For The Canal and River Trusts’ Hinterlands 2023 Programme Cathy Wade worked with Assistant headteacher Iveta Bejaoui at Raynham Primary School to co-create a programme of creative learning that is responsive to the River Lea’s wide-ranging placed-based and global themes spanning the environment, nature, climate, and wellbeing. A series of twenty-three workshops were held at Raynham Primary and along the waterways with year 3, 4, and 5 children, who have been considering what they (and we) can do as citizens to improve our locality. 

For the final phase of the residency Cathy has developed Children Own the City, a project that invites the children to consider how the city will develop by the River Lea between 2038-2048. The children will inherit their lived environment from adults in the future but what happens if they inherit it now? What will this forthcoming city look like and how do they want to live by the waterway?

On this recording the children reflect on what they want to make after a visit to Barge Fiodra, Bloqs and the River Lee Navigation in May 2024.

Planning The City What Did We See?

Cathy Wade