Teachers in Walsall take the literacy hour very seriously but also believe that professional artists, musicians, dancers and storytellers can help them raise literacy standards by providing pupils with rich learning experiences. With a grant from West Midlands Arts and the help of arts worker, Alison Haynes, three Walsall schools set up special projects that brought stories alive. An evening of performances allowed children from all three schools to share their stories with each other and with their parents.

Oakwood School caters for pupils aged two to 14 who have severe and profound learning difficulties. The school has implemented the National Literacy Strategy enthusiastically but was looking for a project to help its pupils access literature. The chosen theme was coalmining because pupils had been researching a local pit disaster in 1930. Storyteller Caz Frost and community dance artist Peppy Hill explored this theme with the children. Through dance, music, mime, art and improvisation they developed a mystical drama using a life sized puppet as a storyteller. The children also worked with artist Toni Burrows transforming their work into a tactile/sensory book, which everybody could read.

Elm Street Infant School teachers wanted their pupils to see how a book they had read in the literacy hour The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jan Scieszka could turn into a musical. Arts worker Stewart Derry composed and produced original songs and music, co-wrote a script and encouraged children to perform with confidence. A professional dancer choreographed the play so that pupils could express feelings through dance. Parents played an important part by producing the scenery and costumes.

Blackwood School is a large primary where pupils created their own version of the Bugsy Malone story, enjoyed by parents in place of a Leavers' Concert. Dancer Lee Griffiths provided workshops which, despite some pupils' reservations, proved immensely successful and Stewart Derry set up drama workshops to explore themes relevant to the production. Children's writer and author Peter Wynne-Wilson worked with pupils with a particular aptitude for writing to publish an anthology for the library.

Headteachers were pleased at the success of the performances. Kay Mills, Oakwood School praised a project that enabled her children to perform alongside their mainstream peers while Jackie Cocken at Blackwood School felt it was a learning experience that they wanted to repeat. At Elm Street School headteacher Harjinder Bal talked about the shared sense of excitement and pride and pupil Christopher Lee summed it up: "everybody enjoyed all of it".

Subscribe to Literacy Today