Carnival at College Road!

31 Mar 2009

Area Delivery Organisation: RIO - Forest of Dean, Bristol, Cornwall & Plymouth

College Road Primary school in Plymouth have launched an exciting programme of work to redesign and enrich their curriculum. Starting with a Winter carnival launch event, the programme is putting the students and parents at the heart of the work. The Carnival used donkeys, performance art, a junk band, visual artists and street dancers to excite, engage and rock the students and over a hundred parents. Dawn Melville, creative practitioner said, ''The afternoon was jammed-packed full of noise, colour, creativity, excitement and donkeys!''

The event saw parents getting stuck in alongside teachers and students, banging on industrial drums, breaking in the classrooms and making carnival costumes. The Stiltskin Theatre Company who attended said, “It was certainly jam packed with costume making, head-dress creating and circus skills performing, you kept us very much on our toes! The children were extremely creative and it was great to see so many parents, grandparents and carers joining in with the celebration.”

Amongst the chaos, years 3 and 5 were interviewing parents and reporting on the event - digging into the passions and interests of the parents and recruiting for the curriculum development group. The feedback from the event was extremely positive from all involved; 'You know you're on to a winning formula when the children don't want the workshop sessions to end,' beamed Dawn Melville.

After the event the Curriculum Group consisting of parents, governors, pupils and teachers was born. Naming themselves MAD (Making A Difference) they are well on the way to designing and commissioning a series of Compelling learning experiences for the summer term including turning the school into a carnival production house for a week.