“It makes me feel proud that I designed something for the whole school.”

“It makes me feel proud that I designed something for the whole school.”

In July we worked with Emmaus Catholic and Church of England Primary School to create a captivating new design for the cover for their 2016-17 collecting card books. Collecting card books are a wonderful way for children to track their progress throughout the school year and record their achievements. They make lovely keepsakes and are a physical representation of the pupil’s hard work that they can show to their parents.

It was very important to Emmaus that the children were involved in designing the cover. This allowed the pupils to feel that their views and ideas were represented and valued. Members of the school council were invited to meet with School Postcards and the head teacher to discuss ideas for the design.

Students were encouraged to ask questions, share opinions, listen to each other’s ideas and evaluate what concepts worked and what didn’t. We also developed designs for badges that the students could wear on their uniform to showcase their achievements.

The pupils were shown designs that we had created for other schools and from these they were able to pull out different elements that they liked. The pupils wanted to see “themselves” on the front cover so we created illustrations of school children in the Emmaus uniform. The children came up with the great idea of 2 doves holding a banner across the front cover.  This created the space for each child to write their name on their collecting card book. They also liked the idea of including the cross from their school logo and the rays of the rising sun.

The pupils decided on two design concepts that they wanted for their new badges. The first was a cross with hills in the background with the school’s learning behaviours displayed underneath.The second was a cross with two coloured banners wrapped around it. The learning behaviours are displayed on the banners. This design works really well for the badges, making the learning behaviours really stand out.

The design process was very beneficial to both the children and the school. The school got a better understanding of what their pupils want and how they view their school, as well as fresh ideas that they know the children will respond to.

The pupils felt involved and were able to develop their communication and collaboration skills. They built on and developed each other’s ideas to come up with the final design concepts. Thinking about what other pupils would want to see allowed them to demonstrate their empathy skills. They also got a deeper understanding and appreciation of the design process.

The children were asked how it made them feel to be involved in the design of their new badges and collecting card book covers:

“It’s fun. Once people look at them they will think it’s not fair that they don’t have a badge”

“It’s exciting to see our new design”

“It’s good”

“It makes me feel proud that I designed something for the whole school”

When asked why they thought it was important to be involved they said:

“It’s important that the children get to decide what they look like because they are the ones who wear them”

“If people come into our school the badges give a good representation of us”

Involving pupils in the creative process consolidates their understanding of school values and expected behaviours. They feel more engaged with the school rewards systems and are more likely to try harder to achieve the goals. It gives them a deeper sense of pride as their ideas are included in the design.