Voices of the future: Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes

Lead Research Organisation: Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Faculty of Education

Abstract

The future of treescapes belongs to children and young people. Yet there is a lack of interdisciplinary research that explores their engagement with treescapes over time. This project aims to re-imagine future treescapes with children and young people, working with local and national partners including Natural England, Forest Research and the Community Forests and Scottish stakeholders. We will identify opportunities and barriers to treescape expansion and pilot innovative child and youth-focused pathways to realising this goal. We will create curricula material which will be disseminated with the support of our project partners, Early Childhood Outdoors and the Chartered College of Teachers.

The aim of this project is to integrate children and young people's knowledge, experiences, and hopes with scientific knowledge of how trees adapt to and mitigate climate change in order to co-produce new approaches to creating and caring for resilient treescapes that benefit the environment and society. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches and in collaboration with stakeholders, the team will produce a 'lexicon of experience' that captures the ecological identities of children and young people. An audit of existing activity in the field of activism and treescapes, with a particular focus on marginalised groups, will inform the project. In particular, the project will produce new material for use by practitioners, educators and policy makers that will inform future treescape planting and will be rolled out nationally, with the help of our project partners. Novel methods for assessing carbon storage in trees and soil will inform a 'tree-twinning' project to enable children and young people to recognise how they can relate to treescapes. Children and young people will draw on the scientific work together with their lived experience to balance their evolving carbon footprint with the changing treescapes they have partnered with. New treescapes will be planted with the help of Community Forests and local authorities. Learning will be enhanced by the scientific project on tree-twinning, embedded within the project, to advance knowledge about the relationship between climate science and urban trees. This research will be carried out with children and young people as co-researchers.

The project will focus on hope as a vital ingredient of future planning and philosophically and practically create a set of actions to look to the future while addressing temporalities, including past archival work on trees. It will work with cohorts of young people across early years, primary, secondary and young people out of school, as well as families and communities, to think about and engage with treescapes, to plan as well as plant new treescapes and to engage in treescape thinking and curricula innovation. Working with Natural England as project partners, a toolkit will be developed to guide this work and a set of resources and outputs to be rolled out nationally that inspire and inform future generations of children and young people to become involved in treescapes, which will re-shape the disciplinary landscape of treescapes research and inform policy and practice. Community forest planners, policy-makers and practitioners will better understand how to engage children and young people in treescapes and how to work with their knowledges to inspire and inform future generations. Innovative approaches to arts and humanities, environmental science and social science will produce a new understanding of how combining disciplines can further treescape research with children and young people. The project will also advance methodological understandings of the relationship between children and young people and treescapes with a focus on co-production and attending to lived experience while conducting environmental scientific research. New knowledge in the fields of environmental and social science will create new disciplinary paradigms and concepts.
 
Title Children's story book 
Description This is still in development. The project entails working with a famous children's author who will co-develop and co-illustrate a story about trees with 90 Year (4) children in Seymour Park Community Primary School, Manchester. 
Type Of Art Creative Writing 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact We expect this to be an impactful story which marks a step change in communicating children's views and imaginings through the powerful tool of children's story books. The author is a renowned writer whose involvement will give the output national visibility and this is likely to generate notable impact. 
 
Title Poster graphic of 24 organisations engaged with young people on nature and climate issues. 
Description This is a text based graphic, a 5x5 grid of tiles, each with short summary of an activist or engagement organisation. Each tile is also available on it's own to showcase the work and has been used on social media to highlight the 'Young People Act' resource. 
Type Of Art Image 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact We have distributed 250 copies of the resource to different organisations nationally, plus 24 downloads. This was largely due to our social media presence. 
URL https://twitter.com/clarerishbeth/status/1729155903008690487
 
Title School Mural 
Description Collaborating with Seymour Park Community Primary School and the school's artist, Badwan supported the development of a mural on the theme of nature, working with 90 children in Reception. 
Type Of Art Artwork 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The children engaged with conversations about trees, nature, biodiversity and habitats. 
 
Description We are in the final stages of the project. A key finding is that there remains a lack of research which explains/brings together the science of trees and their carbon capture together with children and young people's experiences of trees, whether this be a sensory engagement, or a storied engagement. We are beginning to bring these together, and consider the potential of re-doing the Forest Research App Treezilla to more accurately reflect experiences of trees.
We are also finding that descriptions of diverse children and young people's experiences of treescapes are not attuned to lived experience, multiple languages and transnational experiences of children and young people within the existing literature and our project contributes to this. We have also found that many woodland organisations, such as the Community Forests and the Woodland Trust, continue to be interested in co-produced approaches to listening to children's voices and we are engaged in a number of experiential workshops to explore this further.
We are thinking beyond disciplines and considering how to re-make a discipline that addressed young people's literacies of the forest together with environmental science. Our forthcoming books aim to explore this further, with a focus on a child and youth etymology of treescapes.
We have identified that the potential carbon store in urban trees is up to 4x greater than previously estimated by citizen science tools like Treezilla, meaning that urban treescapes offer potentially far greater carbon and climate benefits than we have previously considered. But valuing a tree goes beyond just its carbon, and we are now exploring how to more accurately reflect lived experiences in the ways we measure and value trees in apps like Treezilla.
Exploitation Route We are developing a set of resources and toolkits and a new website which we hope will be live soon to disseminate our resources. We have already put up our Young People Act resource on the web.
We are hoping that our research will be useful to a) practitioners including those concerned with urban woodlands and planning b) teachers who wish to expand their repertoire of outdoor education and climate-related resources and bring together science teaching with literacy/English c) Early years' educators and those who work with children and families in informal settings d) Climate focused organisations who wish to involve young people in their activist work and need to know how to do this e) Policy makers who want to create engagement opportunities for children and young people.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Education

Leisure Activities

including Sports

Recreation and Tourism

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://issuu.com/voicesofthefuture/docs/young_people_act_-_nature_climate_digital
 
