Mid Pennine Arts art+people+places

This spring and summer Mid Pennine Arts, working in partnership with Todmorden Town Council, managed a programme of work involving seven schools in Todmorden based on Ted Hughes’ writing for children.

The work has explored new ways of approaching children’s literature in the classroom. Teachers agreed on the kind of practitioner they wanted to work with and which particular piece of Ted Hughes’ writing they felt was suited to their children.

The Iron Man was chosen and the four practitioners who are exploring new ways into the story for children and their teachers are: ceramic artist Sarah McDade, sculptor Mick Kirby-Geddes, poet Terry Caffrey and storyteller Ursula Holden-Gill.

As part of the project the schools wrote a blog about their experiences.

Read the blog from Ferney Lee School about their 7ft sculpture of The Iron Man!

Read the blog from Cornholme School about their sculptures and drama workshops.

Read the blog from Walsden St Peter's School about the different ways they've incorporated The Iron Man into school activities.

Read the blog from Todmorden C of E School about their experiences of The Iron Man.

Read the blog from Shade Primary School about their metalhead sculptures and Iron Man prequels.

Read the blog from Castle Hill Primary School about their giant cut-out model and Iron Man artwork.

Read the blog from St Joseph's School about their Iron Man Feast, poetry and a trip to the Arvon Foundation.

Visit the exhibition in Todmorden Library of the work created by the children during this project - 23 September to 2 October.  See Poster Here

Quotes from the children and teachers:

• We thought the experience was amazing, and loved working with an artist.
• We hope to do something like this again.
• I really enjoyed the story and talking about the characters.  It was very exciting to read.
• Ofsted inspectors, who were in school during the workshop days,  commented on the positive benefits of ‘the opportunities to enjoy enrichment activities based on authors and books’, when feeding back on their judgements regarding achievement of pupils at the school.
• The children thought this day was ‘fantastic’, using junk materials in small groups to model before covering the pieces in mod-roc to form completed structures.
• We are really proud of our achievements because not only does he look amazing, we also all worked collaboratively to create him, the project fitted perfectly with our creative curriculum.
• Team work and perseverance were key to our success.
• We really enjoyed the whole project.
• We have all really enjoyed the project and look forward to seeing work from the other primary schools in Todmorden.
• This has been a wonderful way to end our school year.  Every child has enjoyed learning and exploring new ideas.  We are really looking forward to the exhibition in Todmorden Library in the Autumn!