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Schools
St James Coldwaltham ‘Playtime’ Workshop
During the first half-term of this academic year, Yew Class at St. James’ CE Primary School, Coldwaltham were selected to take part in ‘Playtime’, a creative literacy project for Year 5 and 6 children run by Chichester Festival Theatre. The project aimed to develop creative writing and reading skills as well as building confidence and teamwork skills. Over the course of seven weeks, the children took part in a series of workshops themed around Michael Morpurgo’s book ‘The Butterfly Lion’. The book (which has been adapted into a play currently being shown at The Minerva Theatre, Chichester) deals with the themes of friendship, hope, love, loyalty and trust. To kickstart the project, the children were invited to the Chichester Festival Theatre for a workshop and backstage tour. This was a highlight for many of them as they got to see the inner workings of a theatre which brought everything to life! One child commented that it was fascinating to see the pictures of previous productions that line the corridors where the dressing rooms are, whilst another child was excited to be able to see the actual stage and light riggings as part of the trip. The majority of the workshops took place in school where the children took part in games to build their
Bury Primary School 175 years and still going strong… Bury CE Primary had a fantastic open day on the 10th October celebrating the past 175 years. The school had over 100 visitors from prospective parents, local villagers, members of the diocese, ex-pupils, staff and governors all coming to see what the children had been learning about over the last few weeks. Early in the year a gentleman was spotted outside the school looking at the building. I went out to check who he was and what he was doing. It turned out the man had attended the school for a couple of years in the 1950s when he was placed in a children’s home locally. He was just passing and had such fond memories of the school that he wanted to take a moment to look at the school. I asked him if he would like to have a look around, and although initially reserved and not wanting to disturb us, when told it would not be any trouble he agreed and I gave him a tour. A lot of the school has changed over the years, but the original school house building (now home to Little Birds nursery and the staff rooms) brought back lots of memories. Mrs Braun, our Year 5 and 6 teacher was busy planning for our 175-year work and had some of the old documents out. Both of their faces lit up as I introduced them.
understanding of the theatre and used a range of dramatic techniques to develop freeze-frames, soundscapes and short role-plays. Over the final four weeks of the workshops, the children (working in small groups) developed their own storylines which they turned into playscripts and performed. The children were wonderfully creative with their ideas and produced some fantastic playscripts! The final part of the project will be to go and see the production of ‘The Butterfly Lion’ in the coming week. With all the knowledge, skills and understanding that they have gained through the ‘Playtime’ project, the children will be able to comprehend more on how much work and preparation goes into staging a production. The school are very grateful to Chichester Festival Theatre for providing children with this opportunity. It has been a fantastic learning experience for everyone who has been involved. For more information call 01798 872196 or visit www.st-james-coldwaltham.w-sussex.sch.uk. We told the visitor all about our open day celebrating the past 175 years and a couple of days leading up to it where we were inviting people connected to the school to make a tile to commemorate the occasion. He wrote the date down and said he would love to come and make a tile. On the tile making day the gentleman brought his brother, who had also attended the school. This time they didn’t get away with just making a tile but were also interviewed by our oldest children for a film they were making. The brothers returned for the open day, but they also brought their wives, one of their daughters and another friend who was at the school with them at the time. By some stroke of luck, the friend, who now lives in Spain, was on holiday in England and wanted to join the brothers looking at the work and all the old documentation. Mrs Braun quickly got the clay out and managed to get the friend to make a tile for our new feature. Whilst chatting away and reminiscing the brothers and friend talked about their time here ‘this place is so much more than a school, it was our safe place in a really difficult time’. Mr Moore, Headteacher www.bury.w-sussex.sch.uk
