In the second half of the Spring Term 1999 we produced our first "Living History" curriculum-based Tour on The Tudors. St. Benedict’s Junior School (Glastonbury), Brookside Primary School (Street) and Lyngford Park Primary School (Taunton) each received a 2-day visit just for their mainstream children; and we also ran "mixed" 2-day sessions with Avalon Special School/Brookside Junior School in Street, Hamp Primary School/Elmwood Special School in Bridgwater and Westfield Primary School/Fosseway Special School in Radstock. The Tudor Tour was highly experiential and managed to give a real "feel" of what life was like in Tudor times.

This Tudors Tour was led by Paddy Hill who remained as a present day friend to the children travelling with them in the "Time Machine" to meet different historical characters who were played with great skill by Charlie Miller (as Henry V111, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Richard Burbage and the Lord of the Manor), Daryl Webster (as a Lady-in-Waiting, Queen Elizabeth 1, William Shakespeare and Mrs. Goodfellow) and Kate Donovan (as a Lady-in-Waiting/Nurse, Jack Tar, the landlady of the Boar’s Head and Mrs. Itch)

Each school or set of schools was visited for 2 full days. On the first day 3 different groups of up to 25 children travelled in our "Time Machine" and were involved in sessions on Henry V111, Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh and William Shakespeare. On the 2nd day a 4th group of up to 25 children would participate in a session on Queen Elizabeth and Sir Francis Drake, and then all 4 groups of children came together to participate in a session which showed the differences between the lifestyles of the rich and the poor, medicine, crime and punishment, etc. in Tudor times. Just as the Lord of the Manor is sentencing a witch to death, news comes that the Queen is on a royal progress and is arriving with her entire retinue to stay. The children all designed and created heraldic shields for their own family name to decorate the hall, and then there was a splendid banquet in the presence of the Queen. The costumes of the historical characters were really good and we had some splendid props for the banquet. The children brought packed lunches and we provided cottage loaves and apples. Music was provided by minstrel Steven Winstanley, and Haggis McLeod and Devilstick The Clown provided juggling and jester entertainment in costume. After the banquet the children acted out what they had experienced in their sessions for the Queen, and a discussion was held about the pros and cons of living in Tudor or modern times before the children travelled back in the Time Machine to the present day.

This Tudor Tour was a completely new direction for us, and it proved extremely successful. The teachers (who due to the Literacy Hour and the Maths hour have very little time nowadays to teach much History) were absolutely delighted that we had come up with such an imaginative and exciting way of imparting so much curricular information so fast. Up to 100 children can participate in each 2-day session, which means that whole year groups of even quite large primary schools can all participate.

Claire Axten (Head Teacher of Brookside Primary School in Street) wrote:

"I am writing to thank Children’s World for the wonderful Tudor production. The children gained so much from taking part, and the adults really enjoyed themselves too! It is surely the best way to teach history, to take the children back in time and allow them to meet the characters. The infant children, who were invited to the final part of the second day, are absolutely convinced that Queen Elizabeth 1 has been to our school! The children in Year 3 and 4 who took part have been learning about the Tudors all term, and the team used the children’s knowledge to enhance the performance. One mother told me that her daughter had not stopped talking about it all night. The costumes, characters and sets that you brought to the school were truly wonderful, far more than we could ever do for ourselves. The whole experience was entertaining, motivating and thought provoking, therefore high quality learning took place. Please can we have more of these presentations to fit in with other periods of history that we have to study."

Anne Thomlinson (Class Teacher at Hamp Junior School in Bridgwater) wrote:

"The children loved the role models they were given, and especially appreciated the fact that there was a lower and upper class role model. It developed the idea very thoroughly in the children’s minds. The children loved the Banquet and it made the whole programme real with the Elizabethan entertainment."

Lyn Pavey (Class Teacher at Avalon School) wrote:

"In a Special School pupils have complex problems, one of which is that they find it difficult to understand the passing of time and to understand some of the things that have happened in the past. One of the topics we have had to study as part of our history curriculum was "The Tudors". We looked at books; we brainstormed as to what we knew about the Tudors, we watched videos. THEN, WE HAD A VISIT FROM CHILDREN’S WORLD. We listened to facts about the Tudors, we looked at and examined artefacts. We dressed up in the clothes of the period. We were invited by Children’s World to take part in a play about the Tudors, to become one of the characters. To complete the workshop we were invited to a Medieval Banquet, we were entertained by jesters and jugglers and served with bread and drink. Staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this workhsop. Every pupil was able to participate. For many weeks afterwards the pupils at Avalon were able to relate information that they had learnt during this workshop. Children’s World have visited Avalon many times and the pupils are always so pleased to see them, because they know they are in for an interesting time. Each time you feel that they cannot possibly do much better, but they manage to do it every time. Thank you so much Children’s World. Please keep coming to see us. "You are brilliant", say the pupils of Avalon School!"

