We Are A Child Friendly Creative City!

A huge thank you to all 121 children from the 28 Nottingham schools who joined us over 2.5 days for the final Primary Parliament sessions of the 2024/25 academic year.  We have had such a brilliant year and it was such a joy to finish up this term with such creative and expressive sessions at Nottingham City Council House and online. The Primary Parliament programme for 2024/25 was delivered in partnership with Nottingham City Council, and generously supported by Child Friendly Nottingham, ChalleNGe and Browne Jacobson. 

This term, we looked at the theme of ‘My Space, My City, My World’ linking to the Child Friendly Nottingham’s focus on the importance of health and wellbeing for children and young people.  To do this, the Primary Parliamentarians started by looking inward at who they are, at the qualities, skills and values that make them unique.  These were then represented on tiles using paint pens and lots of colour. When the children shared their tiles and talked through what they had created, it became extremely clear that Nottingham is full of children who are passionate, talented, kind, creative, and strong.

“I am important because I know I am unique” - Primary Parliamentarian 

In the following workshops, Primary Parliamentarians focused on Nottingham and what they wanted to tell people about their city.  Using mixed media mind-maps to produce strong visuals of how they saw Nottingham with collaged images from magazines which included references to the transport network, the green spaces, sports teams, and significant venues in the city.  Many children used words such as child-friendly, welcoming, respectful, and pride to describe Nottingham.  The children also went on to create work with poets Jay Sandu and Heather Hodkinson about their place in the city and the world using words and imagery.

For our brief this term, we kept it simple:  What do you want to tell people about Nottingham and your place within it?  The brief allowed the Primary Parliamentarians to pull together all their experiences from the previous workshops to present back to their peers.  The children worked creatively and collaboratively with other schools to share about their place in Nottingham through song, drama, speeches, poetry, posters, symbols, and objects. Some of the stand-out messages were: "Nottingham is home", "My Nottingham is for everyone", "If you try here, anything is possible", "Be a hero like Robin Hood", and "We are all different but we are strong as lions!".

During summer 2025, the work produced by our Primary Parliamentarians will be handed over to an artist who will bring everything together to be exhibited in the city centre.  This is such a significant platform for the children to have their thoughts shared with the wider city and for us to really acknowledge and action the things that would make the city better for all.  We are so proud of all the Primary Parliamentarians and will be able to provide more information about the exhibition in the coming weeks as we liaise with the teams at Nottingham City Council.

Also at Primary Parliament this term, we had a very special event included in our Wednesday session at the Council House:  the launch of ChalleNGe’s new three-year programme ‘Child Friendly Creative City’, funded by Arts Council England, Nottingham Trent University and match funding from partners.  We were thrilled to have representatives from Arts Council England join us for the event as well as coverage from Notts TV and YSP Media.  

Thank you to all the children from the following schools who took part in all the workshops and for creating such powerful action plans: Ambleside, Blue Bell Hill, Bluecoat, Bulwell St Mary's, Carrington, Crabtree Farm, Djanogly Northgate, Djanogly Sherwood, Dovecote, Edna G Olds, Firbeck, Forest Fields, Glade Hill, Haydn, Mellers, Oak Field, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Radford, Rise Park, Robin Hood, Rosslyn Park, Rufford, Sneinton CofE, Southwold, St Patrick's, Welbeck, Whitemoor and Woodlands. We can’t wait to see your work exhibited this summer! 

You can now register your school for Primary Parliament 25/26 and get your dates in the school calendar if you haven’t already,  just complete the short form here. 

“Our pupils feel more confident in having a voice and have a greater awareness that their words and actions can make a difference. Through the work they have done as part of Primary Parliament and the connected work in school they understand that their voice is important and that they are truly heard.” - School teacher