The annual Roots & Wings Awards are the UK’s most widely-recognised and prestigious Awards for hands-on involvement in heritage projects. This year’s Awards will be celebrated in a ceremony held in central London tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday 20 June. The five winning schemes will include children and young people aged between 7 and 16 who will receive their Awards from TV presenter, Loyd Grossman.

The Awards, run by Curiosity & Imagination (itself run by the children’s charity 4Children), were funded this year by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Emphasising the importance of the Awards, Anne Longfield, Chief Executive of 4Children, says: "Learning about heritage plays a vital role in helping children to make sense of the world around them. Creatively encouraging children to interact with and examine their local heritage helps them develop a strong sense of identity and deepens their connection with their communities and the wider world. By discovering their ‘roots’, children can gain the understanding and confidence to develop ‘wings’ that allow them to imagine and actively participate in shaping the future.”

Television presenter, Loyd Grossman, will host the Awards established four years’ ago: “Discovering and learning about their heritage can be a source of great delight and fascination for young people. In finding out about their own connection to past events, people and societies, the Roots and Wings winners have been involved in an important search for their past and their community. Again this year, we’ve seen some outstanding work and I can¹t help but admire and congratulate them all.”

Entries have been judged by a diverse panel of representatives from Government, national newspapers, funders and heritage organisations.

The awards ceremony will take place from 3.30 pm in The Harben Suite, 28 Portland Place, London W1. A short film of the winning projects will be shown.

THE WINNERS

• Eventus: A group of 10-15 year olds living in Beighton, Sheffield
“Our Beighton” creatively combines old photos and oral histories with digital animations along the lines of Nick Park’s ‘Creature Comforts’. See: www.ourbeighton.org.uk

• 10-11 year olds from St Newlyn East Primary School, nr. Newquay, Cornwall
“Tasting the Tudors” shows how a Tudor garden might have looked. It’s an experimental productive garden created within the National Trust’s Elizabethan manor house at Trerice, Cornwall.

• 16-year-old Simon Frogley, Andover, Hampshire
“Wild In Britain” is a one-man mission to help children understand the problems facing British wildlife today, to explore the world around them and discover ways to help their natural heritage. He has set up a web site, run ‘Wild Hour’ workshops and organised beach clean ups as well as other events. See: www.wildinbritain.co.uk

• Salford Lads’ and Girls’ Club, Salford, Lancashire
“The Ghost Camp” explores the effect the Second World War had on the child members of a club with a 100-year history. Children took part in a range of activities including drama workshops and filming. They also wrote and performed a radio play which was broadcast on Salford Community Radio. See: www.salfordladsclub.org.uk

• 7-11 year olds in Portsmouth, Hampshire
“Stitch in Time” is a project that gave children an opportunity to interpret the Overlord Embroidery at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth. The embroidery is 83 metres long and was commissioned as a modern-day Bayeux Tapestry. Children improvised and filmed short dramatic sketches, recreating the back-stories to some of the scenes commemorated on the embroidery. Photos taken from these workshops were used as patterns for the children’s collage and needlework. See: www.ddaymuseum.co.uk


FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gavin Jones, Senior Press Officer on 020 7522 6925 or gavin.jones@4Children.org

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