On The Move - migration assembly and workshops in Helston

Mirabela in the classroom

It was great to be at Parc Eglos School in Helston today for workshops with Years 2 and 3. We ran an assembly about migration and journeys - Mirabela Robatzchi, originally from Romania, helped me brilliantly as ever. We then went into classrooms to do the apparently impossible i.e. teach a few phrases of Romanian in 20 minutes.
Could it be done? Yes, it could!

Mirabela's son had started school in Cornwall at the age of 7 without any English. The only two words he knew were 'red' and 'cat'. How it would have helped if his new schoolfriends knew just a word or two of Romanian, Mirabela said.

So we started with a few simple words: Hello, how are you? Ok! Yes. No. Thank you. Goodbye....

And it worked! We were so impressed by the students, their questions and interest - and, most importantly, the way they understood how important it was to try and communicate. 

This was part of our work to break down prejudice against people from overseas who play such a vital role in the local economy. It's funded by Cornwall Council via Inclusion Cornwall.

 

Setting up in the school hall beforehand

Free Holiday Club in Camborne

 Very pleased to be at T2M Holiday Programme today (20 December 2021) at All Saints' Church, Roskear (in Camborne in west Cornwall) with our suitcases real and cardboard to talk about journeys and the issues around them as part of I PACKED THIS MYSELF. About 30 Primary School aged children attended.

Through the T2M Holiday Programme, local authorities are providing free holiday club provision, including healthy food and enriching activities, to children aged 5 to 16 eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals over the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays in 2021. 

This programme is being delivered by Active Cornwall and partners to ensure all children in Cornwall eligible for Free Schools Meals will be offered activity during the 3 main school holidays.

This is particularly important during the pandemic.

The four-day programme at Roskear is looking at the theme of journeys. We played memory games with our painted suitcase, working out what each item painted in it was - and why someone might pack it. Very many thanks to Becky Lines, of Camborne Churches, for inviting us to join the group.

 

 

 

Suitcases of important things

 A real treasure trove of ideas and drawings from children at St John's Catholic Primary School, Camborne, west Cornwall. We visited them earlier in November (2021) to talk about migration - people on the move. Anyone might need to leave home to find work.

We left cardboard cut-out suitcases with them and asked them to draw what they would take with them if they had to leave home for a long time.

Here is a just a snapshot of the results....Rory in Year 3 said he'd take pizza and chips to remind him of home. A toy car, his teddy and a piano that his grandfather gave him (that he knows how to play).

Amos inYear 5 took a mostly technological approach. He thought he'd take a tape player, two USB sticks with photos and his laptop. But he also drew his cat and a photo book (2014-21) 'because you want to look at old photos', a diary and fountain pen - because he likes using a fountain pen when he writes.  We're rolling out more of these workshops over the next few months and will put this work on display.

A life in a backpack and evictions in Camborne

  A cold but exciting day in Camborne. Candy, who lives in the town and has known what it is like to have been homeless, unveiled the bag she has recreated for us.

The backpack on display is the actual bag she took on the road with her when she found herself homeless for the first time, 15 years ago.

She has re-assembled the things she took with her. To hear her talking about them, click here.

The bag is on display at the Christmas Tree Festival at Camborne Church which opened tonight (Friday 26 November 2021). It was a bleak evening but Holman Male Voice Choir braved the rain and threatening thunder storm.

Earlier another group, not far from the church, was drawing attention to a new phenomenon - homelessness caused by a lack of housing in Cornwall, now so popular with second home owners and landlords letting properties out as Air BandBs.

Jan Luscombe and his wife, Tara, have three children in Camborne schools but face eviction before Christmas from the property they are renting.

Suitcases and the Land Army in World War One

  The wonders of Google. Not for the first time, am taken aback by the brilliance of the search button in Google photos. I punched in 'suitcase' when I was searching through our archives and what should appear but this photograph of women who joined the Land Army in World War One.

Their suitcases are carefully placed on the ground in front of them. I wonder what they packed in them. They had just arrived at Tregavethan Farm, Truro, where they were to be based.

This photograph is in the archives at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, and was one of many taken by A.W.Jordan, a prominent photographer in the county at that time.

Remembrance Day and the 25th Field Ambulance

 

A fantastic turnout in Camborne this morning to honour the town's war dead. An impressive parade led by Camborne Town Band ending at the church where wreaths were laid. Click on this link to hear the Band playing: https://youtu.be/j4S7j0IkYrA

 

Alison Pooley, granddaughter of Dolcoath miner Leslie Pentecost who served in the 25th Field Ambulance with many of his fellow workers under Dr William Blackwood, laid a wreath in memory of the men. In 2018, we revisited the Western Front where the men had served with Camborne Youth Band. The Last Post was played on a 100-year-old bugle brought back by one of the men, Fred Negus.

 

Estaires remembers the Fallen

We were in Estaires three years ago to honour Cornish war dead with Mayor Bruno Ficheux. The town again this year remembered the fallen on Remembrance Day. The parade arrives at the British memorial at minute 12 in this film. https://fb.watch/9fLvOfFQI2/ 

#ThankYou