Hand Of is an education charity which works together with heritage spaces, archives and artists, to offer SEND, PPG and EAL pupils unique opportunities to engage with their local heritage, through music and art. Our projects aim to boost confidence and academic standards in children transitioning to secondary school.
Where do we operate?
What do the projects involve?
C.30 SEND, PPG and EAL Year 6 and Year 7 pupils from primary/secondary schools are invited to take part in a 5-7 day project in a local heritage location. Together with professional artists and musicians, the pupils create a performance piece exploring stories from their local history, and how these stories are connected to our lives today.
We work in partnership with local archives, museums, Universities, libraries, and other sites of interest. This means that as part of our projects, we’re able to take participating children on exciting trips to places where they can learn more about their local heritage and take part in bespoke activities and workshops.
Some examples of workshops that the children might participate in include:
– Musical activities: designing and building instruments using household materials (e.g. wooden crates, funnels, hose pipe); writing graphic scores; experimenting with electronic music (e.g. recording and manipulating found sounds).
– Performance activities: exploring stories using theatre exercises (e.g. freeze frames, hot seating).
– Literacy activities: treasure hunts with riddles and clues to find stories hidden in and around the workshop location; personal diaries to record thoughts and ideas, with some structured questions to encourage reflection and writing practice.
– Cross-curricular activities: responding artistically to history and science topics, including through building their own constellations, creating predictions for the future, re-enacting historical debates, and telling their own stories about life in their communities today.
What does it cost?
As a registered charity, we fundraise independently to ensure that all schools are able to take part in our projects, at either no or very little extra cost.
If your school would like to take part in one of these projects, or you’re a parent or guardian and would like to find out more, please email us at info@handof.co.uk.
You can find out more about each project by clicking on the location above.