As a school, we are very pleased to be part of The Poole and Bournemouth Cultural Hub. This is a major initiative to develop greater working partnerships between educational and arts and cultural organisations and settings, in order to provide real and enhanced cultural opportunities for children and young people.

We have already taken part in our first project, which involved our Year Four children, Poole Library and Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts. The project was based around the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood and began with the children’s librarians coming in and challenging the ‘traditional’ elements of Little Red Riding Hood by sharing another version of the story with the children, ‘Little Red’ by Lynn Roberts. As a class, the children then produced their own illustrated books, telling their own versions of the same story. These will soon be on display in local libraries. We were also very lucky to have a visit from the illustrator of ‘Little Red’, David Roberts, who did a ‘talk and draw’ session with the children, explaining his approach to his work. We visited Lighthouse for a performance of ‘A Sonatina’ by the Danish theatre group Gruppe38. This also told the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but here the main character was an egg and the wolf a potato masher!

The entire project was worthwhile and rewarding and the theatre visit in particular, challenged the children (and staff’s) views of traditional theatre.

Written by Julie Poppleton- Art Co-ordinator, Baden Powell and St Peter’s School, Poole