The aims of this project were to celebrate the diversity of our communities, learn more about migration and value the stories of our families. 

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A new professional performance "A Place for Me" was devised by the company, inspired by the reminiscences of Caribbean Elders who are Grandparents of children at three local schools. The performance tells the fictional story of Clemence and Iris who moved from St Lucia and Jamaica to London in the 1960's.

 

The performance includes our usual Peoplescape techniques of playful storytelling, live music, puppetry and shadow puppetry, exploring dilemma's and meaningful audience participation.

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Children from years 5-7 in the schools watched the performance and then took part in workshops using drama-in-education techniques such as corridor of thoughts, still image, and teacher in role to explore  the theme of migration through the fictional context of 'A Place for Me'.

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 They then devised their own Lewisham Migration Story with one of our drama practitioners which was performed for parents and carers. The stories explored have included the personal histories of TA's in the school, refugee stories and stories from the children's families

 

All teachers involved in the project received a CPDL session with our drama  practitioners to explore techniques used and explore the teaching of migration through drama based approaches.

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We also took part in Lewishan Borough of Culture with a showcase of the work including a community performance of A Place for Me and three of the children's performance at The Migration Museum.

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You can see more about this day and hear from some of the teachers involved here:

 

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We'd love to hear from you if you'd like us to create a similar project with your school  Click here to get in touch

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Testimony from teachers about the project

Powerful performance – an incredible project!

Pitched perfectly for the children

Such a memorable day

It is a way for the children to really have a sense of compassion and understanding about the world around them.

At Myatt Garden we believe it is a privilege to work with creative professionals who not only inspire our children, but also provide quality CPD as our staff work alongside them. Our experience working with Peoplescape in 2021 as part of the migration project deepened our children’s appreciation of individual stories and acted as a catalyst for work with local elders.

 

Working with Peoplescape on the Migration Stories Project was an extremely empowering experience for our Year 6 children last year.  They worked collaboratively to share their own and their families’ experiences through a highly-emotional performance. The project was completely inclusive – the cohort which took part had a very high number of children with Special Educational Needs, including some with EHCPs.

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It was a joy to work with the Peoplescape team, who encouraged and nurtured children’s ideas in such an expert way, bringing out the absolute best in all involved.
 

 It was accessible to all children and they were proud of the work they created. It was an important and valuable project to be involved in.

 

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