An invitation to Creative Director and Producer, Helen Weinstein, to speak at Assembly for the end of term at The Spinney Primary School in Cherry Hinton was warmly received.  All 220 pupils were in the School Hall where the Headteachers of the Spinney Singers, greeted and welcomed Helen in front of the school to introduce the Cycle of Songs films and app and app maps, before Arlette Overman led the children in performing several songs, including the ever popular round, ‘Hobson’s Horses’, commissioned by Cycle of Songs, sung here by the Spinney Singers at the Cambridge Junction, captured by Historyworks in this short film, introduced by Tizzy Faller from Cameo, and made by Henri Ward and Tiia Sahrakorpi, two of our fantastic production interns at Historyworks: 

The school has engaged very deeply with the Cycle of Songs project, with all children learning the songs, ‘Why We Ride’ and ‘Hobson’s Horses’, and also developing history and geography lessons using the resources provided on the CoS website.  It was brilliant to see the childrens’ faces as they watched the Cycle of Songs film, mouthing along to ‘Why We Ride’ and smiling throughout as they recognized the places, stories, songs.  At the end of the Assembly, all the children who had taken part in the Spinney Singer performances for Cycle of Songs were presented with a Certificate of Achievement  Further, in the presentation by Helen Weinstein, more than 200 children present were shown the App, listened to some snippets of songs via Helen’s smartphone, and every student was given an app map leaflet to take home to share with friends and family.

Afterwards, Headteacher Rachel Snape talked to Creative Director Helen Weinstein in detail about the ethos of creativity at the School and was full of praise for the Cycle of Songs project:  “We cannot thank you enough for your visionary project – just so inclusive and inspiring and one which will leave a lasting legacy”. In addition, Rachel Snape and Helen Weinstein explored ways the project might develop next year with ‘map/apps = mapps” for history used in conjunction with music to develop materials for reading/writing in the curriculum for Cambridge.  In addition, Rachel organized a meeting with Jane Warwick from the Faculty of Education, where she distributed the app leaflets for Initial Teacher Trainees, and suggested that Helen leads a workshop next term so that CPD be developed for trainee teachers to use the stories, spaces places and people included in the “mapp”.  It was a very successful visit with The Spinney Primary School, and the hope is that further partnership will be possible to develop exciting and inclusive projects for the future, taking forward the school’s mantra for engagement this year “Learning is a Journey not a Destination”.