Youngsters at Nottingham Children’s Hospital School have been given an unusual new design challenge by leading East Midlands resource management and recycling company Wastecycle – create our new skip!
The initiative, a joint project between Wastecycle, Interserve and the Hospital School, aimed to encourage contractors to engage with their local schools and communities by transforming hoardings and equipment into works of art.
Children at the Hospital School were asked to grab a piece of A4 paper and use their imaginations to come up with their own fabulous design to decorate a skip – the more colourful and creative, the better. Based around the theme of ‘health and safety’, the kids were told to make a design that incorporates an element of keeping safe on construction sites.
The competition allowed pupils of all ages to get involved in an art activity, but also to give them the background and knowledge about many aspects of construction to encourage some of them to consider a career path into construction when they complete their education.
Winners were chosen in three age groups – 7 years and under, 8-12 years and 13-16 years – and the successful designs were reproduced on a full size skip located at Interserve’s current construction project at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
“This is a chance for children to let their imaginations run wild and design a colourful skip which will help us convey some of our and Interserve Construction’s important messages, such as reducing waste and the importance of Health & Safety,” said Mark Gibbard, Business Development Executive at Wastecycle.
“The competition with Wastecycle has been a fantastic success and a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to have a say and showcase their skills whilst conveying a strong safety message,” said Kathy Harwood, one of the teaching staff at the Hospital School. “Being resident in hospital can be extremely daunting and scary for our pupils and their families; to take their minds off their condition whilst being able to express themselves through art therapy has been wonderful. We’re very grateful to Wastecycle and Interserve for making this possible.”
The winning designs were unveiled at an event celebrating the pupils’ successes over the academic year, attended by Paralympic Gold Medallist Richard Whitehead and industry mascot Ivor Goodsite.
