The Integrated Arts Project was set up to bring children with special and complex needs together with children from other schools to experience creative and dramatic dance in an inclusive, safe, and exciting short project. Children from three Cambridgeshire schools come together each year and spend two days together, finishing with a sharing in the afternoon of the second day. The core values of the project are integration, inclusivity and creativity embedded in a culture of challenge and new learning. Every student will come away having been challenged in new and unexpected ways. Forming new and valued relationships and working as a cohesive group anchors the project.
The outcome is to ensure that each year the group of students find ways to overcome differences, and work together, as they all learn to express themselves through movement, create and develop sequences, and develop choreographic and stage skills. Filipa has been involved in the project since 2007, and has been running the project since 2009. She collaborates with the drama teachers from Castle School in Cambridge, Granta School in Linton and St.Faith’s Independent Day School in Cambridge. Each school takes it in turn to host the project. The key teachers and supporting staff play an essential role in ensuring accessibility and support is maintained.
Every year the students arrive on the morning of the first day, slightly dazed and unsure, and with some inevitable trepidation. By the end of the project there is a huge sense of exhilaration and enormous pride that surpasses any trials and challenges that have been experienced along the way. Much fun is had along the journey.
IAP 2016
Every year we undertake an inclusive and integrated Dance project between three fabulous schools – Castle School, Granta School, and St. Faiths School. Through processes of communication, engagement, and improvisation & choreography, we find ways of bringing our differences into a cohesive and fun dance project. We meet as strangers on Thursday morning, and by Friday afternoon, a mere 8 hours later, we are sharing the performances we created together to an audience. We are all challenged by the project, and we are all equally delighted by what we make happen together. This year our theme was around Identity – who we are as individuals, and how we can create dances about and around ourselves. Although creating dances together is wonderful, we also hugely enjoy forging new relationships and friendships.
IAP 2015
Integrated Arts Project January 29/30 2015
Once a year, Year 7 children from three wonderful Cambridgeshire schools – Granta School, Castle School and St. Faiths – gather together to spend two days working collaboratively and inclusively with dancers to work on themes through movement, performance & choreography. This year we explored the theme of identity. We create together, share our ideas, build new relationships, have a lot of fun, perform to one another, and share our work with a select audience at the end of the two day project. We all learn new skills together, we learn about each other, and through doing this learn more about ourselves – children and adults alike.
Dancers: Filipa Pereira-Stubbs, Amy Holly and Katie Keeble.
Previous Years
