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For the second part of the project I decided to augment the funky minimal design of the new Woodmill annexe, the unit for those pupils with special needs, with some big bold distinctive signs for the rooms. I chose various types of stones with  very different colours and emphasised the shape of the letters in each word so that the sign would be clear even to those who don't read, and worked at a large scale to help these kids to navigate what could be a confusing environment. There are six rooms with numbers and the gym, and a Woodmill sign for the entrance.
At the end of their last term at Headwell I spent a week working with each of the pupils in turn, hand on hand, so that they all had some physical input into the large number words. Everybody got something out of the experience and some of the kids were really good and carefull with the tools. I wanted there to be something familiar to them in the new building when they arrived at their new school at the start of the new school year.
While I was working at Headwell Marc, my apprentice, spent the week at Woodmill and did a massive colourfull graffiti Woodmill High School sign, complete with coat of arms, on the thirty metre long bike shed wall. This wall now forms the end of the car park for the new unit and was painted black and looked dreadfull. He got a few of the older pupils involved and transformed a dingy bit of the school into a proud statement of identity.
I fitted the room signs to the walls just before the start of term, using unseen fittings I designed myself and had fabricated to suit the construction of the walls in the new unit. The staff all seemed to like them, and I was on site at the start of term to give continuity to the project, and to make, with  the pupils again, the Woodmill sign for the main entrance corridor of their new school.
For the final part of the project I set up at the main entrance to the school again, and tried to get the pupils to think a little about the wider world. I made what I call the Peace Pile, or The other side of the same coin. Using some large slabs of various colours of sandstone my apprentice cut a six giant 'coins' of slightly different sizes and thickness. These are piled up in a stack, and the middle three are lettered. I chose the words respect, tolerance and compassion, which to me seem the only international currencies with which peace can be purchased. I had help to translate these into hebrew and arabic and made one coin in each language. As with most cultural divides there are similarities as well as differences, both languages read from left to right and neither write down the vowels. Again we had lots of interest and help from the pupils, both within class times and at breaks.
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