Forest School Suffolk Primary school 220 pupils aged 3-9 in Brandon Predominantly working class with most parents employed in low wage occupations Mainly white British population with recent immigrants mainly from Eastern Europe and Portugal

Challenges faced by the school Meeting the needs of EAL children whilst maintaining support for SEN children Ensuring that newly arrived children and parents were made to feel welcome in a community that is quite insular in many ways

How the project came about Based on a project developed in Scotland and recommended by HMIe Funded by the Lottery’s ‘Awards for all’ fund Arose from on going work developing further cross-curricular approaches to learning

Aims of the project To bring together the community of Brandon To celebrate the many different events that have brought us together To develop speaking and listening as a means to promote writing To develop cross curricular working by including artistic elements

Setting up the project Working group of teachers, TAs and governor to plan the project Timeline established so that there was enough time to carry out each activity Event planned where parents could come into school and work with their children Launch event planned

Elements of the project: Promoting Literacy Each child went home and talked with their parent about their personal history story- prompts were given so that parents understood what we wanted In school children told their stories to each other They then wrote and edited their stories Children were enthused by knowing that there would be a special book ‘properly’ printed

Our Book

Elements of the project: Promoting Creativity Children illustrated their stories They also planned a design for their quilt square based on their family history Parents came in for an afternoon to help their child make the squares The squares have been assembled into banners which have been hung around the hall as a reminder of each child’s family story There will be a special launch of the book with reading, dance and music in February

Our Banners

Promoting community cohesion The experience of working together, sharing stories and all having their stories collated together as part of Brandon stories has, we hope, promoted greater cohesion Evaluation of the project will take place following the launch of the book in February

Anna’s story