Ceremonies and sounds of dawn
Ceremonies and sounds at dawn: Year 4 learners at Barry Island
and Cadoxton Primary Schools
Why was the project needed?
The project has strong links with art, music and dance in the
Key Stage 2 curriculum. It also fulfils many areas of the English
programme of study, and links with elements of history. It enables
teachers to deliver the relevant sections of the national LNF for
Year 4 in terms of Literacy, specifically:
Oracy Developing and presenting information and ideas Speaking,
Listening, Collaboration and discussionWriting Organising ideas and
information Meaning, purposes, readers, Structure and
organisationWriting Writing accurately Language.
The numeracy elements of the project are not focused upon here
though the learners were able to use calendars to plan events.In
addition, both schools aim to broaden the learners horizons, giving
them access to wider experiences and lifelong learning.How did the
collaboration come about?
Dylan Adams, a freelance music, philosophy and creativity
specialist, initiated the project which was welcomed by the head
teachers of both Barry schools. His ideas, expertise and resources
were integral to the project. The artist was known to both head
teachers and had worked in Barry previously.
He led separate workshops at the schools culminating in a dawn
performance on a local beach one week before the summer solstice of
2014. The performance needed two tribes and therefore collaboration
between the schools was necessary so that each had an audience for
their work.
What planning took place?
The teachers and the artist planned workshops where learners
would focus on listening, collaboration and discussion skills to
develop their performances, generating their own ideas and using
their previous knowledge, for example, when making pottery to use
as offerings and developing dance movements that reflected those
seen in cave paintings and geological patterns.
The artist e-mailed an initial outline of the project to the
schools prior to the first workshops but much of the subsequent
work relied on the learners own ideas within this framework. He and
the schools communicated via e-mail and text after the initial
conversations that set the project in motion.
What prior work was done by learners to prepare for the
project?No specific work was done to prepare for the project but
teachers at Barry Island wished to build on previous work relating
to Neolithic life and art and, at Cadoxton, to their Dream for a
Druid topic.
What was the project?Week 1 The project began in the second week
of the summer term, 2014, with a days workshop in each school. The
learners focused on:considering the roles required by the
performance dancers, warriors, musicians, craftsmen,
poets/bardslistening attentively to sounds in the environment. This
led to poetry writing with the lead phrase, It was so quiet, I
could hear ........mind-mapping ideas about a sacred place link
with Celtic cave where the sun shines through an opening at the
summer solsticetalking about the sunrise and the summer solstice
and whether any learner had experienced this magical time between
night and daythinking about music in terms of beat, rhythm and
voice and exploring the use of drums, didgeridoos and chanting with
half the group being dancers and half musicians/singers.
What was the project?Week 2 At a second days workshop in each
school a week later, learners rehearsed their performance in the
morning session, each perfecting a hakka as well as their dance and
music to welcome the Sun. They then made pottery using Neolithic
designs on clay provided by the artist. This was to be used to
present offerings at the final ceremony before being smashed as
part of the ritual.
What was the project?PerformanceAn afternoon dress rehearsal was
organised for the whole ceremony on June 13th when the two school
groups met on the beach and performed for each other. This was a
great success as all the learners involved were present something
that wasnt possible the next day when the final ceremony took place
at dawn as it required learners and parents to be at Jacksons Bay
at 4.50a.m. For those who were able to be there it was indeed a
magical experience and one the learners will remember for a long
time.
What were the outcomes in terms of impact on learners?Learners
showed great enthusiasm for the project and their ability to
collaborate, to discuss and make plans, to reflect and to express
their feelings showed improvement. Their ability to work
independently also increased as they responded to such an unusual
and interesting focus. They gained inspiration from the artists
input so that their poetry, including that written by learners with
additional needs, showed imagination and an ambitious use of
vocabulary. Cadoxton learners also attempted report writing to
record what had happened. They demonstrated their ability to work
well within a group and their speaking and listening skills were
also enhanced by having to plan carefully in order to perform to an
unfamiliar audience.
The head teacher of one of the schools reports that this and
other imaginative projects are leading to improved standards of
literacy with elements of Level 6 work being achieved by some
learners.
In music at Barry Island, teachers use the project to help the
learners explore beat, timbre, rhythm, dynamics, duration and
texture in their music making, linking the work to more instruments
and layers and to composition and appraisal.
A display with a QR code was generated for the learners iPads
and placed on Barry Island Schools website. There has also been
considerable activity on social networks where parents have shown
their appreciation of the event.
What follow up work did the teacher do?
In both schools, writing about the event took place and learners
appeared more motivated and able to produce some more extended
pieces of work.
Speaking and listening activities continue to focus on the
project and have included an evaluation of the performance by the
learners.50285.086