Description Our work on co-production is being used by Mersey Forest in order to explore the relationship between young people's voices and inform the re-writing of their strategic plan. As part of our early years' work, we held an event in Clifton Park in Rotherham, and we created a visual booklet summarising the fieldwork and key findings, which we distributed at the event which enabled many families to access the research. As part of our project working with refugee-background young people, now called, the 'Tree of Hope Research Group' we worked with Manchester City of Trees, Trafford Council and Beechfield Industries, to plant four trees as a legacy of the project. A member of Trafford Council joined us for the event and Manchester City of Trees issued a press release. During the event, there was also dialogue with attendees about the importance of engaging refugee-background young people in caring for treescapes, and particularly learning from their knowledge and experience. We are now working with Trafford Council and Friends of Longford Park to install a park bench with a plaque to promote the project and encourage associated practices. We are developing a manifesto for children's right to Treescapes. As part of this project, in Seymour Park Primary School in Old Trafford, 90 children took part in 2 manifesto building workshops to develop discussions around children's demands for physical and cultural changes to improve the quality and sustainability of treescapes in their local areas. Their feedback informs the policy development around people, community and the environment for both Manchester City of Trees and Mersey Forest. Peter Kraftl presented an overview of the Voices of the Future project to Central Bedfordshire Council's Sustainability Network which led to further requests about involvement. The project team also presented to the DfE Nature Park initiative based in RHS Bridgewater which led to further requests for information. Peter Kraftl gave an invited presentation at the Communicate2023 conference in Manchester on 15th November. The conference is the UK's leading annual conference for environmental communicators running since 2004, bringing together a diverse group of delegates each year to develop their skills, share best practice and debate latest issues in science communication, nature conservation and engaging people with the natural world (https://www.bnhc.org.uk/communicate2023). The conference was attended by over 1,000 people in person and online, and included speakers from the BBC, local and national environmental charities, and Government Departments. Peter presented in a session on translating evidence into action. He talked about three aspects of our work with children and young people: planting trees, measuring trees, and hoping with/for trees. He drew attention to the ways in which our transdisciplinary approach to co-researching with children means that the relationship between 'evidence' and 'action' is more complex and less linear - a constant and longer-term process of iteration that might lead to more hopeful ways of thinking about future treescapes and environmental futures. He also outlined the wider Programme plans for communication over the coming year. We presented at the Manchester Environmental Education Network which led to further requests for information from the Lead - Green infrastructure & Biodiversity, Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Team, Manchester City Council. Our Tree of Hope research group consisting of a group of Asylum seeking young people visited the Monitoring and Evaluation team at DEFRA in York in order to exchange ideas about future Treescapes planning. The audience reported a change in how they thought about treescapes planning in the UK as a result of this discussion. We presented our 'Young People Act' resource at the Royal Geography Conference which led to many requests for the resource. We will be writing a series of articles for The Planner - to encourage town planners to think more creatively about place - which will feature our work on the 'Voices of the Future' project. Our work will also feed into a professional development training module that the Royal Town Planning Institute is developing in partnership with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. We have built a new partnership with the Castlefield Viaduct and the National Trust which will enable us to take children and young people to Castlefield Viaduct and for the work on the 'Voices of the Future' project to inform the National Trust's future development of this key urban site. As part of this process, Hamza Rana will visit Manchester Metropolitan University to take part in a planning workshop in the summer of 2024. Simon Carr was one of four guest speakers at the Urban Forest Accelerator Workshop (20th September 2023) hosted online by the National Trust. The talk was about how Voices of the Future have approached engagement with children and young people. The audience of 44 comprised representatives of local councils and authorities, charities and other organisations involved in planning or practice of urban tree planting, forestry industry bodies and representatives from DEFRA. Simon Carr presented the first major scientific outcome of the project at the BES (14th December 2023) "Is the amount and distribution of above-ground biomass of trees within UK urban parks different from those located in woodlands?". This was a well attended session at the BES (ca. 150 attendees), with a number of discussions and follow-on questions subsequent to the presentation. Peter Kraftl has been invited to address members of the 'Sounding Board' of the Town and Country Planning Organisation in June.
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Co-production workshops
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Informed contribution to the Natural England Social Science Advisory Committee
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact The work of the committee directly informs approaches to engaging people and place within Natural England projects and policy.
 
Description Membership of Mersey Forest Plan Advisory Group
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Digital Voices of the Future
Amount £81,984 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/Y004159/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2023 
End 11/2024
 
Title Young People Act: Nature and Climate, 2022-2023 
Description This project is the first work package of the UKRI-NERC funded 'Voices of the Future: Collaborating with Young People to reimagine Treescapes' The aim of this particular sub-project is to map and evaluate the ethos, activities, structure and impact of organisations and initiatives in the UK which seek to engage young people (age 12-24 years) in nature connection, place change and/or environmental activism in rural and urban environments. Depending on the group remit and context, we were particularly interested in opportunities and barriers to involvement by children and young people from commonly marginalised backgrounds. This will inform shared understandings of what constitutes genuine, effective and sustained inclusion and power for Children and Young People (CYP) with supporting their potential influence with regard to changing UK treescapes (woodlands, parks, street trees). There will be a digital resource to demonstrate good practice and innovation in this field. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact 2023. Request by a postgraduate student to access the archive (granted). 
URL http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/id/eprint/856622
 
Description Coproducing with children and young people as a methodology for writing the 2026 strategy for Mersey Forest 
Organisation The Mersey Forest
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution In this collaboration Mersey Forest are exploring with the project team the contribution that a coproduction methodology with children and young people will make to their thinking about working with young people. In a series of workshops, Samyia Ambreen, Kate Pahl and Dave Armson from Mersey Forest together with artist Steve Pool, will explore creative methods with children and young people. Through these workshops, a more complex idea of child voice in the mix of urban tree planning will be developed.
Collaborator Contribution Mersey Forest contacted the schools, and they developed the relationships so we could go in and work with the students. They also co-produced the planning and developed ideas with us for the sessions.
Impact None at present, but this is because this is just beginning as a project.
Start Year 2024
 
