Useful studies of lessons learned and tips for putting on a public engagement event.
Page
Working with schools - '1000 Words for Belonging'
In this public engagement case study, find out more about a project exploring the language of emotion with school pupils in East London
By Dr Joseph Ford, Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies
- Led by: Dr Joseph Ford, Senior Lecturer in French Studies
- Partners: Gearies Primary School, Redbridge, London; Neela Doležalová
- People involved: Teachers and pupils at Gearies Primary (Deputy Head: Dan Lea), lead creative facilitator Neela Doležalová, designer Calixte Davis, illustrator Clio Isadora, artist Maud Milton, multilingual actors Jarvey Joel, Alin Balascan, Julie-Yara Atz, Hiftu Quasem, Bayo Gbadamosi, Arinder Sadhra, Anu Kiraha, Andrei Zayats, KC Chan, Gabriel Akamo, and poets Talia Randall, Anthony Anaxagorou, Nina Mingya Powles, Gabriel Akamo and Helen Bowell.
- Dates of the project: November 2021-present
Working with schools: 1000 Words for Belonging
1. Please could you tell us about the project and the public engagement activity involved? What were your objectives when you were starting out on this project?
1000 Words for Belonging' is a project which explores the language of emotion with school students through a range of creative activities.
The project, led by the writer, theatre maker and teacher, Neela Doležalová in partnership with Gearies Primary School in Redbridge and the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, was first funded by a SAS Public Engagement Grant in November 2021 when Neela organised a series of creative workshops with pupils at Gearies, with the title, ‘Pandemic Recovery: Emotion, Language and Health in Schools’. This project then morphed into ‘1000 Words for Weather’ and finally ‘1000 Words for Belonging’.
Originally conceived in the context of the recovery from the pandemic and multiple lockdowns which led to mass school closures, students were invited to explore the language of emotion through a multilingual perspective, in their own languages, in translation, and in British Sign Language with actor Mia Ward. This led to students writing their own poems and stories, which were recorded by professional actors, published on the University’s website and discussed during a panel as part of the 2021 Being Human Festival.
Since then, the project has gone from strength to strength, winning further funding from the University of London Knowledge Exchange Fund and Arts Council England. This further funding facilitated Neela taking up a residency in Gearies throughout the academic year 2023-4 and working with Year 6 students to create three multilingual mosaics with the artist, Maud Milton, which are displayed at the school and across Redbridge, including at the public library.
The latest project has also led to the production of a podcast on multilingual education in schools (forthcoming) and a multilingual published book, 100 Poems for Belonging, authored by the students of Year 6 at Gearies and curated by Neela.
The work to create these poems involved theatre writing workshops with students, whose short plays were performed by professional actors at the Pinter Studio in Queen Mary University of London in January 2024, during which students were able to share their work with one another and receive feedback from professional actors. As part of the precursor, ‘1000 Words for Weather’ project, the students worked on a multilingual dictionary of belonging which led to the creation of a set of posters and pedagogical resources for primary school teachers, together with the illustrator Clio Isadora and designer Calixte Davis.
We have also been able to share the project with teachers across the UK via an article co-written by Neela Doležalová and Joseph Ford in the Association for Language Learning’s magazine, Languages Today.
'You Belong Here' Mosaic
100 Poems for Belonging
1000 Words for Belonging poster
'The View from the Multilingual Classroom' - Languages Today
2. Please tell us about the audience you engaged with and how you established a relationship with them (for example, via your community or cultural partner)?
Since the beginning of this project, we have been privileged to partner with the pupils and teachers at Gearies Primary School in Redbridge, London. They have welcomed the project with open arms and made it a core part of their longstanding mission to celebrate the languages spoken by pupils in the school. With over 45 languages spoken at the school, and over 85% of students speaking English as a second language, Gearies was not only the perfect place for such a project, but a community where the project could grow into a lasting ethical commitment and relationship between the pupils, teachers, writers, artists and researchers involved.
3. Please tell us a bit more about any cultural or community partners involved in this project/activity and how you established those relationships?
Neela discovered Gearies Primary School via a SoundCloud account, established a decade ago to help build community cohesion through the shared appreciation of music and song. The ‘Gearies Archive of Sound’ aimed to record every language spoken within a 1-mile radius of the school, through childhood songs or bedtime stories. The archive ended up recording 147 languages from the school and local community, with stories and lullabies sung by students, parents, carers and extended family members. Neela approached the school after hearing these stories and songs for a project as part of Being Human Festival. Since then, the relationship has grown into a lasting partnership between Neela and the school, involving other community partners, such as Gants Hill Library and creative artists and performers, such as Calixte Davis and Talia Randall.
4. What were the main outcomes for you? Has this led to any further projects or new directions in your research?
The project and collaboration remains ongoing with the existing inspiring outcomes of the performances, mosaic and multilingual book soon leading to a podcast series on multilingual education, produced by Neela Doležalová. The work made by the pupils, teachers and the creative facilitators and artists on the project has led to crucial research insights around the improvements in academic performance and language confidence of primary school pupils (see article in Languages Today). Not only has the project led to a reassessment of research in the area of multilingual education, it has helped focus the minds of languages and cultures researchers across the UK about public engagement and knowledge exchange as a form of researching that emerges from artistic and creative engagements with young people, their parents, carers and teachers, and how crucial this is to understanding the wider value of multilingualism in society.
5. What, if anything, would you do differently next time? Do you have any lessons learned?
From the point of view of a researcher writing funding applications, I would make sure to properly budget and make the case for more money to be made available to pay writers, artists, creative facilitators, translators and interpreters on the project.
6. What three top tips would you give to anyone planning and delivering a similar activity in the future?
- Factor in accessibility requirements and the budget to cover these (think: BSL interpreting, editing work, website design and captioning behind the scenes).
- Budget to fairly pay creative facilitators, writers and artists on the project. You can find guidance for rates of pay through organisations like The Artist’s Information Company, Artists’ Union England, Scottish Artists Union, and BECTU (for those working in media and entertainment).
- Think beyond the ‘one project/event’ horizon and think: Where could this go next? How can a small fund be used to leverage larger funding opportunities? How can getting more funding benefit the partner in the medium to longer term?
