Mosaics and More: Inspiring School Children

By Anna Herbert

This year we have been visiting Hope House School, a SEND school, and Wellow House School to deliver heritage inspired activities to their lovely pupils.

Using the art and architecture of St Mary Magdalene as inspiration, we have devised activities to engage young people with their local heritage.

Mosaics

First up we did mosaic workshops inspired by the Adoration of the Lamb Mosaic at the East end of St Mary’s. We looked at the history of mosaics, and how people in the past made them. Then, the children looked at pictures the St Mary’s mosaic, and mosaics at other churches around the UK, before using templates, or their imagination to make their very own version.

A wonderful piece of art produced by one of the pupils at Hope House School

A lovely example of a mosaic made by a pupil at Wellow House. The pupils were particularly inspired by birds and nature.

Storytelling and Medieval Monsters

We had a lovely day at Hope House School in March, where Nicky Rafferty, the storyteller for the Reawakening Project spent time with children from across the school telling stories by Medieval creatures and beasts.

The children also enjoyed crafting their own Medieval dragon out of Play-doh, with some fantastic results! Nicky will be heading back to Hope House School in April to deliver continuous professional development storytelling training to the teaching and classroom staff.

“Staff are still telling me about how wonderful they were and are really looking forward to the training after Easter!”

We’re looking forward to returning to both Wellow House School and Hope House School in the future, with sessions planned on stained glass for April!