Year 3 and 4 children at Cornholme Junior, Infant and Nursery School have immersed themselves in the project supplied by Mid Pennine Arts.
The school is already a firm believer in delivering writing through the creative curriculum in order to inspire and enthuse children’s ideas and were therefore very keen be involved.
Children in lower Key Stage 2 have explored the text of ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes and then worked with two professional artists. Mick Kirkby-Geddes, a local sculptor, helped the children to form their interpretations of the Iron Man.
The children thought this day was ‘fantastic’, using junk materials in small groups to model before covering the pieces in mod-roc to form completed structures. As the children worked, language to describe and create was being used and developed.
Our teachers can now use this stimulus to feed into children’s written work.
The children then participated in two days of story-telling and drama workshops with professional story-teller Ursula Holden-Gill.
These sessions were extremely well planned and included a balanced structure of listening and working practically in order to develop ideas. Children completed their drama session with a clear starting point for writing and are genuinely enthused about the prospect of creating their own piece of work.
Ofsted inspectors, who were in school during the workshop days, commented on the positive benefits of ‘ the opportunities to enjoy enrichment activities based on authors and books’ when feeding back on their judgements regarding achievement of pupils at the school.