Engaging Places

English Heritage and CABE (The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) have launched a new website which helps teachers make the best use of outside space and historic buildings in their teaching. The site is called Engaging Places and explains what it is for:

Learning about the built environment is about learning to see the value of well-designed spaces, and to understand the relationship between the natural environment and the local community. Young people can learn about the built environment in the classroom and the school grounds or through the buildings and spaces that make up our cities and streetscapes.

Learning about the built environment is about learning to see the value of well-designed spaces, and to understand the relationship between the natural environment and the local community. Young people can learn about the built environment in the classroom and the school grounds or through the buildings and spaces that make up our cities and streetscapes.

The most popular built environment activities are:

* school visits to buildings and places
* school-based projects using external learning providers, architects and designers
*  creative learning projects on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF)  programme and school design processes.

But built environment education can also take the form of:

* projects focusing on the relationship between people and places
*  using spaces to enhance learning
* conducting a maths class in the school playground
* students’ exploring their own communities and local built environments.

There are 300 ideas about places to visit and for Birmingham they recomend our last big project The Back to Backs and Selly Manor.