Story Harvesting at Westbourne Academy
Lockdown and social distancing hit students across the country hard and also prevented them developing key skills. Problem solving, working with others and perseverance are just some of the vital, transferable, ‘employability’ skills which need practising and developing over their school education to prepare them for school and beyond.
St Mary-le-Tower, in its capacity as Ipswich’s civic church, has formed a working partnership with Suffolk Children’s University; with the aim of helping children and young people recover from the effects of the pandemic and emerge as ambitious, aspirational young people.
The Story Harvesting project, was piloted with pupils from Westbourne Academy. A generous grant, awarded by Ipswich Opportunity Area (IOA) and Ipswich Cultural Education Partnership (ICEP), enabled the Story Harvesting to draw on the expertise of Gillian Allard, Master of Photography, to enhance the project with visual imagery. Working with Gillian has enabled the participating pupils to acquire new skills, taking effective pictures with their own phones.
Alongside the photography was the student’s Harvested Stories. These were put together after the students interviewed and collated the stories from their families and people from the wider community.
The event did not just celebrate the pupils’ achievements. It also gave them a platform to step up, talk about what they had done, and demonstrate their new-found confidence. The event was a massive success and the church was full of not only the students, but their teachers, parents and other members of the wider community.
I was immensely proud of the students and how they conducted themselves during the event. From Archie and Ethan serving refreshments, Evelyn’s speech, Leveah’s entrepreneurial skills selling the cards, Lacey and Malique’s hosting skills, Nola and Keirah’s confidence as they talked about the project – they all had an important role to fill.
Due to the success of the last event for the Story Harvesting Project with KS3, the students have been working towards their next showcase event – Tuesday 12 July. 16:00pm- 17:30pm at Suffolk Library in Ipswich.
The students have continued to meet in their own time every Tuesday, working with visitors in the creative industry who have been helping them to prepare (Graphic designers, Photographers, Library Staff etc).
The students have rebranded the project as ‘Shadows Brought to Light’ and will be showcasing their work/selling their stories once more. As always, it would be lovely to see as many people as possible dropping in… the students will be providing refreshments.
Miss Sarah Bird – Teacher of English