The Schools Festival Integration Tour visited 6 sets of schools and special schools in Street, Taunton, Bridgwater, Weston-super-Mare, Bath and Radstock, running 4 consecutive days of workshops with each of the 6 groups of 60 mixed-ability children.

After watching a Children’s World puppet performance, each set of 60 children, with the help of our 5-person team, devised, designed & created their own large-scale puppet and drama shows with professional sound, lighting and special effects.

We find the workshop-through-to performance format extremely successful when working with groups of mixed ability children, as all the children are so busily and excitedly engaged in a joint purpose that social integration occurs easily and well. All the children gained in confidence and self-esteem, particularly the children with special needs, for whom it is an almost unique opportunity to work, create and play as real equals with their mainstream peers. As usual, we were delighted to find that the mainstream children left the project with a far more positive attitude to "disability".

The Tour was completed with a Schools Festival Day when all schools joined together for feedback and celebration. The equivalent of 4,680 x 90-minute child-sessions were undertaken on the Schools Festival Tour. This Tour was part-funded by the BBC Children in Need Appeal.

"Many thanks to your team for another superb week. Staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed the project. The quality of the delivery from Children’s World was again of an excellent standard. The collaboration between Westfield and Fosseway Schools was immensely fruitful and educational."

Head Teacher, Fosseway Special School