Above: Year 6 students at Holbrook Primary School produced an 'Identity Mosaic' as part of WDWTWA Week 2009

At Holbrook Primary School we believe that diversity is a strength. We want our pupils to respect and celebrate the differences between us. The heritage of some of our pupils is easy to identify as Trowbridge has a large Moroccan community as well as a growing number of polish families. In our school we have children from Chinese, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Moroccan, South African, Polish, Irish and Jamaican families and also pupils with mixed heritage. We have children born in Trowbridge or other Wiltshire towns, those born elsewhere in the UK and several children who were born in another country. The majority of our children only speak English and/or speak English at home, but some speak more than one language and several families speak a language other than English when together as a family. We have children who are Christian, Muslim and Buddhist and children with no declared faith. The diversity is clear to see wherever you look in our school.

We also know that if we dig deeper, many children will find that their family tree spreads further than they first thought. Some roots will lead back to communities elsewhere in the UK, other roots can be followed to Europe or beyond.

As part of 'Who Do We Think We Are?' Week 2009 we aimed to teach our Year Six children about diversity by involving them in research into their family and heritage and in doing so, to consider questions about the multi-cultural nature of the United Kingdom. We wanted to depict our findings in a work of art that would reflect our diverse school.

All children researched their own family backgrounds by talking to parents and grandparents looking for evidence of migration and settlement. Most pupils were able to gather information going back to their great grandparents' time. Findings showed some pupils could trace their Wiltshire heritage through four generations, while other families took different routes to get to Trowbridge. All 4 countries of the United Kingdom were represented in the collected research. Key events such as post Second World War migration from the Caribbean were also uncovered.

Artist Anita Andrews was commissioned to work with the children on turning their research into a work of art. A mosaic was chosen as the art form, since it acted as a metaphor for the diverse nature of the school. The children were keen to use their own faces to represent the variety of backgrounds. The faces were to be displayed around a mosaic world map to emphasise the global nature of our backgrounds.

The decision about which faces to use was made by asking the key question: 'How many or how few faces do we need to show the diverse nature of our school?' It was also decided that, as a year 6 group would be designing and making the mosaic, the finished work of art would reflect the differences and diversity found specifically in Year Six, and this would in turn symbolically reflect the diversity of the whole school community. A list was then developed by students detailing the diversity the mosaic had to include. Students decided it must include:

• Both boys and girls
• Students with black/white/Chinese/mixed heritage
• Students born in Wiltshire and born elsewhere in the UK
• Students born in the UK and born outside the UK
• Students with English as a first language and students with a different first language

The pupils worked out that all these differences could be 'expressed' in seven children. These seven children became the faces of difference in our mosaic. Anita worked with small groups of children on a rota basis over three days. Children all drew portraits of each other and the seven selected faces were transferred to overhead transparencies and then recreated in the right size on wooden boards. Under Anita's supervision, the mosaic was created by breaking up ceramic tiles of different colours and cementing in place.

'Who Do We Think We Are?' Week 2009 was the perfect opportunity for the pupils of Holbrook to consider aspects of identity and cultural diversity and to reflect on the diverse nature of their own school community. The focus week will become a fixture in our school. We aim to extend our research into the roots of all our children and to continue to raise questions of identity, community and belonging.

 "The finished mosaic is in pride of place at the front of the school demonstrating to all visitors that in this corner of Trowbridge many backgrounds come together" . Rachel Humphries - Teacher

Written by Roger Whitewick, Headteacher, Holbrook Primary School

The project described in this article was made possible by a grant awarded by the WDWTWA Project. Further details about future grants availale to schools can be obtained by contacting the Project Officer at wdwtwa@rgs.org
To learn more about the project at Holbrook Primary School and to view an image gallery of the project, please visit the school website by following the link below.