Hayesdown Academy and the Hedgehog Safari Storywalkers

For six weeks throughout January and early February storywalks has had a residency with Claire Vowell, Jo Plimmer and myself at Hayesdown School in Frome with year 2 teacher Julie Turner pictured above and classroom support Liz Paget. The first day began with introducing ourselves then launching straight into the story called 'The Apple Pip Girl'.

It is a linear tale which journeys along a path and returns back along it again, which can be very interactive and a great start to finding the measure for the class, but also great for the class to get the measure of us! I have told this story to year 2 pupils many times, it's really accessible and lays the foundations for how a journey happens in the storywalks as well as on paper, or even in the air for that matter. But this was the first time we had worked properly with children so young through the storywalk engine, rather than just a taster session.

When the story was complete the pupils were then asked to draw this journey on a long piece of sugar paper using drawings and words as they felt appropriate. For me it was especially interesting as these were year 2 pupils, all 6 - 7 years old and still on that long and tricky road to reading. The term emergent readers is really accurate here and even for those with strong linguistic skills there were words which tested and stretched them.

So what was the format of the residency and how did it come about?

Storywalks has been involved in quite a few schools in much the same way authors and illustrators visit, but interestingly funding for this project has come from a series of grants including a major one from the SHINE Foundation. They invest in teachers who want to do something different with education and Claire Vowell was keen to take storywalks to other schools inside her cluster. Feelers were put out through the school networks and Jo Plimmer a key member of the storywalks team liaised with several schools all of which were keen to get involved in this pilot. 

So it was mid January, gloves on, booted and suited we set out and grabbed some stories out on their field, as prior to arriving at Hayesdown Academy I had prepped up a story in their school grounds ready to reveal at the end of the first day. This was to be the first of many such excursions, revealing text and images (and more) in their school grounds. 

But it should be said here that these are relatively short excursions, we go out, trigger the story, grab photographs or notes and then back into the classroom. Long sessions outside are not appropriate at this time of year, but nor are they really necessary.

Working with this age group was a real test for myself and Storywalks, we did not know how well they would respond to a predominantly text based journey and whether we would have a similar success as with the years above.

Over the six weeks we gradually immersed the pupils in stories but what we were not expecting was the creativity and support from their teacher Julie Turner. At every point Julie improved and added to what we were doing, she was able to slip in techniques and compartmentalise tasks in such a way that her students could progress, for Claire and myself this was fantastic.

Hedgehogs class has a wide range of learning abilities with perhaps more than its fair share of special educational needs pupils. But what really bowled us over was the work that Julie was doing whilst we were away, previous schools had pushed curriculum aside for the day but then little would move for the week until we were back in class again.

Amazingly Julie was really proactive in using Storywalks in our absence, so we'd get back in the following week and the pupils had all written up their stories, or they had been out and tested their locations. One of the main reasons for this was that some of the grant money had provided for a class set of 5 GPS enabled iPads loaned to the school throughout this period. Having these enabled Julie to see other opportunities for enhanced learning beyond what we were already doing.

A great example of this is the two (yes two!) new storywalks stories which evolved at Hayesdown. The first actually isn't a story at all, it's called 'The Griddler' and is super simple, first you need to draw a map of the school grounds (see image) and place a simple map grid over it with letters along the bottom and numbers up the side. A quick photo of this for the first image in the Storywalks engine followed by ten minutes prepping up the zones with correct co-ordinates. They are to be put into the directions element of the storywalk engine and immediately you have an interactive and physical maths lesson ready to roll.

But this was not the end, as at each location you could add little maths task, like how many rocks are there in the circle, then use the answer as a component to the next direction. Or simple interventions like pump your arms as you count down from fifty, or count in fives up to one hundred. Finger numbers are good too but on a summers day they could be more complex, you could use a tape measure or compass to find a bearing, perhaps even the dial on a clock.

Loads and loads of potential, very exciting as I have been so focused on the literacy aspect the maths element was yet to surface. I have a feeling there is great potential here just waiting to be developed.

And the other story, the clue is in the title! But you'll have to invite us in to do a Safari and all will be revealed!

Immense thanks to Julie Turner, Hayesdown Academy Head Sue Heal for inviting us in, Liz Paget classroom assistant (amazing support) and all the parents who came in to read their children's stories out in the wilds of the school fields. But the real stars are the pupils, the essence of Storywalks is to make reading and writing a more dynamic and engaging process. Unchaining it from the classroom, adding a breath of fresh air to literally clear their heads seems to be just the ticket.

Next stop for me is Pembroke Dock School in Wales, followed by a residency at Curry Mallet school as part of their Magna Carta project, plus there are some taster days all over the place. If you would like to have a taster day or even a residency then please do get in touch. 

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