BY PUPILS FROM CLEEVES PRIMARY SCHOOL & HILLPARK SECONDARY SCHOOL
HEAR MY VOICE
INTRODUCTION
Pupils from Cleeves Primary School and Hillpark Secondary School in Glasgow have been participating in a project called HEAR MY VOICE with the Citizens Theatre. The pupils have taken part in fun drama, creative writing and storytelling activities with staff from the theatre’s Learning team. Initially the pupils worked in separate groups, then all three groups joined up and participated together. The pupils encouraged each other, learned from each other and enjoyed working collaboratively. This book contains photographs, pieces of writing and descriptions of the work that was done during the academic year 2018 - 2019. This book has been designed and created by the pupils. They were taught how to use Adobe InDesign software and they made decisions about the content and the layout. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the wonderful pupils and staff on this project! Angela and Louise (Citizens Theatre)
THE HAT GAME The pupils were put into groups. Each group was given a hat and they had to decide which type of character would wear it. Each group then created a frozen picture to show that character wearing the hat and who else would be there too. It was a fun activity with lots of laughs and everyone enjoyed wearing the various hats.
FUTURE DREAMS
The P6/7 pupils were asked to think about what they’d like to be when they grow up. They then worked in groups to act out scenes of them doing these jobs. The pupils then took part in a ‘chat show’ where they were playing the part of successful adults. They offered advice to 10 and 11 year olds who might be watching the chat show on television. The advice was about how to succeed and do what you want to do with your life. These pieces of advice were then put in a special envelope.
A PART OF ME The S1 pupils chose a part of their body that they liked the most. Everyone found this really hard! Once decisions had been made, each pupil decided how they wanted to be photographed. This is the final selection of photos.
S1 STORIES BY KENZIE Once upon a time in 1967 there was a river. Scuba divers were searching for two bodies. A father and son were searching for catfish then all of a sudden the dam burst. Their boat got tipped over. All of their survival gear floated away. The waves swept them towards the ocean. The father lost his son. His hopes of finding his son went down. Luckily scuba divers were there and saved the father.
BY PAMELA Once upon a time there were three little girls and their names were Kyla, Mila and Mela. They were sisters. They went on a school trip to a trampoline park. It was quiet so Mila tried to do a back flip and broke her arm. She went to the medical room then got rushed to hospital. The other girls were in shock. They had to go to the hospital with Mila. They were upset and scared. They hoped their sister was okay. She was okay. They put a plaster cast on Mila’s arm and sent her home.
WHAT I LOVE & HATE The P6/7s and S1s were asked to think about what they love and what they hate. They had to think of the reasons why they felt this way. Their responses were really interesting and thoughtful.
THE SENSORY GUESSING GAME During this activity the P1/2 pupils had to smell, touch or taste what was in different boxes. They had to think of words to describe the items contained in the boxes, without seeing them. They then had to guess what these mystery items were. There were coffee beans to smell, pomegranate seeds to taste, and sand paper and cotton wool to touch.
ALL ABOUT ME The P1/2 pupils lay down on large pieces of paper while an adult drew round their bodies. The pupils then added details to their pictures, such as facial features and clothing. They added drawings of things they like, such as favourite foods and favourite characters. Finally, the pupils had to draw who their friends are and who is part of their family.
P6 & P7 STORIES BY JARED Once there was a happy family who lived in a haunted house. Once they thought it was a normal house but then they started to hear stuff and they thought it might be haunted. Julia was walking down the hall for the first time until she heard some creaking on the floor. Then the wood broke apart and made a hole really deep and she fell in it and no one could save her. She died and she became a ghost.
BY ALEXANDER Once upon a time there was a house. The dad went in the garage. There was a kid crying, he turned the kid around. The kid had vampire teeth. The dad ran and ran. He got out the garage and went in the house. He was holding his son. His son was bleeding from the eyes. The mum was crying. She took him to the hospital. Nobody was in the hospital. The mum was driving the car. The mum was looking at her son. An old man was on the road. She knocked him down. She checked if he was still alive. The old man wasn’t alive. The mum went back to the house. Nobody was there. The kid bit them and they died.
A WARM WELCOME
During term one the pupils all worked in separate age groups. In term two, all the pupils came together to work in one large, mixed group. Before they met they created cards and messages for each other. The younger pupils made welcome cards for the older pupils and the S1s wrote positive messages on strips of paper, that were then rolled up and hidden inside thimbles. Everyone was presented with their welcome gifts and enjoyed reading the messages. This was a positive start to a great relationship.
MESSAGES TO EACH OTHER During the last joint session the pupils wrote kind messages about each other. Each pupil was given a sheet of paper with someone’s name on it. They had to decide what they liked about that person and then write it down. These kind messages were read aloud by the pupils who wrote them. It was a lovely way to end the joint sessions.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX? The P1 and P2 pupils were shown Angela’s magic golden box. Inside it were lots of secret objects. One pupil at a time volunteered to look inside the box. They then had to give clues about one of the secret objects. They had to describe the colour, shape, size and use of the object. The other pupils tried to guess what it was. This activity was lots of fun and the pupils all had a good time! They were great at using descriptive words.
ANIMAL MAGIC
The Hillpark pupils invited the Cleeves pupils to a Zoolab session at their school. It was great fun and everyone was very brave!
SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE During the weekly sessions, the pupils played some fun games. One of the games they played was ‘Fire Chicken’ which was a version of ‘Fireball’. Another fun game they played was creating monsters with their bodies, in groups. It was very fun. The older pupils chose the games in advance and planned how they would be played. They then became ‘Game Leaders’ which involved them explaining the fun activities and making sure everyone played them well.
A SECRET PARCEL During the joint sessions the pupils were put into small groups. Each group was given a parcel with a label attached. On the label was a clue as to what was hidden inside. The pupils then unwrapped the parcels to reveal the hidden item. These objects were used to create imaginative stories which were then acted out and the pupils also created illustrations for them.
THE GIANT BODY DRAWING GAME The P6/7 and S1 pupils lay down on giant sheets of paper. Outlines of their bodies were drawn on the paper. Louise asked the pupils to add features to make the pictures look like the people they were meant to be. Each pupil then had to add either words or drawings to show things they liked, family members and hobbies they had. The pupils had a really good time taking part in this activity. The finished results were fantastic.
GROUP STORIES In groups, the pupils wrote stories. They were created using a stimulus to begin with, such as a treasure map, sunglasses or an old key. One group created this story, shown on the right, and then did an illustration for it.
TELL ME A TALE... This project encouraged pupils to tell imaginative stories. Everyone has a story to tell! The results were amazing and the stories were acted out by all the pupils and the teachers too. Some of the wonderfully imaginative characters that appeared in the stories were: elves, puppets, cops, prisoners, zombies, aliens, clowns and monsters.
The P1/2 pupils visited the Tramway Theatre to see a Christmas play called HUMBUG. It was a story based on the Charles Dickens classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This play was made specially for children aged 4-6 years. The pupils had such a good time watching and interacting with the actors on stage. The P6/7 and S1 pupils visited the Tramway Theatre to see A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The pupils had a great day out and thoroughly enjoyed the performance.
A TRIP TO THE THEATRE
PUPIL FEEDBACK I enjoyed meeting the 1st years. It was good to get to know them and talk to them. Now I can talk to them in high school when I see them there.
I enjoyed the rubber chicken game because when you had it and the music stopped you had to act like a chicken. I liked the stories because I liked acting them out and choosing the characters. I liked all the games because they were actually really good.
I liked everything about the project. I really liked the Christmas show because it was real people rather than watching something on a screen. I liked when we sat and talked about emotions with the emoji faces. It’s good to talk about stuff like that. I also liked getting to know the S1 pupils. I’m going to be attending Hillpark when I’m older.
I enjoyed the project. I liked getting to work with the primary school pupils. I enjoyed planning the joint sessions because we got to choose what we were doing. It was good to work in a different way to normal.
I enjoyed making the book. I liked that it was an individual task rather than a group task. I’m looking forward to getting the finished book at the launch event.
I’ve learned you have to be gentle as a teacher. If someone was upset, I would take them somewhere quiet and talk to them and say, “Why are you upset?”
I loved having hot chocolate at the start of the sessions. I liked the rubber chicken because it was fun with everybody. I liked sharing how I was feeling because the teachers could then help. Lastly, I really liked making a book and choosing the pictures. It was good to learn new things.
I liked playing with the younger kids because we got to help them and it was nice to see that they were happy. I defo liked the hot chocolate and the rubber chicken game. It was so funny. I liked the ‘look up, look down’ game also. I liked the project and meeting new people.
I liked watching the Christmas show because I put baubles on the tree. I liked when we had to smell and taste and touch because it was great fun! I liked the stories.
I liked the Christmas show because I helped the man get the star. I gave it to the Queen. I like Jared because he is a silly billy. He was my buddy during the project.
Working with Hillpark pupils has been a good thing because I’ve liked meeting them and I’ll be going to Hillpark soon. I’ve liked coming down to the Busy Bee Base because I met the little ones and it’s been nice working with them. I liked the zoo visit because I got to hold animals that I’ve never held before. I liked the thunderball game because it was fun. All the different age groups were joining in together.
Pupils - we hope you’ve enjoyed taking part in the HEAR MY VOICE project. We’ve certainly enjoyed working with you all. During the project you’ve made new friends, visited a different school and visited a theatre. This project is called HEAR MY VOICE and we hope that over the past few months you have been encouraged to use your voices, to express your feelings and opinions and to share your wonderful creativity with others. We hope you choose to treasure this book and show it to those who are close to you so that they too can enjoy seeing all the wonderful activities you have done over the past few months. We’d like to thank Mrs Kirwan and Mrs Brown for allowing us to work with you and joining in wholeheartedly, Mrs Gray and Mrs McMaster for taking part in our sessions with such enthusiasm, all the class teachers for allowing us to take you out of your classes for the sessions, and finally YOU for being so willing to join in with all the crazy things we suggested. We’ve loved working with you! We’d like to thank Susan Hunter from SHE Photography for taking such amazing photos of the sessions. They capture the fun so perfectly! We’d also like to thank our funders ‘The Ragdoll Foundation’ and ‘The Gannochy Trust’ and ‘The Robertson Trust’. Without their support this project would not have been able to happen. Angela and Louise (Citizens Theatre)
THANK YOU!