This was a presentation to a project tuning panel at High Tech High in San Diego, thanks especially to Rob Riordan and Laura McBain.

1. The Tyne Project

2. Essential Questions What impact has the Tyne had on me and those close to me? How has our relationships changed over the years? Do I have a sense of place or pride of place? What stories about the Tyne are worth telling? How can I tell a story about the Tyne creatively through art?

3. Structure – Big Picture Public exhibition through Friday assembly, QR codes and Saturday “street” exhibition My project would be Music and ideally Geography collaboration Teachers have autonomy to design their own projects within the stimulus focussed on their own passions/skills.

4. Learning Goals (my project) To give students a sense of their heritage and how the river has played an important part in this. To deepen their understanding of the way rivers work both functionally and geographically. To develop creative ways of using music to represent emotions attached to or physical properties of the river, using folk music as a starting point. To develop ensemble skills , taking an idea from germination to completion as a band. To encourage parents and kids to appreciate and visit our great river.

5. Process Saturday Street Exhibition

6. My Prototype Using Vltava by Smetana as inspiration, compose a three section folk song making personal and analogous links between the features of the river and life, which is also reflected in the character of the music in each section. A section: Interweaving fast flowing countermelodies, thin texture chaotic start from humble beginnings without lyrics. B section: Meandering river represented in the contour of the melody. Lyrics reflective of the seemingly indeterminate path that life takes. C section: Slow moving probably downwards descending melody with some sense of inevitability using sequence or other similar structural device “They took him back to where he longed to be, back to the sea”

7. Student Exhibition

8. Tyne Trip Prep time p1 so that students can discuss what narratives they have uncovered in their home learning task, and think about what they might find on the trip. Year 7 descend en mass to the Tyne in four different venues, Wylam, Quayside mile, Howdon to Jarrow?, Tynemouth. Roughly 80 students at each venue so four activities planned for each venue in a carousel. This needs to be carefully planned so that it doesn’t just become a jolly.

9. “Street” Performance Transform the “street” into the river with wide blue cloth, as parents move down the river have staggered performances of the music, side rooms and space could also be used for other projects to exhibit their pieces of art. Also perform the pieces at the Music Festival QR barcodes QR barcodes placed along the Tyne so that anyone with a smart phone can view students’ work in situ on the banks of the Tyne. Hopefully this will encourage students and their parents to visit together. *

10. Adult Connection Ask grandparents to accompany us on the trip to the Tyne to share their stories. Also a requirement as prep for the week could be to speak to parents/grandparents etc. to collate stories. Interview councillors to get past the *. World View Launch the project one the previous Thu assembly with a Skype link to Nepal sharing their perspective on the importance of their river (Bagmati) and the changes that have happened there.

11. Collating Narratives Set up a shared area (thanks Nic) which students can mine for stories, images etc. Interview councillors (logistics team?) Set up a blog for use with the QR barcodes (logistics team?)