Programme

Young Makers in the Docks

Six sessions in Newham for Years 4 to 6 and their families: a Saturday at UEL Docklands, four Thursdays after school at Gallions Primary, and a Saturday showcase back at UEL.

26 Sep – 24 Oct

the programme

2026. Two Saturdays and four Thursdays.

sessions

Two family sessions of two hours, four after-school hours.

venues

UEL Docklands, and Gallions Primary School in Newham.

children at the club

Years 4 to 6. The two Saturdays at UEL take more.

facilitators

iOi staff, DBS checked. UEL students volunteer alongside them, never alone with children.

200

people promised

At least 100 children and as many parents and carers, all Royal Docks residents.

The paid club

Our four sessions sit inside the school’s 13-session paid club. A decision is needed.

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In pictures

The whole programme as one scroll: the six days, who is who, and the gate in front of the free part.

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Flyer copy

The one flyer Gallions asked for, and three single-session versions for later.

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Style guide

The palette, type and grid of the proposal deck, checked against the design system.

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The sources

Seven documents from the inbox, converted to markdown.

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The shape of it
The reach we are committed to
Stakeholders
The four pathways
The budget
Where the sources disagree
What this record still needs
Questions for you, answer here

The shape of it

Tue 1 Sep One flyer, with all the information, to GallionsBisi asked for a single flyer she can share with parents and carers, by the morning. The board splits it into three and dates the first the 2nd.
Fri 4 Sep Flyers for the workshops and the show and tellTraining objectives agreed with UEL. Evaluation planned.
Fri 11 Sep Materials list, and materials boughtThe co-design tasters only. The club’s own materials cannot be known yet.
Sat 26 Sep Co-design session · UEL DocklandsTwo hours, 12:00 to 14:00, offered to Bisi and not yet answered. Children with a parent or carer. Three short makes, and what the children take to tells us which track to run.
Sun 27 – Wed 30 Sep Five days to buy for the track we pickThe co-design on the Saturday is what we pick it from. The club starts on the Thursday.
Thu 1 Oct Workshop 1 · Gallions Primary15:25 to 16:25, the slot Bisi proposed.
Thu 8 Oct Workshop 2 · Gallions Primary15:25 to 16:25.
Thu 15 Oct Workshop 3 · Gallions Primary15:25 to 16:25. Build starts.
Thu 22 Oct Workshop 4 · Gallions Primary15:25 to 16:25. Build finishes.
Sat 24 Oct Show and tell · UEL DocklandsTwo hours. Exhibition and a panel. Not on the ground floor: UEL has another event there.
Mon 26 – Fri 30 Oct Newham half termThe showcase sits on the Saturday before it.
Fri 30 Oct Hugo Burge Foundation decision expectedIf it lands, four more sessions and a December showcase, 5 or 12 December.

Materials are delivered in bulk to Gallions and stored there. That assumption is what pays for the reduced travel and courier line.

The reach we are committed to

These are the numbers the funding was asked for on. The left column is what the application promised Royal Docks Trust. The middle is what the programme as booked actually reaches.

Promised to Royal Docks Trust	The booked programme	What it turns on
200 people in all		Falls out of the four rows below, once the two Saturdays have a capacity
At least 100 children		The club is 16. The rest has to come from the two Saturdays at UEL
A similar number of parents and carers		Both Saturdays are family sessions, so adults come with children
40 children and 40 adults at the co-design		Whether the co-design is open to the year group or only to the 16 club families
20 to 40 children per after-school session	16	Short of the floor by 4. 16 is what the school and our own planning both say
At least 40 at the celebration		UEL capacity for 24 October, which is off the ground floor and not yet booked
100 Imagination Boxes home with families	0	Cut from the budget. Still promised on two slides of the deck that goes to schools
All 200 Royal Docks area residents		Whether Gallions’ catchment counts as the Royal Docks area for the funder

How the impact gets evidenced

Creativity

measure

A children’s version of the Harvard Divergent Association Task, run as a baseline and again at the end.

The eight competencies

measure

Ken Robinson’s frame: collaboration, composure, citizenship, compassion, communication, creativity, criticism, curiosity.

Attendance

measure

Session by session. It is also the only measure that tells us early whether the reach numbers are going to land.

