Children & young people wonder and a-MAZE in Nottingham

Students at Nottingham University Samworth Academy created a giant maze-like structure that fashioned itself on a curious hybrid of fairground ride, carnival sideshow and art installation earlier this summer.

The Billborough based school worked with The Mighty Creatives on their Creative Partnerships project to make this quirky new temporary ‘learning environment’ which was designed to harness the curiosity and wonder of its pupils to boost their literacy levels.


The giant structure is 16ft wide and 32ft long and is constructed with more than 40 wooden panels each adorned with a fabulous array of the weird and wonderful covering the broad spectrum of the curriculum. However, instead of being divided up by strict subject areas, each panel features a display on a broad topic area such as communication, which looks at the use of heraldry through history, secret codes, the shorthand alphabet, hieroglyphics and early languages such as Hebrew.

Here are some photos from this inspiring project:

Inside, the maze was divided into a number of intriguing areas including the Realm of Science, the multi-mirrored Infinity Room and the Transformation Suite in which pupils needed to use a UV light lamp to reveal hidden words painted on to the walls.

A Wishing Tree offered pupils time for reflection by putting pen to paper to write down their wish and tie it to a giant tree, while a life size rendering of a lion offered budding artists the ultimate model and the chance to learn about form and perspective.

In the spirit of all good attractions, there was even a gift shop at the exit — pupils could build up credits for the shop by posting questions, contributions and suggestions into a box on the outside of the maze which were exchanged for items from the shop, such as small puzzles and literacy-based activity sheets.