The activity, centred around Tilery Park, encouraged engagement from residents and schools to understand how the local community view and use green spaces.
Children at Tilery Primary School have unleashed their inner plants and animals by putting on a wildlife parade to help boost long-term nature recovery in Teesside.
Delivered through the Tees Nature Recovery Partnership (NRP), the project, aims to encourage engagement from residents to understand how they use or don’t use Tilery Park and to explore barriers to access, plus community-led future aspirations for local green spaces.
The children in Year Five and Six designed animal costumes based on their interpretation of Tilery Park and worked with Teesside University and local artists to design what they would like their green space to look like in 100 years, to remind them about the importance of protecting habitats for local wildlife now.
They worked with photography, textiles and art materials, design and imagination to see, listen and explore Tilery Rec next door to the school. Local community groups also shared their memories and joined in with activities such as bingo and sculpture-making.
Pupils had the chance to show off their work as part of a green space parade which also formed part of their geography curriculum and highlights the school’s dedication to environmental issues.
The parade was filmed by Teesside University’s Sarah Perks and Paul Stewart (working together as Forms of Circulation). They were joined by local artists including Annie O’Donnell, Wil Jackson, Christo Wallers and Lizzie Mckeone for this project.