Year 8 Focus Group for Gunnersbury Park and Museum Regeneration
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On Monday 14th November 2011 a group of Year 8 students formed a focus group to inform a Heritage Lottery Fund bid to regenerate Gunnersbury Museum and Park. Based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, students assessed existing facilities based on their strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities for the future. Students walked around the park and took photographs of things that fell short of their expectations and were very vocal on how the current facilities could be improved for their age group in the future. Suggestions included: zipwires, trampolines, remote controlled car tracks, a community garden growing vegetables to make soup for the local unemployed, communal barbecue areas, digital treasure hunts, outdoor cinema and regenerating the lake so that people can fish there.
Many of the park’s existing features were valued by our students who could envisage the Temple becoming a place for civil ceremonies, that Lady Amelia’s bath house could provide a great venue for theatre and that the existing Italian garden just needs better signage to be noticed and enjoyed in its current state.
Our students proved to be observant, critical and visionary in their assessments. We hope some of their ideas will be incorporated into a successful bid by the museum and park early in 2012.