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Children's World
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Children's World |
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Annual Report 2001-2002
Workshops for special schools
SLD Drama Learning Tour)
In the first half of the Autumn Term 2001 we ran a 6-week Drama Tour for children with severe learning difficulties & children with profound & multiple difficulties. Eight Special Schools were visited (in Weston-super-Mare, Bridgwater, Street, Bristol, Radstock, Bath, Avonmouth & Taunton) with
a 90-minute session per week for 6 weeks, with 15-20 children attending
each session. Due to the success of the previous year's "Del's Deliveries" Tour, we retained the same format. Each week the 8
groups of children accompanied "Del" (our Chief Play Leader
Paddy Hill) as Delivery Helpers in the large prop "Van" to meet different characters (all played by our Deputy Play Leader Charlie
Miller). The children met Sid the Supervisor, Farmer Palmer, Detective
Sergeant Bacon, Doctor Proctor & Barry the Baker in separate weeks and
learnt about each character and their job. All the characters brought
different activities with them, promoting measuring, counting, sorting and memory skills. Each week's session had a fairly rigid structure
(hello song, name song, meet Del, "van journey", meet new
character, activities and song, return jourrney, memory test, goodbye) that the children could become familiar and comfortable with. At the
end of the Tour each school was given a tape with all the music and songs that had been used during the Tour, which proved to be a very useful re-cap tool for schools staff. Special schools rated the Tour
very highly, saying it "was pitched at just the right level"
and that their children "learnt a great deal while having tremendous
fun and gaining in confidence.."
"..it worked very well - not too fast, or too slow. The change of activities etc. all seemed excellent to me."Class Teacher, Fosse Way Special School, Radstock. "...the use of shape, weight etc. in this way was an exciting way for the pupils to learn...the children retained a great deal of the information they learned."Class teacher, Avalon Special School, Street. )
The Spring Term 2002 MLD Tour visited 5 special schools per week (in Bristol, Weston-super-Mare, Bath, Radstock and Taunton) for 6 weeks, working with 15-20 children in each 90-minute session. Thanks to the purchase of a new digital video camera and an i-book computer, we were able to adopt a new approach to this annual tour for children with moderate learning difficulties & emotional and behavioural difficulties. Our goal was to give the students a chance to examine their behaviour within school and talk about the consequences from their point of view, from their peers' point of view and from their teachers' point of view. The first week was spent showing the children the equipment (which they were very impressed by - even the "coolest" boys really wanted to be involved) and asking them to think about what they considered to be "bad behaviour". The second and following weeks were spent filming "spontaneous improvisations". Great emphasis was placed on encouraging the students' acting (and the teachers'!) to be as natural as possible. Many of the stories led to a confrontation between student and teacher, and this proved itself to be the most useful aspect of the video making, as both student and staff could see quite clearly how their input was affecting the situation. Alongside the role-plays, each group was able to film a mask session called "Expressions". This encouraged the students to describe the emotions that fitted certain masks - a very useful way of examining emotions. By the end of the Tour each school had an edited video lasting 20 minutes, showing their stories, complete with relevant questions as subtitles (e.g. What happened next? Why? Is there anything that could have been done to make the situation better?), so that it could be used as a classroom tool in PSHE classes. Because of the severity of the emotional and behavioural difficulites of many of the students, we were somewhat apprehensive about this Tour - however the students enjoyed the workshops enormously and worked very hard. All the schools staff we worked with felt that it was a very successful Tour, which they would wish to see developed and expanded in 2003.
"Thank you for the wonderful workshops on bullying and self image which our pupils participated in over the past 6 weeks. The students really got into the swing of things and, though they are a difficult group with some very challenging individuals, we consider that they really benefited from the opportunities you offered. Thank you for offering our pupils these exciting opportunities to explore their feelings and reflect on their effect on other pupils - it was a most worthwhile experience."Head Teacher, Westhaven Special School, Weston-super-Mare. "A very positive experience, of real value to our students."Class Teacher, Culverhill Special School, Bristol. Integration "Workshop Week" TourThe format for this tour, as with 10 previous integration tours, was to work with 60 mixed ability children each week (15 from an SLD school, 15 from an MLD school and 30 from a neighbouring mainstream school) in different towns (Weston-super-Mare, Taunton, Bath, Radstock and Street in 2002). Each week started with a short puppet play from our team to give the children a sense of what could be achieved. The children then spent the week (with the assistance of a 5-person Children's World team) in devising, designing and creating their own very large-scale puppet and drama show, which was performed to parents, friends and peers on the Friday afternoon. We have found that this tour offers unique opportunities for children with special needs to work as real equals with their mainstream peers - we also find that mainstream children emerge from the workshops with a far more positive attitude to "disability". As always, the tour focused very much on speech and language development and even greater efforts were made this year to ensure that the children with profound and multiple difficulties were fully included. The children all had a wonderful time, a great deal of curricular content was covered and much was learnt, without the children even realising they were "working". The puppets and scenery created by the children each week were of high quality and each group produced an excellent end performance of which they were justly proud. High quality integration took place during sessions and at lunch and playtimes, and excellent relationships were formed between the children and staff of the neighbouring schools and special schools, which will prove of on-going value to all parties. (In November 2001 we were commissioned by Elmwood Special School in Bridgwater to run a special Workshop Week for them and Penrose Special School and Hamp Junior School on the theme of Carnival, and we will be undertaking a further special week for these schools in November 2002.) "The Children's World team inspire everyone involved in their workshops with their expertise, endless enthusiasm and humour. Their clever way of developing a project from scratch creates a relaxed & enjoyable atmosphere which encourages each and every child to use their imagination to create wonderful things. The hard work during the week is greatly rewarded by the production of a fantastic show involving everyone - guaranteed to bring tears to the eyes! All in all a week where self esteem, confidence and friendship develop beyond belief."Class Teacher, Summerfield Special School, Bath. "The children gain so much confidence in their ability to create a production that has value in their eyes and those of others. You can see the children 'grow' throughout the week, in confidence, self-esteem and in that they will 'risk' new experiences."Class Teacher, Baytree Special School, Weston-super-Mare. "All the teachers stressed how much the pupils benefited, with the shy ones "coming out of their shells" and the more outgoing pupils guided to channel their energies productively. As usual your team were of the highest standard and a pleasure to work with, allowing our staff to observe their pupils in a new light."Class Teacher, Elmwood Special School. Interactive Inclusion CD Project"I would like to recommend this CD to you. It has been developed by Children's World in conjunction with local schools. The material is of a high quality and can be adapted to many situations. In our school it has been enjoyed by a wide range of children and staff too! Children with special educational needs, in special schools and mainstream schools, will benefit greatly from the thought-provoking ideas and sensory experiences."Head Teacher, Brookside Primary School , Street. |
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