Looking at buildings on St Helen’s Road

Today we went back to St Helen’s Road to look at the buildings. We looked at Miah’s first, it is a restaurant now but it used to be a church. We decided it was quite old. We think it’s a good idea that it is a restaurant now as it is being used as it was empty before. We then walked further along the road. There was a block of flats that we think may have been a hospital before. It had a clock tower on top which made it look like a church at first but we decided that it probably wasn’t. We saw the Methodist church and found out it was built in 1873 it is still in use and is the only one that is still used as a church. Next we saw the old church that has been converted into flats. It is a beautiful building with a classical Greek design with the pillars but there was no plaque on it to find out how old it was. Finally we looked at the large old church which is now having money being raised to convert it into a mosque. Once it is finished it is going to be a community centre and have lots of activities going on.

St Helen's Road

Today we went along St Helen's Road looking at the shops and interviewing people. At first we were quite nervous and were not sure about going up to people and asking them questions but Clare and Sue were very impressed as we grew in confidence and interviewed quite a few people. The local people use the shops and restaurants quite often and a few people would like to make the streets a bit cleaner. Everyone we spoke to liked St Helen's Road. Next week we will go back as there are lots of buildings we didn't look at.

Patti Pavillion

Today we walked with the children to the Patti Pavillion. The children were very excited and enjoyed the walk. The children took lots of photo’s on the way. We wanted to interview some people but there weren’t any around. We were surprised that it wasn’t used as it’s a very busy area. It could be because of the weather.

The flower beds were very pretty and the children took photo’s
We also took photo’s of the statue and building work and intend to compare them with photo’s we took in June.

We have emailed the building contractors to find out the plans for the building as we are not sure what it will be.

We talked to a lady who was walking her dog and she didn’t know what was happening either!

The children played in the play area. They preferred to play on the skateboard ramp rather than the swings and slides. It would be a good idea to have a bigger adventure play area to keep the children interested, similar to the one on the beach. Unfortunately there was glass and stones on the floor which are dangerous for the children.

Looking around the school

Today we spent time looking around the school at things we liked and what we would like to improve. We liked the reception area now it has been changed and think the school is nice and bright and very friendly. We like the interior as there are lots of displays and photo’s on the walls.
We would like to improve the junior playground, the cloakroom in the junior side looks a bit old and some areas need painting.
The garden area at the back of the school needs a bit of work and we would be interested in starting a gardening club possibly run by parents where the produce can be sold and the money can go back to the school and the club. We don’t think it would take too much to improve the area and it could be ready in time for spring when we can start planting.

First day back

We were all happy to be back working with the PDA's again. Clare was thrilled about how much everyone remembered. We talked about what we are going to do this term we are keen to re visit the patti pavillion as we have learnt that it is not going to be a restaurant but now a children's activity centre. we revised some of the PDA functions. We took photo's, video and sound recordings (and played the game of course!)
When the children joined us we were really pleased how much they remembered too.
In our next session we hope to go out to the patti pavillion, so lets hope for good weather!

End of term

We are very pleased to have an extension on our PDA course and will be starting again in September. We put together a list of questions about the park and interviewed each other using video and sound.
We have also put together a list of things we would like to look at next term, including looking at the differnt buildings and their uses on St helen's road, interviwing shop keepers, Change of use of the area e.g churches now restaurants, flats etc.
we also spent a bit of time consolidating our knowledge so we practiced video recording, taking photo's, sound recording and microsoft word. We think we might need a recap in September after the long break!

Victoria park

We started the lesson off by talking about the history of the Patti Pavillion. It was named after a famous opera singer called Adelina Patti. The paviliion was originally in her back garden in her house and it was moved in 1920 to Victoria Park.

We walked down to the park. On the way we saw the highest recorded tide level in 1846 and we imagined what it must have been like.

The gardens were beautiful and well kept. The trees were lovely and unusual. We were upset at the state of the Patti. It used to be used for weddings and other important functions. There was a drunk on one side and a pile of clothes on the other side. It was boarded up and fenced off. We thought it was strange contrast to have such beautiful gardens with the building falling down. We took photo's but didn't find anyone to interview as the weather wasn't very good.
We think we will go back next week as there were things we din't get to see.
we would like to see the pavillion renovated and used again.