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Nitsa Sergides, centre, with artist Tessa Garland, left, and writer Diane Samuels |
Pupils set sail on creative odyssey for arts festival
A HOLLOWAY primary headteacher spoke this week about the need to encourage children’s creativity and self expression before pushing them into learning grammar and punctuation.
Nitsa Sergides, head of Grafton School, was celebrating the success of employing a writer and an artist at the school – which she says has inspired the children to express themselves more confidently.
More than 60 children from Grafton, aged seven and eight, will be presenting an arts and writing project, based on Alice in Wonderland, at the Holloway Arts Festival at Whittington Park in July.
The project is being overseen by the school’s playwright in residence, award winning Diane Samuels, a professional writer who penned the highly regarded play, Kindertransport, about an operation to move 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany to Britain.
The children have also created a sculpture of Admiral Nelson’s “ghost” ship, after the battle of Trafalgar, based on Turner’s painting, Fighting at Temeraire. The work won a national competition and is to be exhibited at the National Gallery until July.
That project has been supervised by professional artist in residence Tessa Garland, who has exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery.
Both the writer and artist visit the school a few times a week to encourage the children’s creativity.
Greek Cypriot born head teacher Ms Sergides came to England when she was 13 and is well aware of the need to encourage artistic self expression among her 430 pupils as a requirement for learning.
She added: “We have at least 34 different languages spoken here. And when they first arrive the children are very nervous and shy.
“Arts are a huge focus at the school and we made a conscious decision to develop them.”
Ms Sergides, who attended Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School when it was called Star Cross, has taught for 37 years and has been head for 17 years.
She believes that having a writer and an artist in residence at the school has made a profound difference.
“Tessa and Diane have brought a new aspect of life.
“They have taken a curriculum which was pretty dull and in some respects a little confusing and moved it to an upper level. Creativity is now imbedded in the curriculum.”
Ms Sergides said that before children can learn the rudiments of punctuation and grammar they must learn to love to read and write.
She said that the emphasis on Literacy Hour – where children are forced to learn the strict rules of grammar – can put many of
them off learning.
“When I first came into teaching there was no imposed curriculum. In those days the children wrote with free flow, whereas that self expression went out of the window – I believe – when the Literacy Hour came in.”
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