Press Release

Regional award presentation & grand opening

Deansfield High school have a packed evening of celebrations on 7th March.
In December 2004, the school won RegenWM’s Chair’s prize for their ‘Planning for Real’® project, and will receive the award from Don Burrows, Chief Executive of the Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation. Later in the evening, there will be a grand opening of the newly designed and refurbished year seven base.

The Mayfields ‘Planning for Real’ ® projects was a partnership between the school, Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation, Wolverhampton City Council’s Regeneration and Transportation department and Creative Partnerships the Black Country, with support from Persimmon Homes. A major outcome of the partnership was the creation of a national study pack called “Planning for Real in the 21st Century – local citizenship for secondary schools”. Persimmon Homes have since developed their relationship with Deansfield High school by asking the pupils to run a competition to name the new Mayfield’s estate.

Inspired by their success from ‘Planning for Real’, the school joined forces with Wolverhampton College construction and decorating students to work on a real design project within the school.

The school's under-utilised year seven base has been transformed by a team of year ten students as part of their GCSE portfolio/coursework. The grand opening of the new space will be conducted by Maureen Haywood, Manager Director, Persimmon Homes on 7th March.

Headteacher Steve Hawke says: "Although this event marks the completion of two really successful Creative Partnership collaborations it signposts the way for some really exciting long term partnerships and will have a lasting impact on life at school”.

Rachel Dickins, Assistant headteacher at the school has says: “We are putting design into practice and impacting on the lives of young people – this has given them a real insight into future opportunities and allowed them to realise their own ideas. the strength of the partner organisations gives this a real long term value and will encourage pupils to think about future careers and creative opportunities”.

Notes for editors

Jeremy Brown, Creative Agent for the school is available for interviews.
Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation (NIF) is a national charity based in Telford, Shropshire, specialising in community participation, training and development. Working with local authorities, housing associations, voluntary agencies and community groups. NIF provides independent, practical support and services to improve the well-being of communities. www.nif.co.uk

Wolverhampton City Council, Regeneration and Transportation, Principal Planning officer John Brothers said "I learnt more about the regeneration issues facing Mayfield during an hours session with the pupils than in a week of reading reports. Usually regeneration discussions are professionals talking to professionals. Children never play a part, but arguably their views are the most important because they are the ones who will inherit these neighbourhoods”.

Wolverhampton College strives to provide access to excellent life long learning opportunities to enable local people, communities and employers to achieve success.
www.wolverhamptoncollege.ac.uk

RegenWM are one of the regional centres being set up in England to promote good practice and better skills in regeneration. Responding to local needs and to the Government's Sustainable Communities agenda. They are supported by Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Regional Development Agency and others. www.regen.org

Contact details

For media enquiries and interviews call:
Siobhán O’Neill on 07779 710769 or 0121 525 9717
Creative Partnerships the Black Country
84 High Street, West Bromwich, B70 6JW