Glenfall primary school 9th 10th 13th June

work experience at Glenfall primary school in Charlton Kings.
Organised by Niki Whitefeild and COS.
Me, Sammi and Alexis spent a few days there, and I helped out on the COS open day in the Saturday.
Me and Sammi were stationed with Jake Lever, (http://www.leverarts.com)  a fine artist based in Birmingham who has recently taken the leap to go freelance.
He’s done murals and creative spaces, as well as  exhibits held in churches.

Tuesday -

There for a 9am start, we are based in the school hall.  There are a range of workshops available for the children to choose from.

clay owls

Embroidery, tile making, styrofoam printing, 3D birdhouses and Jakes 3D buildings.

There was a range of materials from a recycling store Jake had got hold of - lenses (which the children loved to make glasses and telescopes out of), plastic hoops and scraps, sticks, styrofoam, tape, glue and more glue.

materials 

We had the theme of THE CITY OF OUR DREAMS and Jake had printed off a few examples of contemporary structures, such as the Bullring shopping center in Birmingham, the Shard.

We said, “ we want you to create your own city, with no boundaries.” I found myself promoting the children - what does a city have? What does your town have in it? Hospital, school, post office... I asked questions that helped the children come up with ideas on what purpose their building had - does your mum like to garden? her favourite colour? do you have pets? etc etc

By doing this I found that the children relaxed and were able to have their imagination woken... ‘I will have a tower for the dogs to live in and blue flowers because my mum loves flowers’ and so on. You were constantly talking to them, asking why and what do you think?

I felt that standing and bending over them uncomfortable, so knelt back beside them to talk to them on their own level. Some were particularly shy, and were prompted  by questions referring their family or on a personal level (what do you enjoy doing? Whats your favourite room in your house?). Once you began to get a few answers, the rest came easier.

We had the classes mixed, so each hour we had yr2 and yr5 etc, The year 6 were independents and needed little help, surprisingly similar were Reception. We had them first on the wednesday and couldn’t believe how fantastic they were. Incredibly independent and unlike all the other years, didn’t ask once for some sellotape to be given to them... we felt a bit conned!

As well as making buildings, we got them to draw a picture of an imaginary building. There were a few with robot arms and rockets as well as castles with pink curtains. Puppies and sisters had their entire own tower and spaceships flying from the roof.

On the Tuesday afternoon, me and Sammi painted a background for the display in the corner of the library. This was to layer up all the paper houses we had and make a cityscape, and select a  few 3D sculptures to sit on the bookcases.

staple gun mad

with a few alterations to the spot lighting, the scene was ready!

On the Saturday it was a slightly later start of 10am, and I helped Jake set up printing. We were using collograph prints to make BIRDS OF PARADISE. This was a open studio day, so we had parents as well as children.