Primary School Projects
Listening to the Young People of Winchburgh

The primary school children at the Winchburgh and Holy Family Primary Schools have made an exciting contribution to the Master Plan for Winchburgh. The importance and interest in the future of Winchburgh was brought home by one of the pupils of the primary school encouraging the WDI to take the opportunity to speak to and work with the school children.

WDI has always held the view that a successful future for Winchburgh must embrace future generations and take account of their opinions and provide facilities and uses for every age group, but most importantly the young people within the growing settlement. Therefore, as part of the overall community involvement and engagement strategy, the WDI approached the Winchburgh and Holy Family Primary Schools and asked if they would be interested in participating in the Master Plan process. The WDI, with help from the Lighthouse in Glasgow (Scotland’s Centre for Architecture, Design and the City), worked closely with the head teachers to devise two lesson plans which formed part of the end of term curriculum. The primary objective was to give an opportunity for school pupils to contribute to the evolution of the Master Plan that will transform their village.

The lesson plans were devised and representatives from the WDI, EDAW and the Lighthouse met the school children at a combined assembly for both schools to outline the lessons and explain what the Master Plan is all about.

This main lesson plan was designed to support pupils in starting to consider how they can advocate for Winchburgh’s future and design a scene in Winchburgh in 2020 and on the back of the postcard write to the designer to say why they are enjoying living in Winchburgh. It was also designed to convey some basic information to the Winchburgh Development Initiative/ EDAW as to how young people would like to use Winchburgh in the future. All the postcards submitted by the pupils are shown in the image gallery.

The children’s Top 20 ideas for Winchburgh from their postcards are listed in the Figure below (Extract from Draft Final Master Plan, August 2005).

The second lesson was designed to allow pupils to explore how they think different spaces would make them feel. The workshop was recorded by teachers and the results fed back to the WDI and the master planners. An extract from one of the record sheets is shown below and all the complete record sheets are shown in the image gallery.

Rank	Item	No. of Votes	How the Master Plan Responds
1 =	Swimming Pool	27	Swimming pool proposed as part of secondary school/community campus
	Shops	27	Shops proposed as part of town centre
3	Park	25	Several parks proposed including a Town Park to regenerate the Claypit
4	Play Park	24	Youth and young children’s play equipment proposed in Town
5	Leisure Centre	16	Sporting and leisure facilities proposed as part of secondary school/ community campus
6 =	Football pitches	14	9 full sized football pitches will be provided in new and existing parks
	Woodlands	14	Over 66 hectares (equivalent to 80 football pitches) of woodland is proposed
8 =	Gardens/Picnics /seating	12	Seating areas will be provided in each of the Parks and could be provided at key points along paths
9 =	Cafe	11	Café and restaurants could be located in the town centre, Town Park and neighbourhood centres or parks
	Houses	11	A wide range of different house types will be provided
11 =	Water Park	9	A swimming pool is proposed as part of the secondary school/community campus
	Skate park	9	A skate park is proposed as part of the new Craigton District Park
13	Pond	8	The Claypit pond will be regenerated as part of a large Town Park
14 =	Adventure/Wildlife Nature	7	Youth and children's play equipment will be provided in new parks. Over 66 hectares of new woodland is proposed and important wildlife areas will be retained
	Hotel	7	A hotel could be located within the town centre, as part of the employment area
	Train Station	7	A rail station is proposed adjacent to the Town Park, north of the tunnel
17 =	Boats	6	The Town Park pond could have boating facilities
	Post Office	6	A new post office is likely to be part of the town centre shopping and community facilities
	Bike Park	6	Approximately 12 kilometres of paths will be provided for cycling. Bicycling facilities can be associated with these.
20 =	Schools	4	2 secondary schools, co-located on a community campus. 2 new primary schools and the expansion to the existing schools are proposed
	Library	4	A library is proposed and could be part of the town centre or secondary school/community campus

• The Children's Top 20 ideas for Winchburgh

The full lesson plans, all postcard and feelings on spaces are contained within the Consultation Report and image gallery.

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