Week One posted by Caroline

I've had the honour of kicking off the project and for me this first week has been inspiring, energetic and exhausting - but absolutely wonderful! The enthusiasm of the children and the commitment of the staff have been overwhelming.

I've had two sessions with each class (all morning or all afternoon) in which I've focused on three main areas:

1. Sharing my own practice with the children to give them an insight into how I work (where ideas come from, different ways of developing them, finding the potential in an idea etc)

2. Generating and exploring ideas using storytelling and drama.

3. Establishing different ways of working collaboratively and building confidence.

Here's a summary of what each group has been doing:

SESSION 1

ALL CLASSES - have listened to a storytelling performance based on my play, 'The Hollow Country', which I chose because it's set partly underground (links with Forbidden Corner); because it involved the creation of a fantasy world which has its own rules; because the language is rhythmic, alliterative, playful; because the narrative makes use of the classic 'quest' structure (links with thousands of other stories/myths/legends) which may link with our 'quest' for the Jabberwocky.

ALSO - everyone has worked on some basic physical theatre skills including 'hypno-hand' (reflective movement), shadowing, mime and freeze frame. We've done some of this work to music. I hope this will 'dovetail' nicely with the dance workshops Tracy has planned.

SESSION 2

A story-making workshop. I've used the Same starting point for everyone but the details depend on choices made by the children. The starting point is in the real world - on a beach. Two characters are building a sandcastle. As they dig they find an old box which contains a key with the following label:

Turn me once,
Turn me twice,
Turn me once again.

Hold your breath,
Step boldly through
Then count right up to ten.

Next they look for the door which fits the key! We've had doors beneath the sand, a door at the back of a cave and the door of an old, dilapidated beach hut. Next we've taken ten steps, ten strokes swimming underwater or ten rungs of a ladder after which we've reached the next clue which says:

Though the path may twist and turn,
Travel boldly till you learn,
By the laws of land and sea,
Where on earth this place may be.

We've travelled the twisting, turning path and the children have come up with some fabulous descriptions of the path and its surroundings (GREAT POTENTIAL TO LINK WITH THE TRAIL, TERRY). It would take too long to list them all here but they include a bridge over a pool of lava and a tree which sings 'Beware! Beware! There's something down there' (The child who came up with that even sang it to us.)

At the end of the path we've received a third message which says where we are (this has come as a message in a bottle, in the hands of a statue of a shipwrecked sailor and held by a Guardian "like-a-Roman-soldier-but-with-better-weapons"!

At this point we've discovered whee we we are and - surprise, surprise - we're either in the Tulgey Wood or at Jabberwocky's Home.

MISS MONK'S Y3 - In the Tulgey Wood we're focusing on creating the creatures that live there - playing with names of real creatures and splitting them to make portmanteau words. I intend to develop this by getting them to write short poems in which the fantasy animals describe themselves. Movement words very important here. It would be great for them to have the chance to create the creatures physically and work out how they move.

MRS TRICKLEBANK'S Y3/4 - We've started to create the plants/trees/shrubs of the Tulgey Wood. Some physical work in pairs but we ran out of time to develop this fully. I'd like to work on creating riddles or rhymes which the plants actually speak (or sing?).

MRS PARKER'S Y4/5 - Have reached the Jabberwocky's home where the focus is on exploring who Jabberwocky is. Are there others like him? What he's really like? etc

MR BARBER'S Y5/6 - Have also reached Jabberwocky's home and found his wife and family there, wondering what's happened to him. Their focus is to look at things through the eyes of Jabberwocky. Mr B. is very keen on exploring why Jabberwocky is killed, why people are scared of him, fear of difference, seeing other points of view etc

MRS ELSTONE'S Y6 - I only had 45 minutes in the Hall with this class because on Friday mornings the orchestra needs the space so they've got to the end of the twisting, turning path but they still don't know where they are! Back in the classroom, they've started to make a 'map' of the story so far, filling in descriptive details. These are just notes to help with the story they will eventually write. I've also started to work on riddles with this group - they were astonishingly good at solving the ones I gave them.

There's going to be a lot of story writing as follow-up and I'm planning to work on riddles/poems with all groups next week but exactly how this works will depend on the dance workshops which I'm really looking forward to - and also in the work Terry will be doing.

Great to see the photos from Lorraine and Terry. It's a shame there's no photographic record of Week One but maybe this comment (made at the end of Friday afternoon by someone in Mrs Parker's class) just about sums it up:

"This has been reet good!"