Redlands Primary School International Project
Redlands Primary School joined the Creative Partnerships Enquiry School programme in 2010. Over this period both young people and teachers from years 2 and 5 worked together with photographer Tim Mitchell to explore the question 'how can we develop our visual literacy and our ability to construct meaning from visual images?’
At the beginning of the project Tim used his own pictures as a stimulus to get the young people thinking about capturing images. It was one image in particular, of a place in India that uses recycled clothes sent from the UK that sparked the interest in international collaboration and initiated the links that later developed.
The teacher partner used an existing contact she had with India to initiate conversations with their now partner school in India. The young people from both schools are now in communication through the internet, sharing their work from the Creative Partnerships project and their own images. Redlands School is now fundraising for their partner school in India.
Over half of the pupils in the school are from minority ethnic backgrounds, with the greatest number being of Asian origin. Around 27 languages are spoken and currently just over 60 pupils are at an early stage of learning English.