upton meadows primary school

Upton Meadows Primary School welcomed Translation Nation in summer 2014 and made the very most of the opportunity by bringing together five different local primary schools for the children to take part as well as various language leaders from the local secondary schools to support the pupils. This meant that at the start of the project the children didn’t all know each other, but translator Rosanna involved everybody in lively language games and exercises and soon the shyness made way for blossoming friendships. Staff, parents and children themselves told stories in their original languages, with languages including Arabic, Somali, Latvian, Romanian and Afrikaans. Rosanna taught the group how to ‘storybone’ the tales and then flesh out the bones by filling in the details. By lunchtime of the third and final project day, the five translated stories were ready to be performed to an enormous audience of around 250 pupils and teachers. The magical stories captivated the crowd, and when they were finished one participant exclaimed “I want to do it again!”. Everybody was extremely proud, and the children from the different schools were sorry to leave their new found friends. The project ended on a high with the Headteacher commenting that it was a wonderful project celebrating diversity within the schools.