Children's World.

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2000 Schools Festival Tour

Outline of the Tour
Thanks to a Millennium Lottery Festival Award we were able to undertake an extended integration tour in the summer. 7 Sets of schools and special schools in 7 different towns participated in 4 full days of workshops, a recap and rehearsal half-day and a Schools Festival Day on Bristol Downs when all 420 children who participated in the workshops came together to celebrate and to present a huge joint performance on the theme of "Aspirations for the New Millennium".

The Early Years
Children's World has had considerable experience of mixed-ability work. When we started in 1981 we worked solely with special schools, and then occasionally, when time allowed we worked separately with mainstream schools. In 1983 having had lots of experience of working with all sorts of different abilities of children separately, we decided that there would be real value in working with mixed groups of children. We started with Mixed Ability Drama Days (known as Madds!) when 60 mixed ability children (15 with severe learning difficulties, 15 with moderate learning difficulties and 30 mainstream "able" children would join us at a central venue for a day of exciting drama and artistic activities. Several series of Madds were held between 1984 and 1994 with more than 5000 child sessions in Somerset, London and the West Midlands.

Improved and Extended
In 1994 we reviewed our mixed ability work. We and the schools staff were delighted with the results but we felt that to give even greater benefits, the workshops needed to be longer than single days. Therefore in 1995 we joined forces with the excellent Parachute Theatre Company whose puppetry skills had enhanced our Children's Festivals for many years, and in the summer of 1995 ran 6 mixed ability Workshop Weeks, where each set of schools received a full week of workshops. These were so successful that in the summers of 1996, 1997, and 1998 we ran similar series of puppetry weeks. Each week started with a performance by Parachute Theatre Company and then the 60 children, with the assistance of Parachute and our 4-person Children's World team devised and created their own very large scale puppet show which was performed to parents and friends on the Friday afternoon. Several follow-up camping holidays also took place which were tremendous fun and served to create further bonds between the teachers and children of the special schools and their neighbouring mainstream schools.

Intergration
In the summer of 1999 Children's World undertook a series of Integration Workshop Weeks with 4 sets of schools and special schools on the theme of "Relationships" and this, too, was a great success. Please click to see pictures and information about the 1999 Tour with our 3 schools from Bath.

The Benefits
Children's world believes that integration work of this sort is tremendously valuable for many different reasons. These workshop weeks provide an almost unique opportunity for children with special needs to work and play with their peers at mainstream schools. All the children benefit educationally, creatively and socially. The children with special needs gain greatly in confidence and self-esteem. One delightful result is that the mainstream children come out of our workshop weeks with a far more positive attitude to "disability" which we hope will remain with them throughout their lives.

Feedback
This feedback from Ruth Wiley of Fosseway Special School indicates just one of the many benefits.

"It was a most enjoyable week, and it was brilliant to work with our local mainstream school, Westfield. In the past we haven't had a great deal of contact with that school, even though we are so geographically close, but now, after your work, a group of my children have started attending PE lessons there and this is going to continue next year, plus some are going to science and history/geography lessons. Regardless of feedback, I was going to write and tell you about one particular child's first visit to Westfield last week. Now he is a very large, overweight child and I did have reservations about sending him as I was rather worried about the way the Westfield children might react. I needn't have worried. We opened the classroom door and they were so pleased to see him and so welcoming. They were the children we had got to know so well from your puppetry and integration tour and they remembered him. It really was a special moment. Thank you Children's World!"

2000 Timetable 2, 3, 4 & 5 May	Radstock	Fosseway Special School Westfield Primary School	Subject: Medicine
9, 10, 11 & 12 May	Bath	Summerfield Special School Lime Grove Special School Widcombe Junior School	Subject: Music, Art, and Drama
16, 17, 18 & 19 May	Bristol	Grimsbury Park Special School Culverhill Special School The Grange Secondary School	Subject: Frontiers
22, 23, 24 & 25 May	Weston-Super-Mare	Baytree Special School Westhaven Special School Milton Junior School	Subject: Food and Farming
6, 7, 8 & 9 June	Frome	Critchill Special School Trinity C.E. First School	Subject: Communications
12, 13, 15 & 16 June	Glastonbury/Street	Avalon Special School St. Benedict's Junior School	Subject: Inventions
3, 4, 5 & 6 July	Avonmouth	Kinsgsweston Special School	Subject: Transport

2000 Bath Schools

2000 Radstock Schools

2000 Bristol Schools

2000 Weston-S-Mare Schools

2000 Street and Glastonbury Schools

2000 Frome Schools

Kingsweston School Week was not posted as they had no access to the internet.

2000 Schools Festival Tour

2000 Timetable