Leidschenveen Exhibition

Two weeks after the outing, parent volunteers were buzy helping the teachers and students to cut, paste and hang the works done by the students in time for the exhibition. For three days some mothers came to help, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.

Finally on the 10th of May 2012, the exhibition was officially opened. Let's view photos taken during the event

Giving last minute instructions

A brief speech before ribbon cutting ceremony

Ribbon cutting ceremony (minus the ribbon)

Listening to proposed development for The Forgotten Triangle by Ilham's team

Parents and the special visitors were very encouraging, listening to the students attentively. . .

Drawings of Leidschenveen by the students

Ilham's drawing titled Leidschenveen Building Development

Parent volunteer - before the exhibition

I think this local study is very good, it gives exposure on town planning on the needs and wants of the community almost similar to the ones that Ilham learned when he was at International School of Amsterdam.

The Study Of Local Community

After the Easter Break, Year 5 learned about the local community where the school is ie the Leidschenveen area. In this study they learned the history of the town, how and when it was built. As part of program, the school invited people from the Stadhuis (City Hall) to give briefing on the history and town planning. Tours to the Leidschenveen town were arranged where the year fives interviewed the local people. Lots of information was gathered :

- The type of buildings the town have
- How many schools are there
- What kind of transportation the town has access to
- Why local people come to the shopping centre, what are they looking for
- Types of shops and service that the town has
- How do the locals come to the area
- How long does it take for them to arrive at the town
- What do the people want that the town does not have

Students were divided into groups and they performed specific tasks, some were drawing and others were mapping. Those who were conversant in Dutch had been given the task of interviewing the locals to give the opportunity to the kids to practice their Dutch.

All these information were then tabulated in the forms of graphs, reports, and drawings. Models of proposed town planning (for the little bit of land which is somehow forgotten and still undeveloped) were also built by the students.

The City Hall was kind enough to provide the model of the town and gave copies of the map area.

The whole elements took a few weeks to complete, finalised with an exhibition to the parents on the 10th May recently. The exhibition was officially opened by "Somebody Important" from the City Hall.

Again, parent volunteers were required to accompany the students walking to the town and to cut and paste/hang all the works in time for the exhibition.

I joined the class in one of the outings to the Leidschenveen Town. The guy from the City Hall, Mr Kwakkenbos, the Lead Designer for Leidschenveen Development was there and he briefed the students on the town planning. I found a few interesting facts about the place that we live in, something that I never knew before. The road that we travel everyday in front of the house is actually a dike that has existed for hundreds of years. The road called Veenweg is very long and it is quite narrow in comparison to the other roads. On both sides of the dike were actually full of water, meaning our house is actually situated on reclamed land.

Interviewing the locals

Gathering information

Listening to explanation

I found this study to be very interesting indeed. I wish our children at home can benefit from it and perhaps those involved in town planning back home, can definitely learn a few tips from this as well. Town planners needs to understand the needs of the community, and not just leave it to the developers to decide. Ooops now I am digressing!!!