A group of 24 Year 8 pupils from Greenfield Community College have just returned from a ten day educational visit to France which was fully funded by the British Council’s Comenius programme. The project which enabled young people on both sides of the channel to explore a number of foci including stereotypes, barriers to communication and geography and history of the Picardie region combined dance, language and culture. Pupils researched and explored themes in the classroom and studio at school creating dance pieces based on the Battle of the Somme, local cathedrals, the Baie de Somme and French stereotypes (which included lots of berets, moustaches and strings of garlic!). They then travelled to France on 3rd June to combine their ideas to create a mammoth dance piece with a cast of 52 which was performed at Abbeville’s theatre to an excited audience.
Mrs Dixon, Subject Leader for Performing Arts at Greenfield, who wrote the bid to gain the 25,000 euros to enable the programme, said ‘the pupils were superb and represented their school, families and community with pride. They all worked extremely hard and at the same time ‘grew’ as young people developing a range of skills which they will remember for the rest of their lives’. Well Done!
