Our 'Joy' Project with Wigan & Leigh Hospice

We are delighted to be taking part in a joint project with Wigan and Leigh Hospice on the theme of one of our Christian Values 'Joy'.

Every Year 5 pupil who wanted to take part (51!) will visit the Oak Centre at the Hospice during the next few months and work alongside their members. These sessions will incorporate photography and creative writing, led by writing expert volunteer Janet, and will culminate with an exhibition at the Hospice in October.

Our first group, accompanied by Mrs Kohler and Mrs Fletcher, attended the Oak Centre this week and were paired  with users of the Oak Centre for the morning.

Everyone had brought items with them which make them feel joy and we started the session by sharing these items. Janet brought a 'firework' quilt she had created, Persia told us all about her horses, Zain had a special trophy, there were lots of very special family photographs and Olivia had brought some very precious beads, which had belonged to her Grandma. We saw photographs of people's grandchildren and special wedding anniversaries as well as newspaper clippings and painting equipment!

We used these items to create Haiku poems, which are very unsual! They have just 3 lines - the first and third lines can only have five syllables and the middle line 7. They also very rarely rhyme. We practised our syllable rythms together, which was almost like dancing and made everyone laugh. 

We then arranged our items into still life displays to photograph in the mini studios.

We were all very excited to meet a guide dog and even more excited when the owner gave us permission to photograph it.

Our next group of children will attend the centre in April and they can't wait!