The Global Generation team, Rod Sugden, Manpreet Dhatt, Cristina Torrente, Will Atkinson and I have just returned from four incredible days with the staff and children at St John’s school. 

What was particularly exciting about the week was that Head teacher, Jane Ratcliffe, had taken the bold and exciting decision to use the Universe Story as the overarching theme for the year. The aim is to use this big story to inspire and bring together the many different aspects of the curriculum. The key outcomes we hoped to achieve for the start of the project were for the children to:

1. know the universe story as scientists are now telling it

2. become universe story tellers by expressing the story as their own story  

3. begin to connect their own values with the characteristics of the universe

Above all we wanted to provide experiences that would encourage a spirit of questioning.

Global Generation spent two days of preparation with the teachers last term and it was to be a surprise for all of the children ... young and old were ready go ! 

Special thanks to Dave Hall from the Guardian for creating such a great timeline for this website ... check it out !

3-2-1 Blast Off - The Universe Story project has begun

Now the project has well and truly begun with St John's primary school in Wallingford, Oxfordshire and Global Generation's Big Bang Ambassadors in London, I am posting two earlier news stories that were posted on the Global Generation website, to give readers an idea of how the project started

Despite the inevitable Saturday brownie camps and football games, many parents and their children showed up – eager to see what their children had been up to. A third time line, of baked goodies was laid out in the hall; pancake planets, super nova shortbread, big bang beetroot brownies. Parents were given a passport which guided them along the rope to different corners of the school grounds, where each of the classes shared the activities from the week. Year five and six also treated us to a dramatic performance of the big bang and the creation of stars and planets.

A hearting closure to the week was speaking with parents. They shared what the project meant to them:

I think it’s amazing what you’ve achieved in just a few days. When we picked up our kids on the first day they were so enthusiastic. When he got home my son spent an hour and a half researching the Big Bang and then brought it into school to share, which is unbelievable for him. The free writing doesn’t inhibit them it means they can just go. Reading all the poems with the science in them and the imagination it’s just so impressive – Parent and Secondary School Science Teacher

“The quality of the writing is fantastic, it’s very moving. The sense of the silence before it all started comes across in the writing. “ – Parent

I think what is truly inspirational is the concept behind the project, the idea of giving children a shared history and past and providing them with that sense of unity through this narrative of the universe is so clever. This is what education is about, this is what I want my children to learn, to be respectful, responsible citizens within a community - Parent 

 

Now the children can tell the whole story between them. Year six began the assembly with the big bang and stars and galaxies and year three and four told us all about “slimy slippery bacteria ...super cells with DNA control centres and dinosaurs that ruled the earth.”  They also told us how the universe had “invented courage and hope, love, silence, stillness, honesty and teamwork.”  I shared the story of the creation of different types of mammals and our curiosity that led to the discovery of fire. 

In the session outside year two discovered fire for themselves. They cooked potatoes and created drawings with charcoal from the fire. Special thanks to Max, the schools own Forest School’s educator, for his amazing story telling. We look forward to having him work with us in London.

Year one mixed up soil and planted the first of the three baskets. They learnt about how 10,000 years ago excessive hunting created a food crisis. However in times of crises the universe gets creative and miraculously all around the planet at about the same time human beings learnt to grow food. 

To help the children focus and also experience the silence of the universe we introduced an exercise we call sitting still to each of the year groups. This also included year one and two who inspired us with their ability to sit in silence and stillness for nearly two minutes.  

The time line in the hall came to life in the afternoon as each of the teachers brought wonderful art work produced in their classrooms. We also created a second time line around the school grounds, in preparation for the parent’s event the next day

Arriving in the staff room it was clear we were going to go places we had never been before ... the teachers were buzzing. All of the lessons in the entire school, for the next three days were to focus on space and the universe. The teachers had been doing lots of their own research and were lit up by it all. I saw pictures of black hole and planet cakes, heard about weaving free fall writing into long ropes and discovered new resource websites and videos. The three baskets of knowledge story had been re- written by each of the teachers, to suit the age range of their classes and life in the middle of a small country town. Year six even had a set of cartoons to go with it (see story section)

First day of the school year... it is wonderful to be in a school where behaviour is not an issue, the work is free to flow and develop in new and original ways. The whole school came to the morning assembly and Rod told them the first part of the story, from the Big Bang through stars and galaxies to the super-nova explosion and the creation of the sun and the earth.

Even the smallest children seemed captivated and we heard gasps of excitement as they watched a video about star size comparison. This was an invitation for the children to go into the playground to think of their own questions about the universe

. Many of the questions we knew we couldn’t answer ... one of the many signs that this is to be a co-learning adventure between staff and children. 

The idea seemed to land, that in order for the universe and all of us to be the best we can be, we need to apply positive values. We grouped and colour coded the different values into three categories, to give a sense of the way creativity (red), care (green) and stillness (blue) weave together to make new and successful things happen. Whilst a challenging concept, we look forward to developing this further in the future.

We asked the children to imagine what it was like to be different parts of the universe and to write about this in the first person. 

I have achieved much greatness. I yearn for more, great spheres formed by particles. In this time of silence I am not bored, just hopeful and proud. So much has come from so little and I aspire to carry on - year 6 pupil