Description DEFRA youth consultation 
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Members of the Tree of Hope Youth Research Group participated in a focus group for the evaluation of DEFRA's Tree Planting Programme, sharing insights specific to their experience as refugee-background young people. Members of the Tree of Hope Youth Research Group travelled with project investigators to the DEFRA offices in York to engage in dialogue with the Nature for Climate Tree Programme about supporting access and inclusion for refugee-background young people.
Collaborator Contribution DEFRA hosted a visit by project investigators and youth researchers where they shared their work and engaged in knowledge exchange with the youth team.
Impact Outputs are forthcoming
Start Year 2023
 
Description Lecturing staff at Bolton College 
Organisation Bolton College
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution N/A
Collaborator Contribution Members of staff at Bolton College contributed their time and expertise to help co-create a programme of teaching and learning activities
Impact Delivery of programme of activities which are providing the basis for co-authored reflections
Start Year 2022
 
Description Manchester Central Library 
Organisation Manchester City Council
Department Manchester Central Library
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We are collaborating with the library staff to organise educational activities for school children around trees and climate change. Children from nearby schools participate in these sessions as part of their library visit.
Collaborator Contribution We have organised a session on "The tree of hope" with Year 3 children in Gorton library on 8th December 2023.
Impact We are planning to do some more engagement activities about trees and climate change in Moss side library. We hope to reach home schooled children and their families through this collaboration. The planned activities will take place in June- July 2024. (Final dates to be confirmed)
Start Year 2023
 
Description Manchester City Council New Arrivals & Leaving Care teams 
Organisation Manchester City Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Through the 'Feeling our Way' section of the project, we have worked with MCC New Arrivals and Leaving Care teams to identify young people (who migrated as unaccompanied asylum seekers) to participate in the research and associated activities. This provides an important recreational activity for young people in the care of, or transitioning out of care with MCC. We have also spoken to these teams about the value of nature-engagement for young people from asylum seeking backgrounds. In 2023 we supported an MCC worker to nominate one of our youth leaders for awards granted by the local authority.
Collaborator Contribution Workers in the MCC Leaving Care and New Arrivals teams have identified, and contacted on our behalf, young people who are eligible and interested in participating in our project.
Impact This partnership has resulted in approximately 30 young people participating in our project. It also resulted in one of our youth leaders being awarded the Manchester City Council Self Belief award and the Lord Mayor's Award.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Partnership with Stockport Borough Council 
Organisation Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Sharing of research data and findings at Stockport Climate Action Now summit, November 2023.
Collaborator Contribution Access to, and permission for tree sampling at South Park, Cheadle Hulme in June/July 2023
Impact Presentation at Stockport Climate Action Now Summit, November 2023
Start Year 2023
 
Description Tree Council Consultancy 
Organisation The Tree Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Khawla Badwan is appointed a consultant for the Tree Council's impact work to assess their school engagement programme Khawla Badwan is also named as a consultant for a new bid for the Tree Council to extend the impact consultancy work to their new scheme on carbon capture at schools
Collaborator Contribution Knowledge Exchange on different ways to engage schools in educational programmes around trees and treescapes in relation to children's voices.
Impact Consultancy impact report to be produced.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Tree planting in a school in Bolton with Manchester City of Trees 
Organisation City of Trees
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The project team introduced City of Trees Manchester to the tree planting opportunity at Blackrod School in Bolton. The school engaged with this activity by offering a number of opportunities to co-design and develop woodlands in the school grounds. As a result of the partnership, 900 trees were planted on site. As a result of this, children made videos and created fieldnotes about the work they did in tree planting.
Collaborator Contribution The City of Trees brought the trees to plan and showed the children how to plant trees. They developed a methodology by which all the children were engaged in planting trees. The children also recorded this as co-researchers.
Impact One of the children, Zoey Ashcroft, created a fieldnote of worms which she recorded and turned into a piece of writing for an online journal for Teachers and academics based in the US called Bank Street Occasional Papers. There are also ongoing presentations of the data that was collected by the children and articles and books are in progress.
Start Year 2023
 
Description 'The Story of the Manchester Poplar' CPD Workshop, Science & Industry Museum: 4 July 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 'The Story of the Manchester Poplar' CPD Workshop, Science & Industry Museum: 4 July 2022. External speakers included Alison Crook (Associate Curator, Science & Industry Museum) and Andrew Lickley (Science Museum Group Academy Programme Leader). The event was attended by teachers of Englsih from local secondary schools and members of the public.
The outcome of this event was a widening of network of contacts and development of interdisciplinary approaches to thinking about trees within the English curriculum.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description 20-20 access space exhibition 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Over 600 people visited this Visual Arts exhibition in Sheffield, which was open to the pubic for one week.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description BERA conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A conference session based around our Voices of the Future project, focusing on hope and the implications of our approach for environmental education at different levels of education.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bera.ac.uk/conference/bera-conference-2023
 
Description Blog post: Inclusive Climate Activism led by Young People 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact A blog post which summarises the key findings from our work with young people engaged in activism work, and highlights the key points for practice. It provides an introduction and link to the Young People Act resource. After engaging with the blog, we have distributed 250 copies of the resource nationally, and 24 downloads of it from our digital platform.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://treescapes-voices.mmu.ac.uk/blog/clare-rishbeth/inclusive-climate-activism-led-young-people
 
Description Celebration and sharing event at Clifton Park 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We organised a celebration and sharing event to mark the end of this phase of fieldwork, in a local park. Families who had participated in the research, together with other families and members of the public from the park attended the event. The art work created by the children during the fieldwork phase was displayed, and we had food and music. Staff from local authority were also there. We created a visual booklet summarising the fieldwork and key findings, which we distributed at the event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Central Bedfordshire Council presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Peter Kraftl presented an overview of the Voices of the Future project to Central Bedfordshire Council's Sustainability Network.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Children's rights to Participate in Research Activity (Church of England: School of Resurrection) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact This workshop was organised with children to explain their rights for being co-researchers in our project.
We introduced different activities that we were planning to do during our collaboration.
We also discussed code of practice for our collaborative partnership. This was done to explain to children about their rights of being co-researchers in a research project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Co- Designing our own woodland (Blackrod Primary School) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 91 Year 3/4 pupils, attended this activity at Blackrod Primary School centred around co-designing our own woodland, in December 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Communicate 2023 conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Peter Kraftl gave an invited presentation at the Communicate2023 conference in Manchester on 15th November. He was talking about the Voices of the Future project - part of the UKRI Future of UK Treescapes Programme - which is aiming to examine the dis/benefits of children and young people's experiences of and learning about treescapes. The conference is the UK's leading annual conference for environmental communicators running since 2004, bringing together a diverse group of delegates each year to develop their skills, share best practice and debate latest issues in science communication, nature conservation and engaging people with the natural world (https://www.bnhc.org.uk/communicate2023). The conference was attended by over 1,000 people in person and online, and included speakers from the BBC, local and national environmental charities, and Government Departments.

