This Is Me!
Cauldwell Lower School community is made up of children from many cultures and often children arrive at the school with little or poor English language skills.
They wanted to explore the question: How can a creative project aid communication and provide a snap-shot of a child's personal identity to scaffold future learning?
20 children from years 2, 3 and 4 took part in the 'This is Me' project every Friday for 10 weeks, undertaking a range of drama activities, storytelling, mask-making and visual art with practitioner Emily Hunka. All the activities were designed to raise confidence and self-esteem; support language acquisition of children with English as an Additional Language; honour and value home culture and language; and give children an individual creative voice, as well as a range of creative skills.
The children rehearsed and performed a show which they presented to the whole school. They also wrote and illustrated stories which Emily then combined into a book.
Project objectives
The school really hoped that the project would provide the young people with a 'voice' to reflect their needs, talents and culture and that this would help children feel more confident, making learning easier for them.
Who was involved?
Cauldwell Lower School, Bedford, years 2,3,4
Creative Practitioner, Emily Hunka
Impact
Impact on young people:
- developing imaginative thinking and risk-taking;
- developing storytelling, drama, craft and physical theatre skills;
- expressing individual and collective identities;
- growing confidence and self-esteem.
Impact on teachers:
- the opportunity the project afforded them to observe and reflect on the children;
- Emily's drama expertise, story techniques and games which they will use in their own lessons;
- the idea of using the imagination to help in times of change and difficulty is something some teachers plan to adopt.
Results
"Taking part in the project made me feel happy about myself" (Pupil, Cauldwell Lower School)
‘This is me!’ created a space where the children could reveal themselves and both the children and the staff were able to gain new insights as to their abilities and personalities. The realisation that with time and space the children reveal hidden talents, has been understood by the staff.
"We know the power of creativity in our curriculum but I now feel that ‘less is often more’ and will allow children more time to reflect and assess their own learning."
(Noreen Leonard, School Coordinator at Cauldwell)
