Sara Haq’s notes from the first workshops

DAY 01 - 

Morning: Introduction – me and them, the project, the idea of archive – what they were working towards i.e. a personal archive.

Showed examples of a concertina (the post-it notes I got fold out like concertinas). At Wormholt Park – I showed a piece of my own work, the spider one you saw in a Japanese Album (Moleskine).

The first exercise – finding out about them and cultural heritage – all the info on their cards and about who they could put questions to. 

Creative Enquiry (Philosophy 4 Children) activity to interrogate the White City bird’s eye view photo.

Built up a Question Bank on paper as well as on their own cards.

Afternoon: Brainstorming and fleshing out findings (and using the IT suite for research for St. Stephen’s).
Using post it notes to record questions and word associations.

Coming up with LOADS of questions and then democratically choosing a group question. 

Learning new words and definitions – unravelling meaning of words unconventionally – using sound & imagination

Drawing activities – Imagining themselves at the Olympics – what sports would they do and why?

Imagining materials – Used white tissue paper on brown paper to respond to the Court of Honour photo. No scissors – just tearing and glue – they made amazing stuff. They did some with coloured paper/ collage.

Also gave them photocopies of pictures from the time and got them to take ‘prints’ using sticky book covering – to make ‘packet’ index cards – using quite a few different materials and ideas – getting them to be sensitive to materials and making connections between materials and subject matter. Great work achieved here.

Looked at sporting activities and more cultural/ artistic (from exhibitions) – different types of entertainment

DAY 02

Morning: Recap and introduction to the photo walk. Gave them photocopied maps and asked them to find COUNTRY street names, stadiums, pavillions etc. They also had an old postcard map plan of the 1908 stadium and asked them to look for shapes – make the BBC connection – exploring themes of broadcasting information & entertainment.

Went on walk around area – Wendell Park too far to get to White City site so used Wormholt Park as inspiration. Got them to think about old and new as they walked, looking at shops, restaurants, evidence of other cultures and different communities having settled here. 

Wormholt Park & St Stephens went to Hammersmith Park & saw Japanese Garden – a remnant from the White City area. Will upload those pictures. Also walked around the White city estate, saw the BBC building & satellite dishes.

Related to the concertina, we looked at shapes, looked for satellite dish shapes and stadium shapes (circles, rings, folds). Looking at what might have been there 100 years ago and was still there and why they thought that was the case.

Looked at materials – what were things built from? Nature – this tree might have been here 100 years ago – what did it see? If you were sitting here then – what would you have been doing/ watching? Using imagination stimulated by pictures and objects from the environment, encouraged them to draw and keep asking & writing down questions. Didn’t have enough cameras to go round – so children didn’t take pictures but did drawings and rubbings – on embroidery backing material with wax crayons. They had to write a question and think about what and why they were rubbing – to use later as a trigger for their own imaginative exercises or to work from an object they found.

Afternoon: Group discussion of findings from trip. Picking one object/ rubbing/ picture/ question to develop further through drawing/ writing/ collage (their choice).

Really getting under the skin of what the area was like in 1908, in relation to what it is now. LOTS of questions, they always worked on their cards or post it notes.

2.         What worked and what didn’t in terms of the strategies you used to work with the children? What did they respond to? Was anything too difficult? (If poss, distinguish between schools)

The LOVED making stuff – brown paper and white tissue very successful, the packets were GREAT too – but trickier for kids to do on their own. Needed to give VERY clear and single instructions with Wormholt & Wendell (younger kids). They seemed on the whole to enjoy all the activities though. They like calling out and it could get very noisy – good to give them all post it’s/extra cards that they can write questions down instead of shouting them out all the time.3.         Were there any unexpected outcomes or specific concepts/creative outcomes that can be used and built on in subsequent sessions? What do they children want or need to happen next for the project to be successful?

They loved the concertina ideas and would LOVE to finish that – they have only been making cards & keeping it all together in the archives. NO time to put them together. Left sewing materials at schools – in Creative Partnership materials packs.

I have told them they’ll be working with different people  - they’re quite excited about that. All of them very lovely kids and had LOTS of fun – and asked me to come back and see them! (Wendell class made me a BIG card! Very sweet) They know that my stage was the research stage – they have asked LOADS of questions and I think would like some time and ways to find out some more of the answers and develop their questions further.