Peter presented in a session on translating evidence into action. He talked about three aspects of our work with children and young people: planting trees, measuring trees, and hoping with/for trees. He drew attention to the ways in which our transdisciplinary approach to co-researching with children means that the relationship between 'evidence' and 'action' is more complex and less linear - a constant and longer-term process of iteration that might lead to more hopeful ways of thinking about future treescapes and environmental futures. He also outlined the wider Programme plans for communication over the coming year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bnhc.org.uk/communicate-conference-expands-to-manchester-for-2023
 
Description Creative practice with trees at Forehill Primary School, Aberdeen 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Over 5 days from September - December 2022, Voices of the Future researchers (Elizabeth Curtis and Jo Vergunst) worked with Forehill Primary School, Aberdeen, to develop outdoor learning activities based in creative practice. Following a preparatory meeting in September, we worked with around 150 pupils from P3 to P6 (six classes in total), exploring collaborative methods in story-telling, art, history and craft to learn about trees and woods in the local area of the school. Pupils and teachers were enthusiastic and we will build on these experiences in our research with the School.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Creative writing workshop led by Ruth Awolola at Creative Writing Club, Whalley Range High School: 8 March 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact In this creative writing workshop led by Ruth Awolola, students developed new writing reflecting on trees and identity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Discussion with a Civil Servant from DEFRA Monitoring and Evaluation, Nature for Climate Tree Programme | Natural Environment, Trees and Landscapes Directorate 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We have initiated a series of discussions, begun at the UK Treescapes conference in September 2022, with a civil servant from DEFRA. He is interested in hearing the voices of young people particularly around Equality and Diversity of their monitoring strategy. In their own words (taken from an email d. 18.10.2022):
...'we are responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the programme and whilst many of the key objectives may relate to scientific outputs such as carbon sequestration and improved biodiversity, we also want to measure societal benefits and particularly around (lack of) access to more deprived demographic groups. I wonder whether your project / the children would consider providing some insight into some of the data we should be looking at to ensure we adequately consider that within our evaluation.
Following this, plans have been made to visit DEFRA in York in May and to be part of an online evaluation exercise in March/April and do a visit to a school in Manchester, also in May.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Discussion with a civil servant 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We spend one hour briefing a Civil Servant who is tasked with delivering the National Education Nature Park initiative.
We described the Voices of the Future project. We agreed to send the person a 2 page summary of the project to take this discussion forward.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-lead-the-way-in-climate-and-sustainability-education
 
Description Discussion with the DfE Education Park initative/RHS Bridgewater 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a discussion with the DfE Nature park team, North West, who are interested in our toolkits and our work. We agreed to continue to share resources and keep in touch.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Dwelling and Learning with Trees: Relational Methodologies for Researching with Children, Young People and Treescapes Workshop in European Educational Research Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This workshop was organised with colleagues (Elizabeth Curtis and Jo Vergunst) from the University of Aberdeen at the European Educational Research Association Annual Conference AERA (2023).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/28/contribution/57065
 
Description Engagement activity at Stretford Grammar - end of project celebration 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact ilm Projection Day at the Stretford Grammar School (29th January 2024)
Young people from our Film & Science clubs organised a display of their work on the 29th January in Stretford Grammar School. The event was attended by the head teachers, teachers, and parents of the young people. The Voices of future project team treated everyone with delicious food.
Our project artist (Steve Pool) projected videos and still footages on multiple screens. Classroom tables and walls were turned into screens to project the work of young people through a fascinating visual display. Some of pictures from the day:

Parents of the young people very much appreciated their work during afterschool clubs. We have received some impressive comments about the way the work was displayed and projected organically.
At the beginning of the event, Kate invited young people to think about the work that everyone in team including young people themselves and us (voices of the future research team) did as part of film and science clubs. Young people formed their own questions and interviewed themselves and their classmates as part of reflection/evaluation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Engagement with Manchester City of Trees and Mersey Forest to develop a treescape care manifesto by children 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 90 children took part in 2 manifesto building workshops to develop discussions around children's demands for physical and cultural changes to improve the quality and sustainability of treescapes in their local areas. Feedback informs the policy development around people, community and the environment for both Manchester City of Trees and Mersey Forest.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Ethics as producing potential new worlds: Laser scanning the future 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A talk presented by Prof Kate Phal and Dr Samyia Ambreen as part of "Grasping the nettle: Ethics in research with children, young people and families" at the Children and Childhood Research Group, Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Exhibition in a new building - event to celebrate the opening 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Poster presentation at launch of new Grosvenor East Building at Manchester Metropolitan University: 7 March 2023. The poster remained on display in the building for six months.
Primary audience: Special guests from the City of Manchester who were invited to attend the launch of the University's new Arts building on Oxford Road.
Secondary audience: The staff, students and visitors who will have seen the large text panel when using Grosvenor East and visiting Manchester Poetry Library
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Festival of the Mind 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact This was a contribution to a regional festival in Sheffield, which consisted of a two-hour presentation and discussion, and engaged with academics and the general public.
There were approximately 50 people in the audience at the festival, and the event was also projected online to an audience of approximately 300 viewers
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Informal meeting with the Town and Country Planning Association 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact As a result of this discussion we have been asked to present at the Sounding Board meeting of the Town and Country Planning Association in June.
The GIP Sounding Board meet online four times a year. It's a space for sharing updates between the members, and hearing about projects and policy in the sector from across the UK. We normally have around 15-25 people dialling in to the meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Interdisciplinary Panal Discussion on "Co-planting woodlands: Navigating Interdisciplinarity through Fieldnotes" UK Treescapes Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact An interdisciplinary discussion was organised to exemplify research methodologies of the project. The project including PI (Prof Kate Pahl), CoI(s) including Prof Peter Kraftl, Dr Simon Carr, Dr Johan Siebers and RA (Dr Samyia Ambreen) held a discussion with audience around interdisciplinary ways of thinking about the child and the tree.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.uktreescapes.org/events/future-treescapes-23/
 