Voice

measure

Surveys and interviews with children and with parents, baseline and follow-up. Net promoter scores. Career aspirations.

Every one of these needs a baseline, and the first session families attend is the co-design on 26 September. The evaluation plan is dated 4 September and is not yet written.

Stakeholders

funder
venue and partner
delivery school
delivery
introduced it

Royal Docks Trust

funder

Main Programme Funding 2026/2027. The programme is free to the school and to families.

What is agreed

Applied 30 March 2026 · £20,436 requested, no match funding.
The budget now stands at £15,000 · the reduction is recorded line by line, but not who required it, and no source ties the award to either column.
Beneficiaries promised · 200 people, at least 100 children and a similar number of parents and carers, all Royal Docks residents.

ContactJohn

Awardconfirmed

Amount

University of East London

venue and partner

Docklands Campus hosts both Saturdays and supplies MSc student volunteers.

What they give, what they need

Space, assumed free · the budget says so in writing. If it is not free, venue hire has to be added.
The Maker Space · 3D printers and laser cutters named as kit the children could reach.
MSc students as volunteers · near-peer role models, recruited locally. No DBS: they are always beside a DBS-checked iOi facilitator and never alone with children.
The RDCS booking form · UEL needs it returned to log the booking and capture what each session needs. Not returned yet.
They want more than a venue role · Kiran has asked for longer-term collaboration, research and openings for UEL staff, students and community. Nothing concrete agreed.

BookingsJameelah

AcademicKiran, and Graham who introduced it

Gallions Primary School

delivery school

Newham. The four after-school workshops, and the storage for the materials.

What is agreed

Dates confirmed · four weekly Thursdays, 15:25 to 16:25.
460 pupils · academy converter, with resourced provision for autistic children.
Storage on site · materials go in bulk and stay there between sessions.
Owed the full plan · promised at the beginning of September, with the three flyers.

ContactBisi

Children16, Years 4 to 6

Institute of Imagination

delivery

Designs and runs every session, and designs the training for the UEL students.

What we carry

The risk assessments · ours, for both venues.
DBS-checked facilitators · two at the after-school club, with student volunteers alongside.
The student training · objectives and placement still to agree with UEL.
An introduction owed · we said we would connect UEL to the other Newham schools we work with, so something outlasts these six sessions.

ProgrammeLiber

PartnersMuireann

Newham Council

introduced it

Circulated the offer to schools near UEL Docklands, which is how Gallions came in.

Stratford Library

ContactSelena

Rolebroker, not delivery

Hugo Burge Foundation

funder not secured

An extension, if it lands: four more sessions and a showcase in December.

applied 31 July 2026

Decision by30 October

Odds last year1.07%

The four pathways

We choose the track, informed by what the families do. The co-design session on 26 September runs three short makes as a test ground, and what the children engage with is the input. The decision is ours, and it is made after the Saturday. Nobody outside iOi knows the tracks exist, so nothing a family reads offers a menu, and none of it uses the word track. All four tracks end the same way, with an exhibition and a panel at the show and tell.

Cardboard Lab

pathway

Techniques, then forms, then build.

The four sessions

Taster · build a cube from cardboard and plastic screws.
Session 1 · cardboard techniques: connections, and decorative.
Session 2 · 3D shapes: cube, pyramid, cylinder, cone, sphere, geodesic dome.
Sessions 3 and 4 · design and build. A 3D structure.

Carry-forwardstrong

Best forlow cost, easiest to run, widest ages

Motion Lab

pathway

Parts, then power, then build.

The four sessions

Taster · a marble run, or a matchbox automaton.
Session 1 · moving parts: simple machines and mechanisms, force helpers and motion converters.
Session 2 · what makes it go: rubber bands, inclined planes, sand, your hand.
Sessions 3 and 4 · design and build. A marble run, an automaton or a pinball machine.

Carry-forwardstrong

Best forbroad appeal, hands-on throughout

Drawing Robots Lab

pathway

More control each week, then build.

The four sessions

Taster · a scribble bot.
Session 1 · Cubetto.
Session 2 · Kitronik Simple Robotics Kit for the BBC micro:bit, or the nearest kit we hold.
Sessions 3 and 4 · design and build. Robot art.