Nigel Perry, Class Teacher at Westfield Primary School, wrote:

"Our collaboration with Fosseway Special School (next door) was a great success. Very well planned and organised. Much enjoyed by all the children. Please continue the good work. Thank you!"

The Tudor Tour was a very expensive Tour to prepare and carry out well, so, while we would like, as requested, to attack another curriculum period of History, this is not practical in the immediate future. However the Tudors remains on all schools’ list of curriculum work, and we hope to take this Tour out again some time soon, as it was such a huge success and all the preparation work has now been done and it can now tour more cost-effectively.

THE SCHOOLS’ FESTIVAL TOUR 1999

The Summer Term 1999 saw our Schools’ Festival Tour take place. This was one of our "Integration Tours", and as with our 4 previous years of the Puppetry & Integration Workshop Weeks Tour, the Tour was for "mixed ability" children, so that special schools could work with their neighbouring mainstream schools. 4 full Workshop Weeks were undertaken with Limegrove Special School, Summerfield Special School and Widcombe Junior School in Bath; Penrose Special School, Elmwood Special School and Hamp Junior School in Bridgwater; Selworthy Special School, Monkton Priors Special School and Lyngford Park Primary School in Taunton; and with Kingsweston Special School (without a neighbouring mainstream school) in Avonmouth.

Approximately 60 children participated from each set of schools (15 children with severe learning difficulties, 15 children with moderate learning difficulties and 30 mainstream children in each set) and each set received a pre-session, a full Workshop Week, a post-session and then a Schools’ Festival Day.

This Schools’ Festival Tour was based on Relationships and the Emotions. Each day there was a presentation by the "Silly Billies" — the complete antithesis of the "Tellytubbies". The Silly Billies do not communicate well, they don’t work well together and they don’t get on together — they keep landing up having rows or "Silly Billy Bundles"! Each day the Silly Billies portrayed a different scenario - making a cup of tea, a home scenario, a school scenario, a neighbourhood scenario and an ecological world scenario, so that the children could think about different sorts of relationships. Each time the Silly Billies would make a complete botch of what they were meant to do, and the children had to think about why things weren’t working well, and how the Silly Billies could do better at co-operating and relating.

Each Workshop Week included mask work on emotions, collage work, music, movement and singing, including a splendid new song called "The Friendship Song" composed by Charlie Miller, for which each group of children made up their own verse. As always the Workshop Weeks were enlivened by parachute games, trust games and other exciting activities linked to the overall theme.

On 20 and 21 July we held 2 special Schools’ Festival Days in the Abbey Park Playground, Glastonbury. 480 children (from the schools we had been working with that term, topped up by children from local schools) attended each of the 2 days. Parachute Theatre Company presented their hilarious new puppet show "Dangerous Dave", there were inflatables, ball pools, parachute games, dancing and lots of vigorous singing of the "Friendship Song".

This Tour was very much enjoyed by the children and greatly appreciated by the schools’ staff. We plan a similar Tour with 8 sets of schools and special schools for the year 2000 on the theme of "Aspirations for the New Millennium" with the help of a Millennium Festival Award.

Chris Salter, Class Teacher at Selworthy Special School, wrote this letter about the Workshop Week to the parents of her SLD children:

"9.30 a.m. on Monday morning and we were ready for the short walk to Lyngford Park Primary School for our annual integrated Workshop Week with Children’s World. We were all excited at the prospect of the week ahead, so we didn’t mind the short walk in the sunshine. We were greeted by all our old friends from Children’s World and Monkton Priors Special School, and made very welcome by our new friends at Lyngford Park. We began with the "Hello Song" and getting-to-know you games, and as it is my 10th year working with Children’s World, I did know them! The ever-popular Parachute Football followed and, yes, Manchester also won this coveted game 6-2! Relaxation exercises, trust games and getting into smaller integrated groups with the 4 Children’s World playleaders Paddy, Nat, Kate and Daryl were accompanied by the hugely talented and famous Charlie on the keyboards. Playtime was very exciting, with a huge field and playthings to explore and we were amazed not to have lost anyone when we returned from break. A sketch followed, featuring the new "Silly Billies", Rinky Dinky, Dipsy, Ga Ga and Pooh! Where had we seen something similar before? We loved them much more than their relations, but they were very naughtly and silly, and our task this week is to teach them how to behave and form good relationships. A serious discussion about how we would achieve this followed, and then our picnic lunch, playtime and back for the afternoon session. This afternoon session was all about decisions, sensible choices, behaving responsibly and trusting each other. All the children had a brilliant day. The children behaved well, made friends, had fun and learnt some serious lessons about life, so we can look forward to a brilliant week. Tuesday — straight into the Hello Song, parachute games and relaxation, and then the next sketch by the Silly Billies. I couldn’t video for laughing! Ga Ga is definitely my favourite character — he reminds me of several children I know! Breakfast Time with the Silly Billies was amazing and we had some really interesting responses from the children about what they should and shouldn’t do. The Making Your Mind Up game was very interesting, and all the children are learning about making responsible choices and decisions and about forming good relationships with friends.

