Young people in Thamesmead celebrate their local green spaces with artist educator Matt Ponting.

Supported by Peabody, the project explores how being outdoors and creatively engaging with nature can be beneficial for health & wellbeing. 

Artist educator and illustrator Matt Ponting is working with over 100 students across Year 3 to Year 10 at six Super Zone schools in Thamesmead to design a map celebrating Southmere Lake.

Throughout Autumn 2024 the students participated in a series of outdoor workshops, encouraging the young people to discover and capture the diversity of wildlife & scenery of their local lake and its surrounding park, through drawing.  

Some of the discoveries included native wildflowers, sycamore trees, hedgehogs, kingfishers, and grass-hopers! On their walk, the groups also encountered local landmarks and social spaces such as the Bow Arts Lakeside Centre, and The Nest Library.

Back in the classroom, Matt successfully supported the class with new techniques, allowing the students to refine their observational drawing techniques and put skills to practice in creative ways. The young people produced some incredible drawings inspired by their nature exploration.

As part of the project, Matt has also devised a teacher CPD for each of the schools, guiding staff through facilitation methods for drawing in nature, including how to guide children through various techniques, and ways to structure and manage sessions outdoors. 

Participating schools include:

• Parkway Primary
• Northwood Primary
• St John Fisher Primary
• Willow Bank Primary
• Harris Garrard Academy Primary
• Harris Garrard Academy Secondary

The final step of the project will see Matt bringing together the students’ artworks into an illustrated map of the lake and a local area, which will be available to the community in printed and digital form. 

More info to come soon.

Read more about past projects here

Find out more about how your school can work with Bow Arts here or get in touch at learning@bowarts.com