Carry-forwardlight, fresh kit each week

Best forcoding focus, visible results on paper

Robot Lab

pathway

Upgrade the machine each week, then build.

The four sessions

Taster · an elastic band car.
Session 1 · make it roll, give it an engine.
Session 2 · give it a brain.
Sessions 3 and 4 · design and build. A robot vehicle, or a walking robot.

Carry-forwardstrong, one machine throughout

Best fora clear story, lively showcase

Two of the four labs run on kit, and kit is not bought. iOi owns its tools and they are within budget, so the question on the drawing robots and the robots is whether we hold enough Cubetto, Ozobots or Kitronik micro:bit kits for 16 children, not what £834 can buy. The materials line is consumables, for the whole programme, and cardboard is the board’s own “low cost” option. The board’s hedge “or whatever we have that’s similar” is the only place any source says what we hold.

The pedagogy is Ken Robinson’s eight core competencies, and the measure of creativity is a children’s version of the Harvard Divergent Association Task, run as a baseline and a follow-up.

The budget

Applied for, and what the programme now runs on

Line	Applied for	Budget	What changed
Salaries	8,500	7,089	Six school sessions became four
Employer’s NI	1,220	1,017	Follows the salaries
Pensions	210	175	Follows the salaries
Staff, sub total	9,930	8,282
Materials, building and making	1,000	834	Six school sessions became four
Imagination Boxes × 100	1,500		Cut. No free takeaway pack for families
Travel and courier	420	350	Delivered in bulk and stored at the school
Volunteer travel and subsistence	420	300	Activities simplified, so fewer volunteers
Marketing	2,500	1,343	Promoted through the school instead
Monitoring and evaluation	2,000	1,668	Six school sessions became four
Admin and overheads 15%	2,666	2,223	Follows the total
Running, sub total	10,506	6,718
Total	20,436	15,000

Every line marked as a session cut is the original × 0.834. Four sixths would be 0.667. 0.834 is the factor that lands the total on exactly £15,000, so the reduced budget is a target distributed backwards, not a costing. The £834 materials line was never priced against a pathway.

The budget assumes UEL gives the space free. It says so in writing. If that turns out not to be true, venue hire has to come from somewhere, and there is no match funding.

Where the sources disagree

Six sessions, or four. The budget cuts every line “from 6 to 4 sessions”, while the programme now booked has six events: four at the school and two at UEL. Whether the offer’s “six-session programme” ever meant six school sessions is not settled in any source.
The Imagination Boxes. The deck sent to schools promises every family takes one home, and the application budgets £1,500 for a hundred. The reduced budget removes the line entirely. The deck is out of date against the money.
How many children. The application expects 40 children and 40 adults at the co-design, 20 to 40 children per after-school session and 200 people in all. The planning board and Liber’s own email say 16 children at the club. Both figures sit on the board together.
How long the UEL Saturdays run. The board says one hour, 12:00 to 13:00. The email to Gallions the same day says two hours, 12:00 to 14:00, and it is the later of the two, so the flyer carries two hours and the board is what needs correcting.
When the co-design happens. The application places it in the summer holiday, and rests its accessibility answer on that. It is booked for a Saturday in term time.
What the tasters actually are. The board’s co-design row lists a cardboard cube, a marble run, a scribble bot and an elastic band car. The deck sent to schools says the tasters are “coding LEGO vehicles and junk modelling”, neither of which appears on the board.
The showcase and half term. The application and the deck both put the celebration in October half term. The booked date, Saturday 24 October, is the Saturday before half term starts.

