SEND Learning at the Charterhouse
Between September 2017 and July 2018 we completed a year-long expressive arts project with the Village School. Working with artist-educator Marc Woodhead and cross-arts educator Luke Crookes, the project gave children with complex needs the opportunity to access high quality and enriching museum experiences. At project ends, the whole class of profound and multiple learning difficulty (PMLD) children successfully received Arts Awards Discover, a recognised qualification.
The project involved two on-site visits, and two sessions art and music sessions in school, the first of these focused on creating Tudor pennants and a class song, and the second acting as a rehearsal for a final celebration performance at the Charterhouse. Our onsite visits were a real highlight of the project. Focusing on our medieval cloister and Tudor Great Chamber, we processed as silent monastic monks, enjoyed a celebratory a Tudor danced and jousted with our Tudor pennants flying high.
Following this in-depth project we worked a range of specialist schools in 2018-19: John Ruskin School (Southwark), Riverside School (Hackney), Waltham Forest 6th Form College (Waltham Forest) , Ickburgh School (Hackney), and Oasis Academy Arena (Croydon). Here’s a brief overview of some of our brilliant sessions:
John Ruskin School
In October and December 2018 we worked with the language disorder unit (lime and purple class) at John Ruskin School. The unit was preparing for their Christmas production of the Jungle Book, so we created a fictitious ‘junglehouse’ full of exotic plants and animals inspired by the Charterhouse. In school we worked with watercolour – a new medium for the pupils – to design unique flower displays and write dramatic speech, and at the Charterhouse we enlivened our spaces with their magical creations and worked on performance, stage craft and song. Emily and I were kindly invited to see their play in school where they played the project film and gave thanks to the Charterhouse.
Riverside School
In January and February 2019 we worked with class 3C at Riverside School, all of whom have profound and multiple learning difficulties and are non-verbal. The project focus was a sensory experience of medieval and Tudor life which we explored via music and art. At school we created musical soundscapes to place the students in the medieval area and made heraldic crowns using metallic pens and markers whilst dressing up in vibrant Tudor costume. At the Charterhouse we made use of the crowns and costumes embodying rich and poor Tudors with striking accessories. We also made colourful artworks with artist Marc inspired by our gold chapel icons.
Oasis Academy Arena, Croydon
In February 2019 we worked with autistic pupils at Oasis Academy Arena. Pupils had been studying A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the teacher wanted our sessions to help the pupils understand the social and political context of Shakespearean times for textual analysis and deeper understanding/enjoyment. In school we came up with a series of songs depicting key emotional states from several Shakespearean texts. At the Charterhouse we created shadow puppets with imagery from our emotional states and enjoyed a lively shadow show performance in cloister chapel, the chapel and the Tudor Great Chamber. You can enjoy a film of what we got up to here.
The feedback from SEND teachers has been overwhelmingly positive:
“Thank you all again for your inspirational ideas and creativity. The children (Lime and Purple) loved the workshop…Thank you for your fantastic video of the children’s work and music. We will definitely use the pieces in our production and in rehearsals.” – Class Teacher, John Ruskin School
“Thank you so much for organising the project my class did with Luke and Marc. It was such a great experience on so many levels – my students responded incredibly positively and were engaged throughout.” – Class Teacher, Riverside School
“Thanks again for today! We made some wonderful memories and gave the students a lovely sensory educational experience. When your film is finished, I would love to share with parents and the school.” – Class Teacher, Oasis Academy Arena
If you would like to know more about our schools programme please contact learning@thecharterhouse.org
The Charterhouse SEND programme is generously supported by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers
Marc Woodhead – Visual artist educator
Luke Crookes – Musician and cross-arts workshop leader
To imagine the perception of a pupil with PMLDs moving into and through the different historical rooms and spaces of the Charterhouse Museum and cloistered gardens for the first time, seemed such a privilege to me. What would they see? What would they feel? What would they experience? What would it mean to them?
All of these questions were at the forefront of my mind when planning and facilitating the project for PMLD pupils and staff (Jenny and Dierdre) from The Village School, at Charterhouse, with musician and cross arts educator Luke Crookes, and Cynthia and Emily at Charterhouse.
To comprehend an encounter, between a PMLD student, and the wondrous spaces at Charterhouse Museum, is to imagine another view of the museum, a different perspective of the world, the event itself becomes full of potential and mystery. And to begin to interpret the responses of the students requires working closely with the experts, the wonderful staff at The Village School like Dierdre and Jenny.
I felt incredibly lucky to be able to collaborate with Luke Crookes on this project as my primary expertise is interpreting the visual world, a love of painting, of history and ideas. Luke responds to the pupils live in the space, playing bassoon, also recording and sampling the voices and noises of the students, creating layers of music and soundscapes, that evoke and reflect both, the student’s personalities, and their responses to the spaces of the museum.
