VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM


like to hear from more ex-pupils about their (hopefully good!) experiences.


University as they were looking for projects to engage their third year students. She was fabulous in giving us a group of four students who carried interviews of staff, ex-staff, and pupils. They put together a film and a web-site and were able to add some factual mortar to our display and reminiscences. We were able to support them in completing their third year as this added project added weight to their dissertation. One survey that they carried was into the parent’s favourite childhood movie, which came out as “Annie” (the pupil’s favourite was “The Lego Movie”).


Who else have you involved in the project? We have also contacted parents and members of the community and have gathered some extra information about the school and its inhabitants. We are now in the process of compiling this and to put out further requests for information via local press etc.


How have the children responded? The children have really enjoyed doing the research and more practical activities, like tasting 1970s food (Artic Roll and Angel Delight!), producing a fashion show (the 1980s were the favourite decade) and producing book reviews of classic children’s books (Dr Seuss, The Rainbow Fish etc). One year group produced an amazing display on Star Wars (a film franchise that spanned the 70s to now), including a life-size R2- D2 and B-B8. The display pulled all of this together and many parents who visited loved trying to find themselves in old photos and telling us about the school.


What do your staff think of it? The staff have been fully behind the topic with their customary enthusiasm and have supplied old phots of their school days and have spent a lot of time putting the displays together; despite it being SATs week and a very busy time of year in the school! We will further elaborate on the display in September when we will be tying the


July/August 2018 www.education-today.co.uk 17


displays into the best Disney films of each decade! So watch this space as we hold our celebrations of 50 years of Kingsleigh Junior School in September and October 2018. Any excuse for a party!


Have you had involvement from the wider school community? We have had some interest from the local community, but hope for more in the next few months. One person who came in to see the display was a pupil when the school opened and remembered watching the moon landings on a black and white TV in the very hall that we held the exhibition. Whilst we have had a lot of interest from parents and relatives we would now


What benefits have you seen from launching the project? There has been a genuine sense of how much things have changed and yet stayed the same. The technology that we now have, with the ability to communicate across the world and find out any information at the click of a mouse is awe inspiring. Yet we still have classes of thirty with a teacher at the front and children sitting at desks writing away, with the same issues of wishing it was playtime and not getting it!


What would you say to other schools thinking of launching similar projects? The project has been a real eye opener and has been a fabulous way to bring teachers, pupils and families together sharing a common language and interest. The shame is that there is a sense of wistfulness for an age of more innocence and less worry than the modern a ge seems intent on bringing to our current children – more “Swallows and Amazons” and less “Ready Player One”.


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