DIY brought into the classroom with room makeover (From York Press)

DIY brought into the classroom with room makeover

11:38am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Education news By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

Room makeovers are not just the preserve of television designers as education reporter Haydn Lewis found out when he visited a York secondary school.

WE'RE all familiar with popular DIY makeover programmes on television, but at one city secondary school pupils have brought DIY into the classroom as part of the curriculum.

At Huntington School in York a group of seven Year 11 students, all boys, who are on a course called CoPE (Certificate of Personal Effectiveness) took a tired and rundown classroom and turned it into a warm and friendly learning environment.

They have been working on the project for five weeks, redesigning the space, deciding on and sourcing the materials, budgeting and then carrying out the bulk of the work themselves making noticeboards and painting and decorating the room.

Tom MacDonald, 15, said: “It was harder than I thought it was going to be doing the painting. I made the frames for the noticeboards and we went to B&Q for the paint – it was a bit of a mess in this room before, but the new paint colours make it feel warmer and I think I’d be able to do a room in future.”

Thomas Dickinson, 16, said: “I helped paint the walls and some of the panels. I thought it was just going to be easy painting a few walls, but we had to take our time, putting down the masking tape and making sure we didn’t run out of paint.”

Gev Nichol, CoPE co-ordinator, said the makeover cost £50, with a lot of generous donations.

Mrs Nichol said: “On this course they have to complete a series of challenges where at the end of the course they achieve a B-grade GCSE. On the classroom makeover challenge they worked well and had to get on with each other – it was a real exercise in teamwork. They have worked really hard on this project and feel they have some of ownership of the classroom.”

Dr Frances Toynbee, the school’s head of learning support, said the course used to be stigmatised by many of the children, but over the past few years it had undergone it’s own makeover.

She said: “This course has changed dramatically. It used to be of really low status, but we decided to boost it and give it value. As part of that, John Tomsett, the head, taught it for a few years, which gave it a real sense of status and parents tell me that it is fantastically good for pupil confidence.”

To celebrate the makeover being finished, Mr Tomsett cut a ribbon to officially reopen the new room.

He said: “Projects like this create a huge rise in self-esteem for these youngsters and give them skills they can use in the world beyond school.”