All the children are really having fun, integrating well and learning lots, so the Workshop Week is going extremely well and has fulfilled all our expectations so far. We are making a video of the Week, so I will show it to you all soon. Playtime today was lovely, all 60 mixed ability children playing well together and enjoying the sunshine. The afternoon went well with a discussion about anger, and what makes us feel angry. We then made collages on the theme of anger and finished off with a few games and the Goodbye Song. We walked back to school weary but happy and looking forward to tomorrow. Wednesday — Everyone was really excited at the prospect of a lovely sunny day with Children’s World. I think this is one of the best years out of the 10 last years for Children’s World work. Very well organised, and brilliant staff. The usual morning routine was followed by the Silly Billys, at school today. We really liked Miss Tipsy the teacher and Rinky Dinky the caretaker. It was a hilarious sketch again and all the children loved it, to say nothing of the staff! Very interesting Make Your Mind Up session again today, and a lovely relaxing picnic lunch and playtime. The afternoon focussed on being sad, and what makes us sad. We finished off talking about things that made us happy as a contrast. More collage making on emotions and relationships and the end of another wonderful day. The Week is going so quickly, and it will be over far too soon! Thursday — different exercises and games today, followed by the Silly Billies and the Neighbours from Hell! The children are all really into this now, and the teachers got a soaking from those naughty Silly Billies, which amused the children greatly! A good playtime, an even better Make Your Mind Up session and we are all learning the Friendship Song and making up our own verses for Friday’s performance. I do hope lots of you get to see it. Another lovely lunch and playtime with all the children playing with their new friends and enjoying another sunny day. We acted out some scenes, talked about fear and what we are afraid of, and then finishing off our collages for tomorrow, a final practice of the Friendship Song and we finished with the much-loved Goodbye Song. All the children deserve a special mention today for their good behaviour. Friday — I’ve swapped my day off with Jayne so that I don’t miss the final performance of the Silly Billies, and I’m more excited than the children about our final day with Children’s World. I must just say a huge thank you to Lyngford Park for making us so welcome, to all our staff, and especially to Paddy, Charlie, Kate, Nat and Daryl for their wonderful performances, organisational skills, hard work and for teaching us so much this week. We do not want the week to end and we can’t wait for next year already! Thank you all — you have given us so much and we hope that you have enjoyed our Workshop Week as much as we have! We arrived early today, Friday, can’t think why! Song, games, exercises and morning routines for the last time. The Silly Billies were really awful today, throwing food, fighting and spoiling the environment with litter, sprays, etc. Will we be able to sort them out this afternoon? I can’t write any more as I have to be involved for the rest of the day. I hope you parents enjoy this record of our week as much as we enjoyed the Week ourselves. I bet the children will be tired but happy this afternoon!"

Val Farmer, Class Teacher at Summerfield Special School, wrote:

"This was excellent for our children. The experience for both staff and pupils of working in a different environment, with other schools and the Children’s World Team was refreshing and stimulating. The "Relationships" theme was handled sensitively and in an interesting way so that the pupils responded realistically."

Pauline Try, Class Teacher at Lime Grove Special School, wrote:

"We thought this was the best Integration Tour yet. The theme of "Relationships" was particularly useful for our pupils. There was more of a structured format to each day than on some previous tours and this was an improvement. The "Silly Billy" sessions were very popular and provided a good introduction to each day. The sketches were at an appropriate level for our pupils. It worked better for our pupils that the artwork took the form of group collages as they managed to contribute to this — in the past when they had to make an individual puppet etc. the task was sometimes too involved and difficult for them. We also thought that the masks used to show emotions were a valuable approach. It was helpful to have all the information and pictures on the Internet, so that we could talk about everything that had happened during the Workshop Week….Thanks again for all your hard work. We look forward to working with you on the SLD Music and Movement Tour in Spring 2000. We find it a very good balance to have some SLD only tours and some that are integrated. Thank you."