Hemsby Primary School

The theme for this area was developed between the four participating schools: Hemsby, Winterton, Filby and Martham. The idea was to focus on what it was like to live in a predominantly rural area where the emphasis was on farming. The theme of ploughed fields and crops that emerged from the first visit led to the idea of food-related materials and vegetable colouring as the main theme for the second day.

On the first day the children were split into two groups, and rotated between two different areas. One aspect of the day was a visit to the 'museum' set up in the school hall, where pupils were able to study food-related artefacts from Papua New Guinea. The other area facilitated storytelling through making figures and placing these in small stage-like settings. On the return visit a new artist worked with the whole group, introducing them to the process of dying. Many of the pupils had brought in food peelings from home, and could see how strong dyes could be created from things such as onion skins. They were also told about two traditional dying materials, weld and woad, grown locally and part of the area's cultural heritage. Outdoors in the afternoon, the long strips that had been dyed in the morning, and were now dry, were combined by each of the twelve groups to create circular mats woven on prepared string 'webs' related to story spirals that the children had devised over lunch. 

http://www.hemsby.norfolk.sch.uk/