Eddie and Ellie go back to school

Back to School

Back to school is always an exciting time for students after a fun-filled summer of memories being made. For some, it will be the very first day in the classroom as they start a new journey into primary school while others deal with the anticipation of going into secondary education. We hope all children have enjoyed their first week back and continue to stay as cheerful, inspired and passionate, as the year progresses!

Building future generations remains a key pillar in our Social Value strategy to mould students into following their dreams and becoming key members of our society. Our Eddie & Ellie workshops give students an understanding of sustainability and inspire future generations into taking more care of the world around them.

The beginning of Eddie & Ellie

Eddie and Ellie’s Wild Adventures started off as a book, documenting the lives of two storybook characters adventures through a marvellously colourful, animated world. This proved to be a huge hit with students who were able to escape into these adventures with Eddie & Ellie whilst being educated at the same time.

Introducing workshops

Following from  the success of the Eddie and Ellie book, we launched a school programme on Eddie and Ellie educational activities. These proved to be a big hit with Key Stage 2 students and teachers alike. A programme born out of our passion to share knowledge of nature and ecology with the future generation in a fun, yet informative way.

We facilitated with the Wildlife Trust, allowing us to get involved with local schools in the area we build homes, teaching pupils on the importance of nature and wildlife.

Fast forward one year later in 2022 and the workshops are bigger and better than ever. Working with countless schools in different areas, hosting a range of activities to inspire the future generation.

Here’s some of our favourites!

Reading workshops 

“Set up well to engage and interest readers in wildlife and has good detail and touches of humour…well done.”

Peter Campbell, Associate adviser WSCC

What better way to kick off the programme than by incorporating Eddie and Ellie’s Wildlife Adventures into a group reading workshop. Both teacher and kids follow the story of Eddie and Ellie’s adventure, resulting in a classroom full of laughter whilst everyone gets to enjoy an insight into ecology and biodiversity.

Water Cycle workshop:

From reading to something a little more hands on! We wanted an activity that is fun and informative to share our passion for sustainability and to participate in a variety of fun and educational activities.

Year 3 students had a blast getting creative with their water cycle and recycling posters and even got out of the classroom to get involved in seed planting, rain gauge making and even constructing their first bee hotel!

Site visit and wildlife workshop

Letting schools that are close to our site’s visits are an important aspect of the programme. Key stage 2 students kitted out in hard hats and high vis ahead of their site visit earlier this year.

Once on site, students were given a tour of the development and given Eddie and Ellies special ‘wildlife handbook’. This detailed all types of British wildlife from slowworms, rabbits and of course our favourite – the hedgehog!

After an action-packed day, the students returned to the classroom where they put together story boards detailing how they would adapt the book if it was a movie. As expected, the students got very creative and were very proud to show us there masterpieces afterwards.

It all combines to bring an understanding of sustainability to life and inspire future generations.

Biodiversity Challenge award for the best Community Engagement Project

Thanks to Eddie & Ellie, CIRIA have put us forward for the best Community Engagement Project as part of the Big Biodiversity Challenge awards!

It’s amazing to see our work towards social value and biodiversity being recognised on a wider scale. These core values are essential to what we do as a community creator, ensuring it’s not just the developments we are so proud of, but also the community and surrounding environment which will flourish in generations to come.