With the help of Cynthia and Emily, Luke and I had become fascinated by the different layers of history at Charterhouse. We were amazed by the atmospheres of each room, and the surfaces of the walls in the museum, the stones, block-work, bricks, wooden panels and columns, the wallpaper, the tapestries, the textures, colours, the windows, the light, the stained glass, icons, and how all of these elements change the feeling and temperature and speak about the history of each room.
We focused in on two historic rooms in Charterhouse for the Village School project.
As the children and staff arrived at the Charterhouse we sang Tudor style name songs in the carpark and then processed into the building to the sound of Tudor style bassoon playing.
Firstly, in the Norfolk Cloister, we evoked the sombre and enchanting mood of the Carthusian Monastery, we dressed each student in white Carthusian hooded robes (created by . . .), we held palm leaves created at The Village School, Luke played drones and we chanted vocal sounds. We sang each of the children’s names and had a little bassoon improvisation reflecting each child’s mood. Luke echoed the student’s vocal sounds into the space by sampling their voices along with the sound of monastic bells as we processed slowly through the cloister, moving in and out of the diagonal shafts of morning light falling across the stones. It was magical.
Secondly, in The Great Chamber, we had fun. We decorated Tudor pennant flags using hand over hand printing of simple cut our heraldic shapes on to grey card. We used a huge flag Dierdre’s students had painted at The Village School, to welcome each student in to this grand space by singing a personalised fanfare of the children’s special qualities. Each member of staff interacted with the children through percussion playing to Tudor music and bassoon improvising, as we all sang “we’re all going to the Charterhouse, to the Charterhouse we will go”. Jenny, Luke and Cynthia created a Tudor dance performed in the Great Chamber space. We finished with a joyful Tudor joust holding the pennant flags and charging across the great chamber to music and cheers.
A truly collaborative project. To witness the students of The Village School encountering and responding to Charterhouse was such a gift, because, to imagine the perception of their experience offered a completely different perspective, an alternative view of the museum, of reality.
ROOM – Great Hall.
ACTIVITY – Grand Arrival – the students arrive in the room one by one.
MUSIC/SOUNDSCAPE – Personalised Fanfare.
PROP – Personalised Heraldic Flag.
ART – Personalised Heraldic Flag (colours and shapes), Personalised Heraldic broach.
MOVEMENT – Slow, walking, procession. Each child has a rhythmic phrase that reflects their name and character traits.
RATIONALE – We celebrate our group and individual identities.
TRANSITION – Magical Transforming Sounds. Sounds of doors creaking and locks unlocking. Tudor lyre plays a magical motif.
ROOM – Old Library.
ACTIVITY – Opening books and whispering.
MUSIC/SOUNDSCAPE – Amplified quiet whispering (we record, if possible, the children whispering, and playback) when the children open a book.
PROP – Old leather bound books, voices
ART –
MOVEMENT – Searching, soft & gentle. Hands cupping eats to listen to whispers. Staff whisper into the children’s ears.
RATIONALE – we evoke the space, the history of the space, and the people that have used this space through books and whispering
TRANSITION – Magical Transforming Sounds. Sounds of doors creaking and locks unlocking. Tudor lyre plays a magical motif.
ROOM – Norfolk Cloister
ACTIVITY – Somber and enchanting procession and movement
MUSIC/SOUNDSCAPE – Gregorian chant, echoing. Drone. Staff humming.
PROP – Monks costumes, Voices
ART – Palm Leaves (?), or something we pass along the procession, like a scroll (?)
MOVEMENT – Still and meditative.
RATIONALE – We evoke the somber history of the monks in the monastery
TRANSITION – Magical Transforming Sounds. Sounds of doors creaking and locks unlocking. Tudor lyre plays a magical motif.
ROOM – Great Chamber (First Floor)
ACTIVITY – Tudor Dance, The Joust
MUSIC/SOUNDSCAPE – Brass fanfares. Dance with tambours. Jousting driving energy rhythms.
PROP – Tudor Costume, Personalised Heraldic Flags, Personalised Bunting for the Joust, confetti. Piano, Bassoon
ART – Personalised Heraldic Flags, Personalised bunting (?), Personalised Heraldic broach
MOVEMENT – Grand fanfare arrival. Swing movements and dancing. Quickly charging. Wheelchairs moving in time to the music.
RATIONALE – Evoking the joyous history of the Great Chamber – party time!
TRANSITION – Magical Transforming Sounds. Sounds of doors creaking and locks unlocking. Tudor lyre plays a magical motif.
ROOM – Chapel
ACTIVITY – Colour and Light Soundscape
MUSIC/SOUNDSCAPE – Warm harmonies, held chords with heavenly legato melodies.
PROP – Soft heavenly material. Coloured plastic paper to place over the children’s eyes to reflect the stained glass.
ART –
MOVEMENT – Looking at the colours in the Chapel stained glass and icon paintings, absorbing the atmosphere of the space through the soundscape. Prayer like.
RATIONALE – An uplifting end inspired by the colours of the stained glass and icon paintings.
Here are some of the development.
Tuning In 