Schoolchildren in Basingstoke have been invited to take part in a nationwide history project looking at how we lived 100 years ago and what our lives might be like in 2110.
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey created the curriculum-based project for key stage two pupils, with schools in Basingstoke and Deane being invited to take part.
The project, Changing Lives, Changing Communities, was launched last week with 1,000 pupils aged seven to 11, including 173 from the south east, being asked to think what their homes might look like in a century’s time.
Over a third of kids were optimistic about the future, believing that robots would carry out most household tasks and that people would wear clothes that wouldn’t need to be washed.
Many believed that the growth of the world’s population would mean that humans would have to find elsewhere to live, including on man-made islands, underground bases and space stations orbiting the earth .
The project has been tested in select primary schools nationwide where teachers have used its resources for a variety of lessons, including trips to a Victorian street and assignments where children invent their own gadgets.
Debbie Reavell, secretary of Basingstoke Heritage Society, believes schools would benefit from taking up the project.
“There’s so much you can learn just from walking around Basingstoke, especially around South View, where many of the houses are from the 1870s and 1880s, and the Fairfields area,” she said.
“It’s fun for children to guess how old the houses are and whether the original owners had servants, for example.
“The area also has a lot of horse stables that have been converted into outhouses and garages, taking you back to the days when people living here travelled by horse and cart.
“There’s so much to see and the society would be happy to help schools make it happen.”
The Changing Lives, Changing Communities project material can be downloaded from www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/ schools.
