It’s always great to inspire children to creativity, so we were delighted to hear about the work created by pupils at the three Kingsway Community Trust primary schools in Manchester (Cringlebrook, Green End and Ladybarn) inspired by our Black History Month theme of We Are Carnival! The schools held assemblies which were based on discussions with Linford Sweeney after the first of his Carnival workshops that we hosted. They asked us if we could share some of their work with a wider audience, so here are a selection of photographs and pieces of writing, reproduced by kind permission of Kingsway Community Trust and the parents/guardians of the pupils. We have also linked to the websites for the three schools, which have more pictures and video, including a carnival themed poem from Mr Nelson at Green End, who in addition to being a teacher is also a poet and DJ under the name of Chris Jam!
From the websites:
The theme for BHM this year was Manchester’s Caribbean Carnival due to its 50th anniversary.
In our Black History Month assembly, children heard about the history of the carnival from the times of slavery and colonialism on the Island of Trinidad and interestingly found out how Steel Pans were invented. Classes undertook carnival themed activities such as poems, posters and designing head dresses. Amazingly, some children also worked on these themselves at home!
Manchester Libraries will be featuring our work online.
In addition, Legacy FM radio will be sharing the poems on their show! As well as carnival related poems, some Year 5 children who were working on Benjamin Zephaniah and Malala Yousafzai in English, wrote poems about them to celebrate BHM further. Currently, Year 6 children are writing their own versions of Maya Angelou’s ‘Caged Bird’ – some of which will also feature on the radio.
Some of the Carnival activity from Green End – find more at https://www.greenend.manchester.sch.uk/gc
Caribbean Carnivals
Dancing, fluttering
The British come and take it
away, depression,
anger filled with rage, the
Caribbean comes and finds
a new way
Sadness, anger flushed away
Jamaica’s neighbours
come to the parade
Laughter, chuckles through
out the way, nobody can
bother them.
Nay
The steel pans
Such an audacious way
you can come
and play with them
The 70S
Such wonderful years
Manchester’s diverse
And Caribbean parades are here
Everyone comes here and
enjoys the beautiful Caribbean
Noise.
By Hamza
The Caribbean Carnival
Music and pop, crackles and sound, all
Taken from where it was found
The British came in and made one sin
Though that’s not where it starts
Years and years ago, when mercy didn’t flow
The British came and took the throne
Sadness and rage became one stage
People’s hearts were bound to blow
Music was banned
And people’s hearts couldn’t stand
For what was right for what was taken from them
The sounds of rage filled one page
The chapter’s message was not engraved
For those who were used as a slave to the fighters
Who were brave to the fighters in the grave
The music of drums was meant to say I want to play
But the steel pan is now in its space bringing melodies to all who listen to it
By Amarachi
Here’s some of the activity from Cringlebrook – you can find more here: https://www.cringlebrook.manchester.sch.uk/global-diversity
And here’s some of the work from Ladybarn – see more at https://www.ladybarn.manchester.sch.uk/gc:
Thank you to all concerned for showing us some of the ways in which learning about Carnival has inspired you!
