Good Idea: History lessons on London's canals for schoolchildren

Provider Beauchamp Lodge Settlement
Name On the Waterfront
Summary A purpose-built barge has been travelling down the Grand Union and Regent’s canals offering pupils a history of London’s waterways

In 2001, charity the Beauchamp Lodge Settlement launched its Floating Classroom, which has welcomed more than 25,000 children on board for activities related to London’s canals.

Last summer, the classroom undertook its On the Waterfront project. This invited children to get involved in all aspects of developing and producing short films to tell the history of the journey along the Regent’s Canal from the Paddington Basin to Camden Lock.

Funded by a People’s Millions award from the Big Lottery Fund, On the Waterfront provided activities in workshops, where pupils from four Westminster schools developed stories based on the history they learned and then brought these to life in short films.

Simon Ryder, chief executive of the Floating Classroom, says: “The schools we targeted were in some of the most deprived wards in the country where children had relatively little access to creative activities and nature. We wanted to use the waterway as a door to the natural world by taking the children down the canals for a week in their school holidays.”

The project culminated in a premiere of the four films at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill.

Ryder added: “The children also became writers, animators, photographers, dancers, directors and sound recordists. As well as the skills and confidence they acquired on the workshops, one of the most important things was to see their continued participation.

“A couple of children have taken up scriptwriting courses at the Royal Court Theatre and another child is going to be rapping in a modern take on Oliver Twist with Chickenshed theatre. The biggest frustration is securing more funding. We are desperate to carry it on and the demand is there.”