Urban Studies - Trust Annual Report 1994
We have now added a Chippindale Workshop course to the Chippindale Venture which has been going for just over five years.
The Workshop is a one day course on the built environment and generally accepts about 100 pre-GCSE students. The most recent course took place at Henry Beaufort School where the students were asked to assume that their school was made redundant and to explore new uses for the site, as well as evaluating whether buildings should be kept or new ones added. The students were divided up into teams with one architect in charge of the team with advice being given by planners and landscape architects. A final critique was given on selected schemes by an outside panel.
Although the Workshop is not as comprehensive as the Venture, more students can be catered for and many of the benefits still apply. The course also allows GCSE students to participate, as the one day exercise can he squeezed into their busy schedules, unlike the Venture scheme which takes up more time. The Chippindale Venture is therefore aimed at younger students.
Teachers have been surprised at the associated benefits for students, for example the improvement of negotiating and debating abilities, together with the improvement of presentation skills. They also quickly develop an ability to interface with a large number of outside consultants previously unknown to them.
We understand that all who take part in these schemes find them invigorating, often inspirational and tiring - for it stretches everybody's abilities!
The next Workshop is this autumn and the Chippindale Venture early next summer.