Description Knowledge Exchange visit to a Primary school in collaboration with Mersey Forest 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact A knowledge exchange visit, in collaboration with Mersey Forest, to Holy Trinity Primary School in Liverpool in March 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Meeting with Kate Innes: Wednesday, 14 February 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The development of a programme of co-created activities to be held at Oldbury Wells School, Bridgnorth, Shropshire.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Meeting with Nancy Scheerhout (Head Gardener) and Hamza Rana (Senior Volunteering Officer), National Trust, Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester: Wednesday, 7 February 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Most significant outcome/impact: The building of a partnership which will enable us to take children and young people to Castlefield Viaduct and for the work on the 'Voices of the Future' project to inform the National Trust's future development of this key urban site. As part of this process, Hamza Rana will visit Manchester Metropolitan University to take part in a planning workshop in the summer of 2024.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Meeting with Paul Evans: Friday, 16 February 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The development of a programme of co-created activities to be held at Oldbury Wells School, Bridgnorth, Shropshire.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Meetings with Charles Nixon, Teacher of English, Stretford Grammar School: 14 & 22 November 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Meetings with Charles Nixon, Teacher of English, Stretford Grammar School: 14 & 22 November 2022
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Meetings with Ivan Wadeson, Executive Director, Manchester City of Literature, 16 February 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Following these meetings, Manchester City of Literature agreed to promote the work of 'Voices of the Future' and to explore potential international collaborations with other UNESCO cities of literature.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Meetings with Osman Riaz, Teacher of English Literature, Pendleton Sixth Form College, Salford: 18 October & 25 November 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact These two meetings with with Osman Riaz, Teacher of English Literature at Pendleton Sixth Form College were attended by Dr David Cooper and Dr Chris Hanley, and helped to advance curriculum development ideas.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Meetings with Sophie Walker & Krystie Norcliffe, English teachers, Whalley Range High School: 22 October 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact These meetings with Sophie Walker & Krystie Norcliffe, English teachers, Whalley Range High School were attended by Dr Chris Hanley and Dr David Cooper. They resulted in advanced curriculum development ideas & planned programme of activity
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description One day event for the whole cohort of Year 8 for a school in Manchester 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Voices of the Future' Curriculum Day at Urmston Grammar School, Manchester featuring a 'carousel' of workshops on poetry, storytelling, and the science of trees.A transformative event in which the pupils explored trees and their local treescapes from multiple perspectives. The event also formed part of an ongoing dialogue with Lucy Derby (Head of English) about place-based curriculum development
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Online Occasional Paper series editing 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was an Occasional Paper series hosted by the US based Bank Street website which is a practitioner website aimed at teachers across the globe. This was a research piece but had a global reach.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bankstreet.edu/research-publications-policy/occasional-paper-series/ops-50/
 
Description Online meeting with Simon Wicks: 19 January 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Primary audience: Simon Wicks, Deputy Editor of The Planner: the professional magazine of the Royal Town Planning Institute
Secondary audience: N/A
Most significant outcome/impact: The proposed writing of a series of articles for The Planner - to encourage town planners to think more creatively about place - which will feature our work on the 'Voices of the Future' project. Our work will also feed into a professional development training module that the Royal Town Planning Institute is developing in partnership with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Panel on Communicating tree science in troubling times for the UK Treescapes Conference in Cardiff (June 2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Nearly 30 people attended a panel delivered by Badwan, Carr, Kraftl and Rowntree on communicating tree science. The audience included a mix of academics, community forest representations and other third sector organisations. The panel sparked questions and discussions on the challenges associated with science communication.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Participation in 'Voices of the Future' project assembly at Stretford Grammar School, 8 November 2022. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Participation in 'Voices of the Future' project assembly to Year 8 syudents and teachers from multiple departments at Stretford Grammar School.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Plenary Keynote Panel presentation Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 3. Towards a methodology of place in ethnographic research with children
Abigail Hackett, Sheffield Hallam University and Anne Myrstad, University of Tromso.

This keynote plenary as part of a panel on innovative methodologies brought together examples of fieldwork approaches within Voices of the Future WP3.5 with Myrstad's research in Norway. In this paper we share some propositions that have arisen through our practice as childhood researchers foregrounding place.

We begin with the proposition to "listen to place" and describe how we have tried to start from this stance in our own research. We wonder, can researching with children and place offer us a way of attuning to different forms of place-knowledge, if we are willing to be open to such encounters? Secondly, we consider the importance of place and time within our research practices. We continue to experiment with how to situate small stories or moments within a long term relationship with a place, including that which cannot be literally perceived. We see this work as often requiring institutional and community memory that stretches before and beyond the life of the research project or the individual participants. Thirdly, our thinking requires a repositioning the role of data within research; spending long periods of time in and with place does not seem to equate with an aim to accumulate larger data sets. And data does not seem to be a bounded category that encompasses only visual and written materials collected from consenting participants within bounded periods of field visits. In this sense, our claims to know do not always seem to be undergirded by the heft and power of "data set".

We have for a number of years tried to refine and articulate our research practice, and what it means to do research in this way, and this paper brings together these reflections. Our aim is to join up the dots for those whose work attends to small stories, place and sensory engagement, serendipitous encounters and inspirations, and long term participant observation / ethnography with a commitment to activism, community and being present / being there. We offer our own experiences and reflections to try to articulate the implications of this for knowledge systems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Plenary Talk in Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference (RECE) Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A plenary talk was given based on the project work. It was titled as "Methodologies of Hope". The talk was delivered by PI (Prof Kate Pahl) and RA (Dr Samyia Ambreen).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://stummuac-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/55143702_ad_mmu_ac_uk/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourced...
 
