Department for Culture Media and Sport

engaging places

“The built environment touches us all every day as we walk to the shops or travel to work or school. Buildings and public spaces are not just bricks and mortar, but help to define our history, our identity and the bonds which make us feel part of a community or a place.

By encouraging teachers to engage with their built surroundings, schools will help young people have a better understanding of what makes a good building or a great public space.”

Margaret Hodge MP Minister for Culture

Engaging Places - bringing the curriculum to life by discovering local heritage and architecture

Exploring the monastic ruins of Fountain’s Abbey in Yorkshire, being inspired by the futuristic design of Leicester’s brand new John Lewis, or studying the layout of your local high street could be on the books for young people as part of the Government’s ‘Engaging Places’ plan to offer schools ways to connect with their local heritage and architecture.

England’s major heritage, architecture and built environment organisations, led by English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), have joined forces to trial and develop practical support to schools so that children and young people have more opportunities to understand why buildings and places matter. 

Linking with the ‘Find Your Talent’  programme, which is trialling different ways of offering children and young people a range of high quality cultural experiences for five hours a week, in and out of school; ‘Engaging Places’ is designed to offer teachers accessible, curriculum linked ways to unlock the educational potential of their built surroundings. The project also will provide strong support to DCSF’s Learning Outside the Classroom manifesto.

From autumn 2008 the new package of school support includes:

  • an on-line resource for schools providing a national database of heritage/built environment curriculum resources, developed by Culture 24

  • a national partnership of leading cultural and education organisations chaired by Anthea Case, Chair of Heritage Link and CABE commissioner

  • a co-development network for schools and educators providing practical local support and resources supporting the new curriculum

  • increased support to ‘Find Your Talent’ and the Learning Outside the Classroom  manifesto
    The next phase of the ‘Engaging Places’ project will be taken forward by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and English Heritage over the next three years. 


Research
Engaging Places builds on research that DCMS and DCSF developed in association with CABE and EH and a wide range of learning providers and schools in 2007. The research helped us to identify practical approaches to make schools more aware of what can be achieved by engaging with buildings and places.

This involved a major new research project from the National Foundation for Education Research looking at the Supply and Demand of Built Environment Education in Schools.

This research for Engaging Places is now available:  NFER Research Summary.

Laying the Foundations
Engaging Places builds on Laying The Foundations: Using the Built Environment to teach. Laying the Foundations is a joint publication from DCMS and DCSF highlighting the scope and creativity that is brought to learning when teachers and pupils engage with the fabric of their communities.

Electronic copies can be downloaded in alternative formats here:
Laying The Foundations: Using the Built Environment to teach  [44 pages]

Hard copies are still available on request by contacting: Engaging.Places@Culture.gsi.gov.uk.

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