Woking High School Podcasts
About the project

On Wednesday 12 March, Tutor Group 7E from Woking High School interviewed people at The Lightbox to find out how they came to live or work in Woking. The project was part of their Citizenship lessons.  

The interviews were conducted with fellow pupils, visitors to The Lightbox and Chris Ingram, local businessman, owner of Woking Football Club and The Ingram Collection at The Lightbox. Whilst some pupils used hand-held microphones to ask questions, others took photographs to record the event.

In preparation for the day, the students researched their own family’s links to Woking. They were asked to think how they feel about living in Woking, what they know about the town’s past and how they see their future there. A morning was spent in Woking’s Story listening to other people’s recorded experiences of life in the town.

To help trace their family links, the pupils used maps of the world and of the United Kingdom, set up on boards in the foyer of The Lightbox. They put pins into the maps to show where their families came from and asked visitors to do the same. Links were made to every corner of the globe and all over the UK. They included India, Pakistan, Australia, America, Germany, Poland and Italy.

In their interview with Chris Ingram, the pupils asked him about the art collection that he has put on loan to The Lightbox and how he became involved with Woking Football Club.

In the Main Gallery, pupils toured an exhibition of artwork from The Ingram Collection, '2D-3D: Discover the Art of Sculpture.' Based on their gallery tours, they were asked to design a display case for their own art exhibition. Other tasks in the Education Studio involved drawing each other as teams and drawing self portraits. A temporary display was made of these artworks.

The activities were supervised by Theresa Ricketts, 7E’s Form Tutor, Rib Davis, The Lightbox’s Oral Historian and Abigail Hall, Education Officer at The Lightbox.

"We really enjoyed the day and learnt a lot," said 7E pupil Sanah Mahnood afterwards. "We never realised that Woking had so much interesting history."

"And by interviewing and talking to other people in the community, we found out different insights on what Woking means to others beside ourselves."

The podcast project was a collaboration between Woking High School and The Lightbox. It was funded by Museums Libraries and Archives South East.

For more information about learning at The Lightbox please call Lynn Yeo, Education Manager on 01483 737815 or email lynn.yeo@thelightbox.org.uk.