Activity planning

When you begin to discuss the Week's activity with your partner school you may want to consider these questions:

• How much time can I give?
• Which dates suit us both?
• What are the teacher's hopes and expectations?
• What skills and knowledge can I contribute?
• What is the age group of the students I will be working with?
• What have they studied beforehand that's relevant to our plans?
• What do we need? What will the school provide? What will I provide?
• What space is available?
• Will there be any further development of the activity beyond the Week, and will there be a continuing relationship with the school?
• What are the best ways of contacting each other - home phone, work phone, mobile phone, email?

 
It would also be a good idea to inquire about the nature of the school's intake of students, to enable you to tailor your input to their learning needs.

If the week of 21 June is not suitable please feel free to choose a more convenient date, as close to the official Week as possible.

In previous years some designers visited the school before the Week to brief the students, while many schools and designers who had planned large projects continued working on them afterwards, in some cases into the autumn term.

The Design Council does not fund individual activities, however in previous years many schools and designers have approached local businesses to provide resources for their activities. This resulted, for example, in one school receiving free architectural software from a specialist company, while another secured the use of a local gallery to exhibit students' work.