Ladies Club

I was invited to a ladies club which used to meet at the community centre, now at St David's Church Hall.

I started with intro to project and had brought photos along with me taken by the OOSC group, which we looked at and chose favourites. I had also brought some archive images to look at, and together with a brief activity to picture a favourite place you met and played with friends (not school), we had a lively debate about pretty much everything.

It was really useful to show the photos and gauge responses to them and also to debate the value of photos, archives and personal, local and global history.

A participant had also brought a photo taken of all the houses on the road to the location of the centre. You can still see the original houses on photo in blog of first workshop.

Chats led to more interviews as part of project, and also link to JOIN US Project:

Move to new centre

All moved to the new centre. Everyone still settling in really, so only had a chance to chat a bit and show the long edit of video and photos so far.
I took the chance to pop down and see the old centre, barred up and ready for demolition.

Holiday homework

On last day of holiday in Ilfracombe Arthur decided he wanted to map out the next one, incorporating Brazilian rainforest, New York, Sidney, Antartica and New Zealand.

We are planning an Xmas visit to my sister in New Zealand this year, following a holiday of a lifetime three years ago when we first went out there. Our school threatened us with loosing Arthur's school place if we take Arthur out of school for any time in the next five years, which makes a trip to NZ very tricky.

Odd, when research clearly identifies 80% of learning happens outside the classroom, and that schools want to involve parents more in learning, that such a fantastic opportunity is not just ignored, but actively discouraged.

In the last year the schoolwork that have most excited Arthur (and us parents) was 'The Great Fire of London' and 'Brazilian rainforest'. We visited London, went down Pudding Lane, climbed monument, walked around Thames, visited 'The Museum of London', had a great day out that contextualised 'The Great Fire' for Arthur and Jago (3 years old). Shame not to have picked a Birmingham based topic, and admittedly, not everyone gets the chance to visit London, nevermind the Brazilian rainforest, but at least we got to find out about the topic with Arthur.

Schools should actively involve and encourage parents to take part in learning, and support parents and children bringing their learning back to the classroom. To only value learning in the classroom reinforces an insular view of school disconnected with our reality and unimportant to our lives.

Shenley Green Model

We spent the session making our own Shenley Green Centre and the area around it from junk.