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On Wednesday 20th February, the project team held the first creative workshops with Balfron Primary and Balfron High School. We would like to thank the pupils and teachers from both schools who participated in the workshops, in particular the P6/5 class at Balfron Primary School, their teacher Tracey Brown, and local resident Louise Craig; and the students across the years at Balfron High School along with geography teacher, Bec Youens, all of whom made it a very enjoyable day!

The workshops involved using a series of creative tools which included a large vinyl floormap of the village; Postcards From The Future- where pupils are asked to write back to themselves from 10 years in the future- detailing how the area has changed or what their aspirations for the village would be; and a hand-drawn bespoke map of Balfron to which pupils could add their own comments, observations and drawings.

Using these tools, the pupils were asked to think about a range of things including: their route to school, points on the route that felt safe/unsafe, how people travel in the village- on foot, by car, on a bike / scooter, and wheelchair users. The age range across the workshops was a great dynamic, with all the pupils providing insightful comments and reminding everyone how to draw on our imagination!

It was a real pleasure to meet and work with the teachers and all the young people representing their schools. The WAVEparticle team was really impressed by the pupils’ insight, imagination and engagement, and by how much they could tell them about Balfron!

The Primary School workshop looking at the floor map and marking on places with red dots which they thought "could be improved"; places with white dots which had a "personal story attached"; and places with gold stars which were "places they loved!"

The High School workshop completing their 'Postcards from the Future'........

The High School workshop looking at the hand-drawn bespoke map of Balfron and adding their own comments, observations and drawings.

Welcome to the new website for the Balfron: Active Places project.

We are very keen to get the project started and it will be driven by the information and comments which you provide, therefore please get involved and have your say on the website, so we can understand the issues the community encounters in relation to walking, cycling and wheeling around the village.