A team from Strand-on-the-Green Junior School has won the borough-wide “I Dream of Learning” competition.

The competition, launched in June last year, asked pupils to create a vision of what they wanted learning and learning spaces to look like in the future.

The winning team of three year 6 pupils, Starla Fernandes, Maddy Jessop and Aaron Jones, developed a brilliant design for their future classroom, sticking to the brief of keeping it green, affordable, practical, based in ICT and with a budget limit of £30,000. Imagine the team’s delight when their efforts were rewarded with first prize! The children each won a PSP and the admiration of their schoolmates back at Strand.

The competition entries were assessed by three corporate judges, Ann Bodkin a sustainability design architect, Garry Reynolds Director of Interior Design Management Ltd and Mark Duffy Director of Second Places a virtual reality company.

Strand’s winning design will be realised and a cutting edge classroom created thanks to £30,000 capital funding from the Feltham and Brentford City Learning Centres. It’s hoped that the new learning space and accompanying technology will be up and running by September.

Head teacher Sue Harrison said “What a fantastic opportunity for the children. I’m so proud of them for producing such a great plan and in awe of their resourcefulness. They taught themselves to use sophisticated design packages and costed their ideas on a spreadsheet in order to meet the demands of the “I Dream of Learning” brief. What stars! They really deserved to win and will leave a great legacy for those who come after them at Strand Juniors.”