Latest News
Review of our work in Taunton so far…
We've been working in Taunton for the Somerset Pilot of SPONGE2020 for two years now, and to celebrate verything that has been going on we have brought together the work we've been doing into a single document. The review shows the data and evidence we assessed in...
Students were overflowing with ideas at Bishop Fox’s School!
In recent weeks, our SPONGE team has taken the fight against flooding to Bishop Fox’s School in Taunton. After an assembly on how we can use sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in our towns and cities, year 8 pupils set to work designing raingarden planters that will...
Year 4’s get creative in design day at Holway Park Primary School
Following on from our first visit to Holway Park Primary School, where our 5W engineers ran activities based around water management, engineering, working with nature and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), we returned to gather the pupils ideas for a SuDS feature at...
Valuing Nature Conference
This week we've been at the Valuing Nature Conference in Cardiff, presenting a poster about the work we've been doing through SPONGE2020. The Valuing Nature Programme is a 5 year research programme which aims to improve understanding of the value of nature both in...
Co-designing SuDS with the pupils of Lyngford Park Primary
Last week we held the first of our 5W co-design days - this one with 3 classes of year 3s and 4s and their parents at Lyngford Park Primary School. Each session kicked off with a demonstration of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) as a recap from the last session. We...
Inspiring the engineers of the future at Taunton’s primary schools!
Over the last couple of weeks, we held our first sessions at Lyngford Park Primary School and Holway Park Primary School. We are visiting these schools as part of the 5W project (Westcountry Women Working With Water!) which is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineers....
Co-design at Selworthy School
Today was our second event at Selworthy Special School. This time we wanted to gather ideas and opinions to inform the design of the raingarden for the school. We took along different materials, so the students could experience the possible elements of the raingarden...
Learning about the water cycle at Selworthy Special School
We visited Selworthy Special School to get the pupils thinking about how the water cycle works and what happens to rainwater. This is the first of several sessions we are running at Selworthy Special School, which will lead to the building and planting of a raingarden...
5W gets started…
We have an exciting new project which will be supporting our work under SPONGE2020. Westcountry Women Working With Water (aka 5W) is funded by The Royal Academy of Engineers under their Ingenious program. We are working with two primary schools in Taunton to fulfill...
Planting day at Middleway
Today we planted up the final raingarden planter at our site in Taunton. We used all native plants which will help to attract pollinators and add some colour to the neighbouring building (once the plants have grown a little bigger...!)The project is delivered by...