Inspired by Gandhi - Sampad Education
Chad Vale Primary - Birmingham
Intro
Year Groups : Year 5 & 6
Students : 30
Teachers : 2 ( G. Singh & N.Burnett)
Writers : Amerah Saleh and Parm Kaur
Support : Janette Bushell
Arts Award : 28 Discover Arts Awards
What the teachers said ....
Did the project impact on students learning ?
"For me and the students the poets visiting the school was so valuable - seeing that poets live and breathe! Listening and speaking with her [Amerah Saleh] meant they connected with a real poet and could see that poetry connected with their lives."
Seeing a poem and hearing a poem being constructed line by line live in front of them was a revelation. They saw a new way of writing and widened their perpective of what it is to be a writer." G. Singh
"We did poetry again in November and I saw the impact clearly then. Poetry was not something to fear - they had no constraints. See our WW1 poems and you will see the change . " N. Burnett
Did anything surprise you during the project ?
"It was a real confidence boost for all the students and it was interesting that it was not our 'top' students who were selected for publication in the book. Some of our students who have Polish as their first language wrote very moving and complex writing and reading out their work was a real development in class. It was a great platform for children not usually good at writing - a chance to shine and those shortlisted were not the most confident writers in my class." N. Burnett
"As a teacher, it was nice to see them so articulate and enthused with visitors . They developed their knowledge of poetry through the sessions and were not afraid to speak up in relation to the poems they heard from the writer and from other students . G. Singh
"It changed their view of what poetry is ...
...not old fashioned but current and live."
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How did it support the curriculum ?
"The project supported different curriculum areas - literacy obviously particularly writing, performing and assessing each other's work . The project stages enables them to draft and redraft and through some follow- on work they got to really develop their work.
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Current affairs and news is discussed in class and so much explained on an academic level. Our children have lots of opinions! This project linked so well with issues such as discrimination and identity supporting emotional development. These are real issues for our students and the approach which took both a world cultural view ( through Gandhi's themes) and a more personal view through their views worked well for us."
G. Singh
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Any comments of the materials and Arts Award ?
"We were impressed with the materials and templates provided by Sampad - easy to copy and work with. It was the first time we had done Arts Award in class so the support was appreciated and all the students are so pleased with their poetry Arts Award books we made.
"Some of the parents and children went to meet the Indian Ambassador to receive a copy of the printed Sampad book and they were so proud - as we are ."