What this record still needs

Which three makes go on the table. Three is settled and four tracks are designed, so one lab has no make at the co-design.
How the club’s materials get bought in five days. The board dates the materials list and the purchase 11 September, a fortnight before the co-design that the track is chosen from. The 11 September buy can only cover the tasters. Whatever the club needs has to be found between the Saturday and the Thursday.
Where the other 84 children come from. The application promises at least 100 and the club holds 16. Only the two Saturdays can close that, and neither room is booked.
The figure the award was made at, and its conditions, including whether the Trust must be credited. The award itself is confirmed; every source predates it and holds the application rather than the outcome.
The UEL rooms. No room, floor or capacity for either Saturday, and the RDCS booking form is not returned. All that is known is that the showcase is off the ground floor.
The UEL students. How many volunteer, on which sessions, and when their training runs.
A nod on the after-school time. 15:25 to 16:25 is Bisi’s own proposal, but she made it against a fortnightly date set that was dropped and has not restated it for the four booked Thursdays.
The evaluation plan. Owned, dated 4 September, not written.
A promise tighter than our own rule. UEL were told their students are always beside a DBS-checked facilitator and never alone with children. DECISIONS.md lets a volunteer hold a station alone in a shared room. Whichever stands, both sides should be told the same thing.
“Simplify activities so fewer volunteers are required” is the stated reason for cutting the volunteer line to £300. Nothing else in the sources says the activities must be simplified.

Questions for you

Which three makes go on the table at the co-design?

Three is settled, and four labs are drawn, so one comes off before the session. The makes are the test ground we read the track off, so it decides what we can learn on the day.

Drop the scribble botThe two robot labs test much the same thing, and this is the lighter of the two. Drop the elastic band carKeeps the coding lab in, which is the one the deck sold to schools.

When the offer says a six-session programme, what does that mean now?

The budget cut everything “from 6 to 4 sessions”, but six events are booked. What we tell Royal Docks Trust and the school depends on which reading is right.

Six events, as bookedFour at Gallions, two at UEL. Nothing was lost, only relabelled. Six school sessions were promisedFour are funded, and the funder needs telling.

Bisi never answered whether 12:00 to 14:00 suits her families. Print it anyway?

She asked for the timings, was offered 12:00 to 14:00 with an explicit offer of flexibility, and did not reply. The flyer is due to her tomorrow morning and has to carry a time.

Print 12:00 to 14:00It is what she was offered. If it does not suit, she will say so when she sees the flyer. Chase her firstCosts a day, and the deadline is her own.

The Imagination Boxes: gone, or found from elsewhere?

The deck promises every family one and the budget no longer pays for a hundred of them. Families will have seen the deck.

Gone, and the deck gets correctedNothing is promised that is not funded. A smaller version, out of the materials lineSomething goes home, at 16 boxes rather than 100. Keep all 100, funded from elsewhereNeeds a source before the co-design session.

Who comes to the co-design session?

The application promises 40 children and 40 adults there. The club is 16 children. The flyer is due to Gallions on 1 September and has to say one or the other.

The club’s 16 children and their familiesEveryone at the co-design carries on into the workshops. Open wider, towards the 40 and 40Meets the application, but most families who come will not get a club place.

The club’s materials can only be bought in the five days after the co-design. Is that workable?

The track is picked off the co-design on Saturday 26 September and the first session is Thursday 1 October. The board dates the purchase 11 September, which is before the choice exists.

Yes, buy in the five daysNeeds whatever we might need already priced and sourced, for every track in play. Buy for every track on 11 SeptemberNothing is urgent later, and we carry the cost of the tracks we do not run. Session 1 needs almost nothingDesign the first Thursday so it runs on stock, and buy for sessions 2 to 4 after.

The application promises at least 100 children. The club is 16. Where do the other 84 come from?

This is the number the grant was asked for on, and only the two Saturdays at UEL can carry it. Their capacity is not booked yet, so this decides what we ask UEL for.

The two Saturdays go wideOpen to the whole of Years 4 to 6, and we ask UEL for a room that holds 40 children and 40 adults. Tell Royal Docks Trust the number movedThe programme shrank from six sessions to four. The reach promise did not shrink with it. Add a second schoolNewham introduced us to Gallions and Winsor. Winsor was compared and not taken forward.

More feedback

Young Makers in the Docks

The paid club

In pictures

Flyer copy

Style guide

The sources

Contents

The shape of it

The reach we are committed to

How the impact gets evidenced

Creativity

The eight competencies

Attendance

Voice

Stakeholders

Royal Docks Trust

University of East London

Gallions Primary School

Institute of Imagination

Newham Council

Hugo Burge Foundation

The four pathways

Cardboard Lab

Motion Lab

Drawing Robots Lab

Robot Lab

The budget

Where the sources disagree

What this record still needs

Questions for you