Story & photos:Amy Palmer
In November I was lucky enough to be invited to a very special museum created by the pupils of Owler Brook and Whiteways primary schools. Deputy headteacher Miss Rudd showed me around the school hall which had been transformed into exhibits from different times in history. An enthusiastic group of Year 5s led me through the 1960s, where I met a very lifelike Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and heard a short concert from the Beatles.
Year 2’s project was on castles, complete with knights, a queen and a horse. Other year groups had covered the 1950s and the Victorians. The children made all of the objects themselves as part of a creative project called Building Learning Power, which Yahia told us was “all about teamwork and building things”.
The children explained the four ‘R’ skills that made up the project as ‘resilience’ to carry on when things went wrong, ‘reflection’ to see what went well and what could be done better, ‘resourcefulness’ for building from everyday objects and ‘reciprocity’ for helping each other as a team. The children worked independently on their own ideas – as Osama said, “We’re grown up and we know what we’re doing!”
Year 5 focused on the Vikings and a huge Viking longship was sailing through the hall, which everyone was very proud of. Yahia told me that they had been ‘resourceful’ by making the oars out of cricket bats wrapped in tissue paper.
Parents had also been invited to the museum and everyone was very impressed with the pupils of Whiteways and Owler Brook.