Description Poster Exhibition on "Re-imagining Treescapes in collaboration with children and young people: interdisciplinarity in action" in UK Treescapes Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A poster exhibition was organised by PI (Prof Kate Pahl) and RA (Dr Samyia Ambreen) on different themes and work packages of the project. Through displaying A3 posters of different activities, we demonstrated ways of engaging children and young people in climate change educational activities including activities tree-planting, playing in forest school, tree-measuring, telling stories and dreaming of better futures.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.uktreescapes.org/events/future-treescapes-23/
 
Description Presentation and Discussion with National Trust/Woodland Trust Urban Forest Accelerator 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I was one of four guest speakers at the Urban Forest Accelerator Workshop (20th September 2023) hosted online by the National Trust. The talk was about how Voices of the Future have approached engagement with children and young people. The audience of 44 comprised representatives of local councils and authorities, charities and other organisations involved in planning or practice of urban tree planting, forestry industry bodies and representatives from DEFRA.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at IMISCOE conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Conference paper: Traversing the local and the global: Walking in UK treescapes with global youth, presented at the IMISCOE (International Migration Network) conference in Warsaw, Poland
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at International Association for Research in L1 Education (ARLE) Conference - Hopeful, vulnerable literacies: Disrupting monolingualism and empowering children 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a talk, pressented by Dr Samyia Ambreen, at the ARLE international research conference. This was hosted online, by the University of Nicosia (Cyprus) and attended by academics and policy makers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.ucy.ac.cy/arle2022/
 
Description Presentation at the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact I presented the first major scientific outcome of the project at the BES (14th December 2023) "Is the amount and distribution of above-ground biomass of trees within UK urban parks different from those located in woodlands?". This was a well attended session at the BES (ca. 150 attendees), with a number of discussions and follow-on questions subsequent to the presentation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at the Royal Geography Conference, London on 'Young People Act' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presented an overview of the findings and implications of the research on Young People's Activism.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://event.fourwaves.com/rgs-ibgac2023/pages
 
Description Presentation by young people to the Manchester Environmental Education Network (MEEN) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was an event hosted by the Manchester Environmental Education Network. The audience were professional practitioners, school children, Urban Town Planners and MPs as well as local government officials. The project team - which were two young people - presented on the Stretford Grammar School Film Club and Science club to an interested audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.meen.org.uk/directory/event-20231023FWPASKNN3H4Z
 
Description Presentation in BERA (British Educational Research Association) Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Imagining for Hopeful Futures through Story Telling
Based on our work with Year 3 primary school children, we talked about story telling and how does it help in re-imagining for hopeful futures.
This is an individual paper presentation in a joint symposium.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bera.ac.uk/conference/bera-conference-2023/programme
 
Description Presentation in BSA (British Sociological Association) Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Attending to children's inter-/intra-actions as they do trees
A paper was presented about our collaborative work Year 3 children in a local primary school.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/26101/ac2023_abstract_book_day3.pdf
 
Description Presentation in European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A paper titled "Woodland Methodologies: Diversifying Encounters with Children and more than Human World in a School Setting" was presented by RA (Dr Samyia Ambreen).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/28/contribution/55668
 
Description Presentation in European Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A paper titled "Linking literacies through stories of hope in a climate crisis" was presented in a symposium "Literary Research in Times of Crisis". This symposium was organised in collaboration from academics from Australia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/28/contribution/54937
 
Description Presentation to DEFRA 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a formal presentation organised by the UKTreescapes team to DEFRA which included the Tree of Hope Research group. Participants included the monitoring and evaluation team (York). Participants recorded a change in their understanding of young people's relationship to Treescapes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Public Event in Sheffield City Centre 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A 50 minute session at a public event in Sheffield City Centre, in September 2022, which included a 4 minute film
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Reading of 'The Most Mancunian of Trees' at public launch of North Country: An Anthology of Landscape & Nature, The Storey, Lancaster: 24 November 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The reading of 'The Most Mancunian of Trees' at public launch of North Country: An Anthology of Landscape & Nature, The Storey, Lancaster: 24 November 2022 widened awareness of our Voices of the Future Project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Research Away Talk "Voices of the Future: Re-imagining Treescapes with children & Young People" in Education and Social and Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A talk was given to colleagues at the University by PI (Prof Kate Pahl) and RA (Dr Samyia Ambreen) about the project. We exemplify our work and how it meets interdisciplinary research agenda of the institution.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Research introduction and ethics activity (Church of England: School of Resurrection) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact We introduced our project "Treescapes" to children in a classroom. We discussed our research plans and ethical protocols with approximately 35 children.
We read participant information sheets and consent forms with children and invited to take part in the project as co-researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Research overview 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A visual document prepared by Prof Abigail Hackett, which was given to the families participating in the research and to the Head of Children's Services. The intention is to present the findings to Children's Services team later in the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Researching in school: messy methodologies in co-production 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a talk by Dr Samyia Ambreen, presented at the Theory and Methodology Research Group, at the Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University in July 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Royal Academy of Engineering Digital and Physical Infrastructures Community of Interest 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Peter Kraftl has been invited to join the Royal Academy of Engineering's 'Digital and Physical Infrastructures' Community of Interest. Feeding into the work of the National Engineering Policy Committee, the new Community of Interest is described as "a platform to bring together an impressive cross sector group including Academy Fellows across industry and academia, partners from Professional Engineering Institutions and wider expertise from the built environment, data and AI, and infrastructure systems. Together this group will help the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) to bring expert insights to the challenges posed by connected digital and physical infrastructures" to national Government departments, local authorities, and industry.

Peter attended the launch of the Community of Practice at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London on 26th January. Building on several UKRI-funded projects on children and young people, and their experiences of and learning about environmental processes, resources and challenges, Peter advocated for policy influence in two areas.

