During the October half term, a group of creative Year 9 pupils attended the ‘Dream a Dream – Wales India Creative Collaboration’ at Aberystwyth Arts Centre located in Aberystwyth University. The pupils attended this project alongside a school from Bangalore, India and a school from Lampeter, Mid Wales. They all stayed in university accommodation, which gave our students a taste of university life.  As a collaborative group, they all took part in various performing arts activities throughout the few days that celebrated Welsh and Indian culture. 

With Small World Theatre the pupils created lanterns that were based around the welsh story of Cantre'r Gwaelod.  The pupils then displayed their sea-life master pieces later on in the week in a lantern parade as part of Diwali celebrations. Also, the pupils were able to creatively explore their opinions and reflect on their school life and learning experiences through a drama workshop led by Jeremy Turner (Artistic Director) from the local theatre company Arad Goch and Sophie Hadaway from the Arts Council for Wales.  They really enjoyed building models of their perfect creative school.  Following from this, Winding Snake Productions joined us to lead the creation of Rangoli patterns with coloured sand.  The pupils learnt about the importance of Rangoli patterns during Diwali celebrations.  Although, we made sure we left the Fitzalan stamp by creating the school logo for all the public to see!

As well as all of these fantastic activities, the pupils loved taking a walk into Aberystwyth town where we looked at various landmarks like the Old College and the beautiful seafront and enjoyed some traditional food from the fish and chip shop. We also found time to explore the surrounding areas a little more by travelling into Borth and taking a walk across the beach and entering the ‘petrified forest’.

This could have never been possible without the fantastic efforts from Amanda Trubshaw at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and the Arts Council Wales for funding this incredibly important creative opportunity.  The pupils’ behaviour was impeccable throughout the project and they all thoroughly enjoyed their creative and collaborative experience.