As part of our schools tours we always make sure we work with some non mainstream pupils. In the past we have been to Great Ormond Street Hospital and Willow Dene and this time we were lucky enough to visit The Stephen Hawking School in East London. This school was suggested to us by our friend Hannah who used to work there, thanks Hannah! This school caters for primary school children with severe learning difficulties and well, needless to say, the work they do there is amazing. We were blown away by the care that goes on there. Each child is lovingly nurtured and encouraged in their own development. For the day we were there we did open play sessions with the children and played them some of the Ten Pieces by singing the pieces down the telephone rig or playing tunes on the bells.
The children loved playing with the different aspects of The Rig, I think the cutlery windchime was the most popular, even being played with feet by children that couldn’t use their arms. There were some great samba grooves going on and we all got dancing at one point, loads of fun!
We loved working with the children and very much hope we can go back there! It’s an amazing school with wonderful staff. If you would like to know anything else about the school, please visit their website here: http://www.stephenhawking.towerhamlets.sch.uk/welcome_to_our_school.html
Photos taken by Steve Foster at Stephen Hawking School and with grateful thanks to the parents and carers that let us use these photos.