March – July 2011: In this programme, in a series of one off workshops over 2 terms, a team of artists worked alongside teachers and pupils at Kensington Primary school, Newham, to help them create their own musical, about their own journeys. The team involved a collaborative songwriting facilitator, a Bangladeshi singing teacher, a creative drama specialist, costume maker and 2 young music mentors.
All of the school teachers were facilitated to create a song collaboratively, all of key stage 1 and all of key stage 2 also wrote their own songs. All of yr 5 wrote stories about their journeys and the school drama group of mixed years was helped to turn these into a script. All the children learned ‘No Wars’ from the Youth Music Sing Book and a Bangladeshi song about finding out who you are on your journey.
Teachers rehearsed the songs across the school with the help of visits from the 2 young music mentors. The drama group worked with their teacher, with some support from our drama specialist. The final performance ran for two evenings and involved the whole school. The outcome has been the experience of an inclusive, creative and musical community, sharing a common purpose and deeper understanding of each other.