This is Canonbury

A New Direction

Staff at Canonbury Primary School were interested in developing and valuing pupil voice. The school wanted to develop an arts based council that would represent the pupils' voice through class meetings. This was quick and easy to establish, and it was decided that they should further use this opportunity to increase the level of the pupil’s skills.

The school looked at how pupils at Canonbury Primary view their school, including how they see their environment, peers, staff and activities. This project focused on platforming the voice of the pupils' research, which was written, filmed and partly edited by them.

Through film, they aimed to develop all pupils' confidence and enthusiasm to work collaboratively and produce a slice of 'Life in Canonbury'.

The project began through the school council with pupils discussing what the school means to them. Members of the council took their findings and the areas they wished to develop into a film project, to the Year 4 class. The class was tasked with researching the information given to them by the school council and to produce a documentary style film based on these findings.

The pupils worked with their teacher and Lucy Williams on how to interview, write, and record their findings. The pupils were involved in all aspects of the project and were tasked with approving all material produced at every stage of production.

Lucy said:
"Out of all the video projects I've done in schools... in this school they've had the most learning."

Lucy commented further about how the young people learnt all the film crew roles:
"Stuff that's quite advanced really... and they haven't forgotten what all those roles are and I think that's pretty amazing."

Lucy spoke about how she stepped back more and more as the weeks went on and that in the final weeks of the project, the class took on responsibility for filming themselves and Lucy played more of an observing role.

She commented on the fact that the young people demonstrated an ability to take risks and were able to "go ahead and just do things".

Visit the Canonbury Primary School website.