Reflections
Featured as
an example of good practice in the report by Sir Keith Ajegbo, The
Diversity and Citizenship Curriculum Review 2007, Reflections
developed over three years to enable students in a large mixed
secondary school, and eventually from feeder primary schools too,
to explore issues of diversity. Groups from widely diverse
heritages took part, predominantly White British and Pakistani
Muslim, with a fairly high number of children from families of
asylum seekers and refugees, as well as new immigrants from Eastern
Europe some of whom lacked basic English skills. Some students came
from poor families, some had faced racism and prejudice.
Reflections created a model of working
together, devising and performing, which demonstrates how active
citizenship can work – to explore problems and to promote cohesion,
to cultivate good citizenship in a local and global community of
diverse groups.
“Reflections
started with the Community Action and Service Project at the
School. The 6th Form students who chose Performing Arts as their
Community service project felt strongly that they wanted to be
involved in a project which focused on the immediate community –
the students at their own school.
This excited me because I recognised the real impact it
would make, not only for our diverse school community but also
because a project of that nature has the possibility of
sustainability and real impact.”
Lee Scholtz, director of the project
It involved
the students in a series of workshops which enabled them to feel
more confident with their own complex identities, and to develop a
positive group identity which would in turn support them in working
towards a public performance. The work began by looking at the
different languages which are spoken by the students in the group
and encouraging them to teach each other to use these.
The students then used drama, dance, music and
art to explore issues which were real for them in their lives. For
some, this included a family history of fleeing their native
country, perhaps leaving loved ones or friends behind; it might
have included experiences of racism or oppression; for all, it
included the frequently-alienating experience of trying to find
their place in a large secondary school.
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