Tag: Cockenzie Primary School

Cockenzie Primary School Literary Festival 2016 Poetry Workshop

By Rita Bradd

I was thrilled to be invited by Janey Nicol, P4 class teacher at Cockenzie Primary School, East Lothian, to be involved with the school’s first ever Literary Festival in February 2016.  She requested a poetry workshop with P1s.  With over 50 children in the group, we had lots of fun with a poem for children I wrote and used a few years ago.  We messed about with props, and I showed them on flip chart paper how I illustrated the poem using skills I learned at Edinburgh College of Art summer schools over three years, with Robbie Bush and Mina Braun.   http://minabraun.blogspot.co.uk/

Here are P1 doing a noisy nosey warm-up mantra, where they discover the joy of ‘sneezing’ out words, whilst also learning how to keep germs to themselves!

img_0758I was also really pleased to be able to assist in recommending authors and poets to be involved in the festival.  Over the last few years I’ve been privileged to get to know poets and authors and their work.  This came in really handy.  Cockenzie pupils delighted us all with this ‘Thank you’ poster.  We loved the imaginative, artistic way they designed it.  Well done Cockenzie Primary School!  I wish you well for your new academic year, with a new set of P1s joining the school as the P7s move up to secondary school.

Here I am amongst a fabulous line-up of poets and authors …

... amongst a fabulous line-up of poets and authors ...
A few more images of the poetry workshop, with two of my characters, ‘Poppy’ and ‘Jake’.img_0759 img_0760 img_0761 img_0765

 

Cockenzie Primary School Perform ‘The Three Craws An The Bairn In A Manger’

By Rita Bradd

In November 2015 Cockenzie P4 children recorded ‘The Three Craws An The Bairn In A Manger’ in the school to be broadcast on local radio East Coast FM http://eastcoastfm.co.uk .  Station Manager Ian Robertson came down to the school and recorded the show for transmission over the airwaves in the run up to Christmas.  I was really thrilled to watch the children record for the show and to later hear it over the radio.  My little troupe of The Three Craws with me as Narrator, have been a regular feature on East Coast FM during 2012/13 with several of my scripts.  It’s been my dream to have children perform the scripts.  The temporary Three Craws looked brilliant in their ‘The Three Craws’ skip caps which I gifted them for taking part.

http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/14153588.Cockenzie_Primary_School_pupils_take_to_the_airwaves_to_narrate_short_play/

I was later commissioned by the school to write a script for P4 children based on the demolition on 26 September 2015 of Cockenzie Power Station chimneys.  They have been a massive landmark for people on land, at sea, and in the air for several decades.  They are sure to be missed. http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/14249371.Authors_and_storytellers_to_be_welcomed_to_school’s_first_literary_festival/