Above: Students work on developing their exhibition based on a panoramic photograph.

"The Schools Linking Network was excited to get involved in the WDWTWA Week project, particularly in Bradford as we were already working with 100 schools across the district on a variety of linking projects exploring identity, diversity, equality and community and it gave us a focus week to bring all this work together.

Students were delighted to have the opportunity to showcase dance, drama, music and art work as well as opportunities to share their broader learning with their families and friends. The following case study provides a flavour of this work. The study describes a year-long project involving four primary schools. The four schools worked in two pairs:

Pair 1 - Fagley Primary School and Byron Primary School
Fagley Primary School is a small primary school which serves a very deprived community in social and economic terms. The number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well above average. An above average proportion of pupils have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Although the majority of pupils are white British, the number from non white ethnic backgrounds is steadily increasing. A very small proportion of pupils are from traveller families.

Byron Primary School is a large, oversubscribed school in an area of significant social and economic disadvantage in the inner city area of Bradford. The school population is drawn almost entirely from one ethnic group whose origins lie in Pakistan and who are Muslim and 98% of the pupils have English as an additional language.

Pair 2 - Crossflatts Primary School and Holycroft Primary School
Crossflatts Primary school is a larger than average school, serving a wide catchment area which includes a mixture of rural and urban communities, private and council housing, with some small pockets of affluence. A significant proportion of the pupils are from relatively disadvantaged areas. The school population is largely White British, with a small Asian and mixed race minority. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, including pupils with a statement of special educational need, is above the national average.

Holycroft Primary School serves an area of extreme social disadvantage. More than three quarters of the pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds and most of these do not speak English as a mother tongue when they start school. The proportion of pupils entitled to free school meals is higher than average as is the proportion who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

The Project
Following work in their individual schools on identity and diversity and exchanging passports with information and photographs of themselves, the schools met at Centenary Square in Bradford to make a circle marking out the location of the Mirror Pool. They were also joined by two secondary schools, Grange Technology College and Titus Salt School, working on a similar project called Bovver’d ‘bout Bradford. This was a publicity event for City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, to raise awareness of the future plans for the city and the children were photographed making a giant circle. Following the photograph the children took part in a number of activities organised by the Schools Linking Network, including photography, film, sketching and collage in order to capture the students’ thoughts and images of the people and places in Bradford.

After this first meeting the four schools worked in two pairs and used their meetings to research Bradford in the past looking at history and settlement at different periods over the last Century. They looked at how populations and places change over time and began to think about the recent city centre developments in Bradford. For many of these children they rarely visited the city centre and were excited to see the new shops and restaurants surrounding Centenary Square. The children made documentaries using the photographs and film footage they captured on their first meeting. 

The children worked with artist Tim Curtis to develop an exhibition based on a panoramic photograph of Centenary Square. This work is a moveable exhibition and has already been exhibited in two locations in Bradford during WDWTWA week 2009. The exhibition will go to many other locations in Bradford over the course of next year.

The project raised the children’s awareness of their shared city and enabled them to explore what they all hold in common in terms of the places they enjoy visiting and their hopes and fears for the future of where they live. The project also gave them a real sense of shared pride in their work and in living in such a diverse city, and provided many opportunities to celebrate this.

Written By the Schools Linking Network