The London Legacy Development Corporation’s schools programme called M.A.D.E in East London gave children, aged between 13 and 15-years-old, the opportunity to come up with ideas for a space on the Park.

Around 300 schoolchildren from 10 schools in the six Olympic host boroughs went on to design and build a model of their idea made of recycled materials and present it to an expert panel of judges at the Mile End Eco Pavilion in Tower Hamlets last week.

The winners are:

Gold prize: Mulberry School for Girls, Tower Hamlets

Winning idea: Green fingers eco-garden: A model for an eco-garden on the Park which includes a play area, wildlife garden and pond, beehives and food growing area that all evolve over time.

Silver prize: Eastbury Comprehensive School, Barking and Dagenham

Winning idea: Reflections: A model made up of five areas representing the Olympic rings linked together which include a mini park, maze and indoor educational space.

Bronze prize: Thomas Tallis School, Greenwich

Winning idea: See new London, Hear new London: includes a chill out zone that weaves into a maze with small public spaces created throughout.

Andrew Altman, Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said:

“These young people are the generation that will benefit the most from the changes to this part of East London. Their enthusiasm was infectious and we were really impressed with their ideas to create an inspiring place that people will want to visit.”

“Legacy plans are further ahead than any previous Olympic host city and with the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park opening from July 2013, M.A.D.E in East London has been a fantastic way to get hundreds of young people thinking about what will happen to their area afterwards.”

The expert judging panel was made up of Legacy Corporation’s Head of Design Eleanor Fawcett, founder of the Stephen Lawrence Trust, Doreen Lawrence, comedian Sean Locke; Barbara Kaucky from Erect Architecture (North Park hubs architects); Newham young star, Trudy White, and theatre set designer Dora Schweitzer. The children won a range of prizes including tickets for a VIP Paralympic Games experience.

The Legacy Corporation appointed environmental regeneration charity Groundwork London to deliver the schools engagement programme, and will now work with them and the winning school to look to develop their idea on the Park.

Ben Coles, Director, Communities and Local Partnerships at Groundwork London, said:

“Groundwork London is delighted to have worked with the Legacy Corporation on this schools engagement programme which has involved over 300 children from our Olympic host boroughs. The energy and imagination they have brought to this project is fantastic and shows an impressive level of awareness on issues relating to our changing neighbourhoods. The project is closely linked with our wider sustainability agenda which aims to work with schools and communities.”

After the Games the Olympic site will be transformed into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; a brand new piece of the city with its own E20 post code. Named the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in recognition of the Queen’s Jubilee year, it will become an exciting new visitor destination and community park, surrounded by five new neighbourhoods.

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will open in phases from July 2013, starting with the North Park and expanding to the whole site by Spring 2014.

Its creation will be one of the biggest construction projects in Europe. An 18 month transformation programme will take place after the Games, laying the foundations for further development across East London over the next 20 years. The transformation has three main phases: Clear Games-time structures including temporary venues, bridges, walkways and roads; connect the Park to the surrounding area with new roads, cycle and foot paths; and complete permanent venues, bridges and parklands ready for everyday use.

Below is a list of the participating schools in Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham and Waltham Forest with quotes and images from the winning school children.

Full list of names of schools:

Hackney

Clapton Girl’s Academy

Stoke Newington Media, Arts and Science College

Tower Hamlets

Mulberry School for Girls

Morpeth School

Waltham Forest

Kelmscott School

Lammas School and Sports College

Newham

Langdon School

Kingsford Community School

Barking and Dagenham

Eastbury Comprehensive School

Greenwich

Thomas Tallis School

Images and quotes from each borough:

GOLD WINNER – TOWER HAMLETS

School: Mulberry School for Girls

Winning image of the school children with their model – Image 1

Pupil, Semeen Mabub, 15, from Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets, said:

“We have been working on this project over the last few months and it has been an amazing experience and we are so excited to have won. We all screamed the house down when we were announced as winners! We now have won tickets for a VIP Paralympic Games experience.

Ben Bishop, teacher from Mulberry School for Girls, said:

“I’m really proud of what the girls have done. We can see how Geography can be inspiring to young people. The students’ ideas were simple and strong. Our project had beehives connected to a wildflower area, connected to a food growing area, a plastic bottle greenhouse, as well as a pond in the shape of the Olympic Rings. There is also a playground to connect young people to the environment and to see that being outdoors and interacting with nature can be fun.”

SILVER WINNER – BARKING AND DAGENHAM

School: Eastbury Comprehensive School

Winning image of the school children with their model: Image 2 (fourth from the right)

On presenting the prize to the silver winner, judge Doreen Lawrence said:

“All of your designs are excellent. To choose the winners was really difficult.”

Pupil, Abu Siddik, 15, from Eastbury Comprehensive School in Barking and Dagenham, said:

“We learnt about how sustainability issues and how we can contribute to building a better place, it is a great project and have learnt how to work as part of group. Our design has a modern twist with an emphasis on nature that showcase the best aspects of the rest of the world. We think it is a unique design and we are really excited to have won a prize.”

BRONZE WINNER – GREENWICH

School: Thomas Tallis School

Winning image of the school children with their model: Image 3

On presenting the prize to the bronze winner, judge Sean Locke said: “I am very impressed with the high standard of your work. It’s been really hard to reach a decision.”

Pupil, Calum McKenna, 15, from Thomas Tallis School, said:

“We are really happy to have come third place. We did this project in our art and design classes and it was the first time that I have had experience with architecture. This has been a fantastic experience for us all.”

Kate Hawkins, Teacher from Thomas Tallis school, said:

“The M.A.D.E in East London competition gave the students a fantastic opportunity to work on a live project, alongside exciting designers and architects, and visit inspirational venues, such as the Olympic Park and SugarHouse Studios in Stratford. In school we went through several design cycles, modelling, testing and redesigning our submission, making sure we stayed focused on sustainability and the history of the area. We improved our maths skills by making all our models to scale and even made a life sized version of our idea. Being involved in the competition gave the students such a boost in their motivation levels. If only we could have more projects like this!”