Today was the start of our Community projects.
We were told by Siobhan that we would be creating a short performance and workshops for the children at St Giles, which is a school for physically and mentally disabled children.
Without knowing much about the project, we took a trip to St Giles, giving us all a chance to get to know each other since we are from different strands. Once we reached our destination, we signed in and were taken to a room where we were briefed on what was acceptable/unacceptable, and also what we were going to be doing. We were told that we weren't to show midriffs or shoulders as it was not professional for the environment we were in; because we were not briefed about this previously, I had to chuck a jumper on top as my outfit was not ideal.
We then went to have brunch with some of the children, giving us a chance to get to know them before working with them. At first, I found it really hard to talk to the children as I didn't know what to say but after a while, I slowly became more and more comfortable with what was happening. The children were very different to one another but what really surprised me was how happy they were and how much they loved this school. There was a variety when it came it disabilities as there were some children who were in wheelchairs but could communicate while there were others who could not speak but they could understand what was being said. I was overcome with emotions as I wasn't sure what to expect beforehand.
The adults acted like a mouthpiece for some students as they understood what they wanted and what they meant however, as we were new to all of this, we weren't able to understand them. It was nice to speak to the adults as it helped me to understand their roles in the school and how much they care about the children.
After brunch, we were split into groups of three and we were taken to different classrooms. I was put into a group with Andy and Lydia who I don't really know. Because I didn't know the children in the classroom either, I began feeling quite isolated however I slowly eased into talking with them. We all had a discussion, getting to know each other, which was really interesting since I learnt that the children have so much in common with me in terms of dreams and hopes. The class I was put into was quite an able class in the way that most of them could communicate and some could walk without wheelchair assistance.
On the way back to school, we were all discussing our different groups and it was really interesting to hear how we all had very different experiences with the children in our classes as they all had different abilities however the one thing that everyone had in common was that they loved music! Because of this, we have realised that we need to include music in our piece to ensure to keep them entertained.
After lunch, we got back into our Community class at school and had discussions about our first impressions and our experiences with the children to then create these mind maps:
To finish off our session, the year 13 who was helping us today held a workshop for us. We started by playing Name Tennis but then it turned into thinking about how we can accomodate the games so that everyone at St Giles will be able to play them. This was really hard because everyone at the school was very different and had different abilities to one another. My group looked at the game where you're at a party and someone walks in with a emotion (eg. sadness) and everyone has to copy the emotion. We thought that we could use coloured cards to show a specific emotion so that it is more visual and easier for the children to understand.
To finish off today, we gave each other a compliment to end on a good note.
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