[PRIMARY RESEARCH] Trip to Shawlands School and Children's Room in Barnsley College

To collect our basic Primary Research, we went downstairs to level 3 to have a quick chat with Lisa about their room and what was to be expected from a safe environment for children. She explained that they liked to keep things tidy and that keeping the room tidy and storing the children's belongings could be made more fun and interactive by having them hang from the ceiling in nets, it keeps the children and items safe, while still being interesting to look at. 

I found that the display boards were surprisingly mature, featuring paintings and information about famous artists such as Vincent Van Gogh:

I also felt that the different themes were a nice touch, to add different elements to the room and to appeal to more children, with different interests, engaging the whole group equally without secluding anyone and easily maintaining their attention and want to learn. 

The inclusion of Disney characters was also a smart choice, as most children of this age will recognise the characters and associate them with positive things, and children should have a positive attitude when learning in school to motivate them.

Artistic additions to the walls:

 The inclusion of Maths as a key subject is also necessary and it should be made obvious that it is important:

 We then headed down to Shawlands School, later on in the week. By doing this, we were able to see for ourselves what we had to work with and it made it easier to visualise our designs and how much paint/ various pieces of equipment and accessories that we would need to physically create our ideas and ensure that they fit correctly to the walls and we do not run out of pain or come unequipped.

 A panorama shot to help with the dimensions of the library wall and how my display boards would fit:

Discovering that the students had also already been exposed to artists/authors that we are also familiar with was good information to collect, it fuelled new ideas and created a new angle for us to try to come from while trying to create a common interest with the children and appeal to their interests, visually.