Exhibition in the Sea

After months of preparation, students from Pool Business and Enterprise College took to the waves at Gwithian Beach on individually created belly boards inspired by life in Cornwall, and made out of recycled wood. Panels of un-used wood, which were collected from Heartlands at Robinson’s Shaft in Pool by the year nine students, were transformed into eco-friendly belly boards. The boards were illustrated with images chosen by the pupils, which depict stories they have gathered from their family members and local residents about life in Pool.

The project, named ’Lost Words, Found Objects’, involves working with the local community to help develop the project and inspire the artists and designers working at Heartlands. The project was led by local artist Ben Cook. To showcase the unique belly boards the students took to the waves at Gwithian Beach for a ‘Exhibition in the Sea’.

Lost Words, Found Objects is an exciting project for pupils to get involved and learn about the history of Pool and that sustainable living can be fun. Raw materials, which were no longer of use on the Heartlands site have now been transformed into fantastic original and personal belly boards, illustrating life in Pool from the past and looking forward to the future of the area.

myCornwall.tv filmed all the bellyboard action. To see how the project progressed from start to finish watch the film here.

Young people’s true life tales celebrated in style

In March this year the primary school story telling competition was launched. Heartlands teamed up with Pool Business and Enterprise College to collect stories from local primary school students describing what life is like to grow up in Cornwall. Kirsty Davies from Heartlands and Mr Annear from Pool Business and Enterprise College worked with 7 local primary schools – Illogan School, Pencoys Primary School, Portreath Community Primary School, Rosemellin Community Primary School, Roskear Primary School, St Johns Catholic Primary School, Treloweth Community Primary School.

It was really inspiring to hear the students True Life Tales and thought the stories should be celebrated with a big event. All 7 schools attended Carn Brea Leisure Centre, where over 220 young people came ready and eager to listen and tell each other their stories. There was even an appearance from professional story-teller, Mark Harandon.

As it was a competition there was the very difficult job of judging the stories, especially as they were to such a high standard. Four winners from each school were chosen and were awarded a book token, with all students receiving a certificate and the very special prize of an illustrated story book. To mark the end of such a successful primary school project a story book was compiled of all the winners stories. A local illustrator called Rachel Axtell illustrated the story book. I think the students and teachers who took part in the True Life Tales competition will agree that the story book makes a great keepsake.

A big thank from Heartlands and Pool Business and Enterprise College goes to all 7 primary schools for your enthusiasm and wonderful stories which will contribute to the Heartlands Social History Archive. The archive will be stored at Heartlands and features stories from local residents, young people and miners about life in Pool. The archive will be used to inspire artists and designers working at Heartlands.