Firstly, engaging children and young people in creating infrastructures that are inclusive for diverse children and young people. Importantly, the Community's Terms of Reference explicitly reference the inclusion of children, young people and other groups often marginalised in evidence and policy about infrastructures. Peter outlined priority areas within this: augmenting efforts to create child-friendly infrastructures, reflecting the needs of diverse children in terms of their rights, play, health, engagement with 'natural' environments, mobilities and education; advocating (and further improving) 'what works' in terms of children and young people's involvement in decision-making on infrastructures; ensuring children and young people, and their needs, are understood in relation to other generations - i.e. in intergenerational, future-proofed infrastructures.

Secondly, and more broadly (given the weighting of the Community's membership is necessarily towards engineers), the role of the social sciences, and arts & humanities, as part of interdisciplinary evidence for informing policy on digital and physical infrastructures. This could include: cutting-edge methods for public involvement/engagement with research/policy; approaches to visualising/communicating key message/examples of best practice; integration of qualitative and quantitative datasets from relevant domains - for example applied public health research; drawing in experts on behaviour change; and far more besides.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description School Assembly 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact This was a talk given by a member of the team about the different trees there were in the world to 90 Year 3 children in a Primary School in Old Trafford. The children were interested to understand about different trees and their names.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description School Assembly on Research ethics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Year 3 assembly on research ethics, children's voice and consent
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
 
Description School Visit - Assembly at Blackrod Primary School to introduce our project to the staff and students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact School Visit - Assembly at Blackrod Primary School to introduce our project to the staff and students
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description School Visit: Seymour Park Primary School Manchester: Going Underground 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact School visit to Seymour Park Primary School to run activities with Year 5 children about understanding how much of a tree is underground. Led by Khawla Badwan, Simon Carr, Peter Kraftl (project CoI's). Focus of the activity was particularly on identifying how much the roots of a tree comprise, and how they are important for the health and longevity of the tree.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description School Visit: Seymour Park Primary School, Manchester, July 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact School visit on 14th July to Seymour Park Primary School, Manchester to talk about trees and carbon. Activities led by Khawla Badwan, Simon Carr, Peter Lawrence, Jennifer Rowntree.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description School Visit: Stretford Grammar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact School assembly with all of Year 8 in one of the most socially and ethnically-diverse secondary schools in the UK. Key members of the project team (PI: Kate Pahl, Co-I's Simon Carr, David Cooper, Christopher Hanley, project PDRA Samiya Ambreen and project partner (Katie Jones, City of Trees) introduced the project to explore opportunities to partner with the school in delivering the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description School visits (Woodside Primary School, Aberdeen) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Around 100 P4 and P5 pupils at Woodside Primary School were supported by Voices of the Future researchers in learning about trees and preparing for a new 'Wee Forest' to be grown in their school field. Over four days in March 2022, researchers Ed Schofield, Elizabeth Curtis and Jo Vergunst:
- introduced children to soil testing techniques including composition, pH, colour and depth.
- engaged with them in tree monitoring on a recently planted hedge
- introduced tree rings and dendrochronology
- brought in University of Aberdeen microscopes to their school and enabled the children to view, record and learn about seeds and pollen.
School teachers reported positive outcomes from pupils in terms of attitudes to science and future jobs as a scientist, as well as their skills in scientific measuring and use of equipment.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Series of 3 Workshops at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact This was a series of 3 workshops run by Dr Clare Rishbeth and Mr Steve Pool, at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground in August 2022. The workshops involved around 30 children, as well as members of the local community and MA students.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Series of meetings with Lucy Derby, Head of English, Urmston Grammar School: 19 October 2022; 7 December 2022; 20 February 2023; 6 March 2023. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact This series of meetings established a relationship with Urmston Grammar School, advanced curriculum development ideas & planned programme of activity for 'Voices of the Future: English Curriculum Day'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Series of meetings with Marion Farnworth (Early Years Lecturer) and Suzanne Toole (Science Lecturer), Bolton College: 23 November 2022; 20 December 2022; 7 February 2023. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact A series of meetings with Marion Farnworth (Early Years Lecturer) and Suzanne Toole (Science Lecturer) at Bolton College, led by Dr Chris Hanley and Dr David Cooper led to an advance in curriculum development ideas and planning of programme of activity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2022,2023
 
Description Series of online meetings with Liz Roberts from Oldbury Well School, 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Most significant outcome/impact: Initial meeting with Liz Roberts (Deputy Head of English) to discuss a possible collaboration building on our previous work with secondary schools in Manchester. Liz became aware of 'Voices of the Future' through the Chartered College of Teaching
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Series of planning & reflection meetings with Marion Farnworth, Early Years Lecturer, Bolton College: 21 March 2023; 13 June 2023; 26 June 2023; and 22 November 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Primary audience: Staff in Department of Early Years at FE college in Greater Manchester
Secondary audience: Students at Bolton College
Most significant outcome/impact: Advanced curriculum development ideas, planned programmes of activity, and critically reflected on that activity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Talk at the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, Durham. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact This was a talk about the 'Voices of the Future' project with a focus on Co-production.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/sociology/events/csjca-connecting-communities-for-a-su...
 
Description Talk to Creative Writing Club, Whalley Range High School: 9 March 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact After this talk to 15 year 7-11 students, the students agreed to become participants on the 'Voices of the Future' project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Talk to Early Years students at Bolton College 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Following this talk to early year students at Bolton College, students agreed to become participants in the 'Voices of the Future' project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Talking head video on Voices of the Future 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 'Talking-Head' video recorded by Treescapes Programme team at Treescapes Conference, London, September 2022 to summarise the Voices of the Future project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLu8JsHub24&list=PLWmemRXt2xL0U80Kx28H-u9cvkwPgnCK9&index=7
 
