you go? What
play facilities are there? Is there anything that you would
like to have?
 Street Furniture – what is it? Create a street scene. What
would you expect to see as you walk down it? (Lighting, bins,
telephone box, post box, benches, fences, signs, traffic
lights
 What is in our local area? What is there for our safety?
What helps to keep the area tidy?
 AIR – Meet a lighting engineer. Complaining – has had a
report of a street light not working on the road we created.
No ideas which lamp post it is. Its day light how is she
supposed to know which one is the faulty one? How can we
help? Can we give the lights code?
 How can we tell where we are? Sort images into town and
countryside
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Go on a walk in locality – take photos. Create a plan of the
local area.
 A group of planners have been working with the local council
to promote the area. Following a meeting a piece of paper
was left behind. Look at it. – Redditch - 10 reasons for
choosing to live there. Someone has scribbled – none at all.
 A more positive team is needed. What ideas can we put
Assessment/ notes
Step 4
Step 5
TEACH – ICT
Use a beebot – give instructions to make
things happen. Travel around a street
visiting different street furniture
Use a simulation program to create a new
town
Develop the role of children as Town
Planners.
Convention 1 – role actually present
Compare and contrast a second location
TEACH – ICT
Use a beebot – give instructions to make
things happen. Travel around the island of
Struay.
Invent the language spoken – street
furniture
.
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Step 6
Teach
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Episodes
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Step 7
Explore reasons for towns being improved
and redeveloped
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Episode
1
Establish client
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forward to the council?
Promote the local area to new families moving in.
Receive contact from Katie Morag McColl. She has seen our
work on Woodrow on the website. She seems fed up with
island life.
Explore Katie’s locality.
Step into the Katie stories to find out about the island.
What street furniture can we see? What does Katie do for
entertainment?
How does the island compare to Woodrow? Identify the
physical features – hills, rivers, roads, lakes, motorways etc.
Using maps locate Woodrow and Katie’s island - Struay.
(Based on the island of Coll)
Make comparisons between the two locations. What are the
differences and similarities?
Identify how and why localities change over time. Compare 2
scenes of Katie’s island – before and after the addition of
the Bistro and pier. Identify changes. Why do you think
these were added?
Look at aerial photos of Redditch and Woodrow. Locate our
school. How has the area changed?
Visit the island and look at a disused out house. Talk to a
variety of locals. Is it possible to create a den for the local
children
Are we totally happy with our local area? Are there any
improvements that they would like to make? Would they be
the same as the improvements that Katie would like to
make?
A town has an area where families are unhappy due to the
lack of safe amenities for their children.
Receive a package from a school containing writing from the
children and a newspaper report. What seems to be the
underlying problems?
Episode
2
Set up the team
Create our team of expert Town Planners
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Episode
3
Create a Town and Site Inspection
We need to visit the town to assess the work
that has to be done.
Convention 3 – role as an effigy, sculpted
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Episode
4
Set up the commission contract
Establish dialogue with client.
Identify what the client needs us for,
timescales and budgets
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Episode
5
Tension
Budget over spend
Teach – Using ICT to communicate
Word processing
Episode
6
Episode
7
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Draft in support from the local community
Tension – Local gardener upset about lack of
consideration for butterflies
Convention 2 – Role framed as a film that
can be stopped and restarted
Convention 9 – a drawing seen in the making
Convention 4 – effigy brought to life like
response and then returned to effigy l
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Tension
Whist the park is being cleared a family of
hedgehogs is discovered.What should we do?
Convention 2 – Children in role, framed as a
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Team of Town planners with an expertise in Eco planning.
The team is made up of sub committees for plat areas,
parks, streets, shopping, leisure, health etc.
Create the imaginary town. Identify types of buildings and
facilities.
Listen in to conversations about the town, look at newspaper
reports.
Visit a street
Listen in to a variety of locals.
Client to give an enormous list of ‘wants’
Children to prioritise and select the main focus – safe
amenities for families/children. and improved community
spirit.
Look at how the sense of community has changed over the
years. (Create a link with the diamond jubilee celebrations)
Local people/businesses to be involved.
Town council have heard about our plans. They are horrified
about the amount of spending being proposed. There just
isn’t the budget. This project is not going to get council
approval as it is. We have just one week to reconsider our
priorities and resubmit our plan. Budget constraints only
allow for improvements not innovations and complete
redevelopment
Children to respond to the council. A formal response is
required and word processing will make the response more
official.
Planners need to advertise the need for local support,
Receive a message from a local gardener upset by plans not
including something. What is the problem?
T to draw - Look at a drawing showing how the land looked
before the town was built. Show a habitat that encourages
butterflies.
Speak to a butterfly – what does it need? Research
butterfly habitats. Design an area of the park that will
encourage butterflies to visit
Speak with the hedgehog to see if the team can establish
what hedgehogs need.
Generate questions to put to a hedgehog expert
Speak to a representative from the Tiggy Winkles
Episode
8
film that can stopped and restarted.
Convention 7 – role activated to speak only,
not move
Convention 9 – a drawing seen in the making
Convention 4 – effigy brought into life like
response and then returned to effigy
Convention 1 – AIR role giving and receiving
responses
Design and make new playground equipment
for the park.
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Explore different types of play equipment. How are they
used? What forces are required?
Discuss with designers of other playgrounds – issues/safety
concerns/what works well/what hasn’t worked well
Set out the criteria for the new park
Design, make and test the new equipment
Promotion of the new park – create a video/radio broadcast
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Parents invited to attend
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Episode
9
Episode
10
Advertise the new park and play facilities
for the town
Grand opening of the town’s park and play
facilities.
foundation
Develop a temporary home for the hedgehogs and create
fact files for the local school
PPA – Twinning with a German town . Shencol and Greendale would like to twin with a German Town but the council think that we need to become more
familiar with German traditions and simple greetings.