School children from East London are celebrating their success after winning Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes with their ideas for a public space on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

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

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

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Andrew Altman, Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said: “These young people are the generation that will benefit the most from the changes to this part of East London. Their enthusiasm was infectious and we were really impressed with their ideas to create an inspiring place that people will want to visit.”

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

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

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

(CD)