Writtle Junior School

Our goal...

Our goal for the children of WJS is to design and build a facility for the school that has been dreamt about but that seemed out of reach.  The building shall be innovative and inspirational and allow the whole school and the wider community to support its development.  This is not a project being funded from the school budget/ DFE funding, but instead the generosity of the local community and the companies who work in it.  It is a project that will expose the children of Writtle Junior School to many different careers.

This isn't just any old school classroom build. The children aged 7-11 years, have actually designed the whole pod. They have worked with architects, builders and surveyors to arrive at design that captured all of their ideas.  Planning permission has been granted to build it, following work they have completed with town planners.

The children are working with all aspects of the building trade ranging from architects to planners; surveyors to lawyers as they’ve watched their project grow and grow.

The foundations of the Pod were laid in July 2018 with children as part of the team.  During the spring/summer term 2019 children at WJS will work alongside professionals to actually build the pod and learn the skills required at each stage of the project.  Imagine children wearing hi-vis jackets, hard hats and working hard with the support of numerous companies to make their dreams a reality!  That’s the magic of the pod project. 

When it is finished the children see it as an environment that can transport them to anywhere in the world or universe using the technology that will be installed.  They are also keen for it to be used by the whole Writtle Community and have numerous ideas for how this can be achieved.

It is hard to believe that our dreams are slowly coming true, but with the generosity of the local community our children are having an experience that will stay with them forever and hopefully open their eyes to a whole range of future careers.

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the Pod project and although the exterior is nearly finished we are just starting to get the children involved in the interior design phase of the project.  In the academic year 2021/22 children will become interior designers and research and purchase the furntiure that they want for their classroom.  An exciting year ahead!

The journey so far...

Please click on the link to see everything that the children have achieved so far!

Together Everyone Achieves More