ella-markes__unknown__ual__2025

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School: RCA
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Year: 2025
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Source: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/632136/cover

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# Project Description

Tree Schooling

Ella Markes

Summary

Final work

Designer, maker + educator.

MArch: Architecture Graduate 2025,

PGCE in Design & Technology secondary education

Designer, maker + educator.

MArch: Architecture Graduate 2025,

PGCE in Design & ...

College Central Saint Martins

Course MArch: Architecture

Graduation year 2025

Can we change how we teach in secondary schools, so that young people are more engaged, confident and empowered when facing the climate emergency? ‘Tree schools’ relocate teaching from state secondary schools to urban woodlands, creating a space and curriculum for students to better understand natural processes and their own agency within them; and to acquire skills and understanding about the growth and management of trees, how to care for them, and how to collect timber regeneratively for design and making.

This version of a tree school is located in One Tree Hill, south-east London; but the idea is that the model can be replicated within all secondary schools and their local woodlands, so that young people can build strong relationships with the more-than-human world, and develop design and making skills as part of their own educational journey.

Final work

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The Curriculum

Young people are positioned as students of trees. Students are encouraged to collect what wood they can find - twigs, sticks, logs, stumps. Routines of observation and recording are followed by an integration in urban woodland management processes. Then, students use the byproducts of this to experiment with making and add to the cumulative educational building.

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Tree Diaries

Lime Tree Diary: a 240 page book that documents the same lime tree over six months through photos and diary entries. At the Tree School, students are encouraged to notice and document the growth of the trees that surround them.

Research and process

Motivations

Tree Schools are motivated by encouraging hopefulness in the climate emergency, situating young people in the future of design, encouraging networks in the city, and care being embedded in school education.

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Can we change how we teach in secondary schools, so that young people are more engaged, confident and empowered when facing the climate emergency? ‘Tree schools’ relocate teaching from state secondary schools to urban woodlands, creating a space and curriculum for students to ...

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Links (Markdown)

# Links

## Official page
- https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/632136/cover

## External
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-markes-67b5001b0?originalSubdom
- https://www.instagram.com/ella_markes
- mailto:ellamarkes@hotmail.co.uk
- https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/06153625/UNIT5_Compendium_EllaMarkes_20043619.pdf
- https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F632136%2Fcover&text=Tree+Schooling
- https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F632136%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F11%2F06161337%2FUntitled-8.png&description=Tree+Schooling