Neutral Venue Visit - Stockport
High Lane Primary School, High Lane, Stockport and All
Saints CE Primary School, Heaton Norris, Stockport met at Romiley
Forum Theatre, Romiley, Stockport, on Wednesday 18th
November 2009.
This day built upon the identity work the children had covered
in their own classes, including an exchange of information in the
form of a class identity box containing special objects and fact
files about the children. The day began with games to mix the
children up and help them relax. Following this the children
engaged in drama and dance activities ran by facilitators at the
theatre, based on the story "Giraffes Can’t Dance" by Giles
Andreae. This story provided a great stimulus for a first meeting
to engage these Year 4 children with discussing ideas around
identity and prejudice and exploring feelings associated with these
issues.
Lunch time, which can often be a tricky time to manage, felt
very relaxed. The children were put into mixed groups, each
supported by a member of staff whose role was to guide informal
conversation within the group. The children had fun talking about
favourite TV programmes, discussing the contents of their lunch box
and finding out lots of similarities and differences between
them.
The children were provided with many opportunities to meet, work
and form relationships with different children throughout the day,
sometimes in small groups and sometimes in pairings. Facilitating
the group in this way proved a great success and the children
quickly and confidently became used to this way of working.
During whole group reflection at the end of the day the
children felt they had formed a relationship with someone in the
group at some point throughout the day and were excited about
meeting each other again.
The project is ongoing and the day will be followed up by
reflective practice in school where the children will have
opportunities to openly voice their thoughts in a safe environment
and another exchange of information focussed on the question:
Where do we live? before they visit each
others’ schools next term.