The St John and St James Primary School Street forms part of a new Clean Air route on Grove Street, N13. Delivered by Enfield Council’s Journeys and Places programme with Jan Kattein Architects, the project aimed to improve air quality around the school, enable students to travel actively to school, and make the area greener and healthier. Through our collaboration with schoolchildren, we sought to empower young people to take ownership of public space outside the school gates, stimulate imaginative play and give students the opportunity to put their learning on environmental issues into practice.

The School Street is part of a wider Good Growth Fund programme for Angel Edmonton. The development of the funding bid was underpinned by economic and demographic data, interviews with local businesses and community groups and public consultation. These firmly established the need for a safer, more attractive public environment as a key programme objective.

The School Street was a key opportunity to empower young people in improving the public environment. We spoke with teachers to understand students’ specific learning and potential curriculum links. This informed our approach which prioritised imaginative play and environmental learning.

The judge’s commentary on the project:

“Enfield Council’s Clean Air Route project not only collaborated with children and young people in new and exciting ways around a pressing community issue  (air pollution) to create healthy streets, but also demonstrated to young people that they have a voice in their communities. It is wonderful to see a local council proactively encouraging young people to be future active citizens who feel they can positively engage and work with the Council.”

A huge congratulations to the project team, the school and Jan Kattein Architects on winning this award!