Description Thinking about future & Listening to Hopeful Stories (Blackrod Primary School) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 91 children and 5 teachers attended this activity at Blackrod Primary School. The activities focused on thinking about future & listening to hopeful stories.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Tree of Hope Youth Research Group tree planting at Longford Park 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Working with Manchester City of Trees, Trafford Council and Beechfield Industries, the Tree of Hope Youth Research Group planted four trees as a legacy of the project. A member of Trafford Council joined us for the event and Manchester City of Trees issued a press release. During the event, there was also dialogue with attendees about the importance of engaging refugee-background young people in caring for treescapes, and particularly learning from their knowledge and experience.
We are now working with Trafford Council and Friends of Longford Park to install a park bench with a plaque to promote the project and encourage associated practices.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Tree planting, monitoring and a field trip with Woodside Primary School, Aberdeen 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Around 100 P2, P5 and P7 pupils at Woodside Primary School, Aberdeen, were supported by Voices of the Future researchers (Elizabeth Curtis, Ed Schofield and Jo Vergunst) in planting and monitoring a new 'Wee Forest', building on previous engagement work carried out with the school. This included working with the Aberdeen City Council Ranger Service. The researchers engaged with the children to plant the trees on 16 March. On 4 May we developed activities around pollen analysis involving identification of pollen grains from images and maths work. On 21 June we took a group of 30 P7 pupils to the forest and hill of Bennachie in Aberdeenshire to look at historic and current uses of trees and forests. On 28 September we worked with the children to identify, measure and record the growth of a sample of trees in the Wee Forest. Teachers reported very good levels of engagement from the pupils which we will develop in future activities with Woodside School.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Trees and Us Activity (Blackrod Primary School) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 91 children in Years 3/4 and 5 class teachers at Blackrod Primary School attended for an activity entitled "Trees and Us" on 11th October 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Treescapes Creative Writing workshop at Bolton College led by poet and performer, Ruth Awolola: 27 March 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Most significant outcome/impact: Development of original creative writing - focusing on trees and treescapes - by students who lack confidence as a result of failing their English GCSE in the previous academic year. Crucially, the students reported that they drew upon the ideas explored during the workshop when resitting their English GCSE in May 2023. More particularly, the workshop helped the students to construct an argument - a task set on the English Language Paper 2 - about the use of public transport versus private cars. In addition, Awolola's workshop gave one of the students (who struggles with anxiety) sufficient confidence to perform their promising creative writing at a local open mic event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Treescapes field trip with Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact On December 6 2022 Voices of the Future researchers (Jo Vergunst and consultant Colin Shepherd) organised a field trip for Countryside Management students from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), visiting Wantonwells Farm in Aberdeenshire. Students had the opportunity to view an example of an integrated 'treescape' and farming business in which growing trees for timber, nature conservation and livestock farming worked together in the landscape. The business owners had the chance to discuss their practices with the students and researchers. This will form the basis for research work with the students and the farm in the coming months.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Treescapes: voices of the future (Poster Presentation) presented at The SES Midsummer Sustainability Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a poster presentation, presented by Dr Samyia Ambreen, at the SES Midsummer Sustainability Festival. This festival was hosted in the Business School at Manchester Metropolitan University on 17th June 2022, and was attended by a range of audiences including community members, policy makers and undergraduate students.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.manchesterfoe.org.uk/events/event/action-for-sustainability-a-student-community-staff-mi...
 
Description UK Treescapes conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact This was a national conference, hosted by the UK Treescapes programme. Our team attended together with two refugee-background young people. They gave a talk and we also gave a talk about the project. We held a stall about our project and we were able to talk to stakeholders at lunchtime, including people from DEFRA, the National Forest, the Tree council, Trees for Cities and the Black Engagement Network.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Video for CO26 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a talk recorded by the UKTreescapes team for Cop 2026. It was recorded and sent out and also placed on a number of websites.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OmwK35PqEI
 
Description Video made for the Engage conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a video made about co-production for the ENGAGE 2021 conference in December 2021, by Professor Kate Pahl.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/engage-2021
 
Description Video produced for COP 26 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact This was a video made by Professor Kate Pahl and Dr Simon Carr about the Voices of the Future project, which was hosted by the UKIR's Cop 26 channel and subseqently placed on the UK Treescapes project page .
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.uktreescapes.org/projects/voices-of-the-future/
 
Description Visit to Bolton College: 13 June 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Most significant outcome/impact: Visit to Bolton College to discuss woodwork (planters, bird tables etc) that had been made by Carpentry and Joinery students as part of Marion Farnworth's efforts to 'green the college campus': an initiative that was inspired by her participation in the 'Voices of the Future' project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Visit to Seymour Grove Allotments 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A team of youth researchers visited community orchard and apiary teams at Seymour Grove Allotment to engage in dialogue about different knowledge and practices. Discussions held re opportunities for further engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Visit to project from Manchester City of Trees 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Visit to project by a member of the Manchester City of Trees team to learn about youth research, followed by discussion of future collaboration opportunities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Voices of the Future: English Curriculum Day 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 'Voices of the Future: English Curriculum Day' engaged with year 7 students and the teachers in the English Department of a local school.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Voices of the future: Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes - presentation at UK-Consortium on Sustainability Research Symposium on Climate change 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A talk presented By Prof Kate Pahl and Dr Samyia Ambreen, at the UK-Consortium on Sustainability Research Symposium on Climate change: the contribution of UK universities to addressing climate change from a sustainability perspective.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description What can we learn about climate activism led by young people 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A blog post from the Department of Landscape Architecture which summarises the key findings from our work with young people engaged in activism work, and highlights the key points for practice. It provides an introduction and link to the Young People Act resource. After engaging with the blog, we have distributed 250 copies of the resource nationally, and 24 downloads of it from our digital platform.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/landscape/news/what-can-we-learn-inclusive-climate-activism-led-young-pe...
 
Description Workshops at Pitsmoor adventure playground 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A series of 8 visual arts and music workshops at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, engaging young people, families and playground users.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description seminar at Tampere University Finland 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Invited seminar sharing approaches and emerging findings from Voices of the Future. Particular emphasis on methodologies for participatory and coproduced research with young children.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description seminar at University of Helsinki Finland 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Invited seminar to University of Helsinki academics and PGR students, with a focus on interdisciplinary working and methodologies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description toolkit development day 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a workshop aimed at members of the stakeholder advisory group, including Mersey Forest and Manchester City of Trees, together with teacher trainers and practitioners, to develop toolkits for the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023