Page 14 - link magazine

14 The Link Magazine • October 2002
The sounds of drums in Peatmoor
A summer school in West Swindon ended in August with a spectacular splash of colourful art, energetic dancing accompanied by loud
drumming.
The free two week school were really wet and slimy. We drum. We decorated the drums Drums, dance & games
brought together gifted and tal- thought they had only just come with beads and burnt patterns into A four week drumming workshop
ented children from across the off the goats." the wood. They look really profes- with Kaya begins on Tuesday 1
town to explore art techniques Jane Collins said, "the smell was sional." October from 4.15pm to 5.15 pm.
from Africa which were shown off horrible at first, but it gradually Some of the youngsters also Lots of other percussion instru-
at a final exhibition of paintings, wentintheopenairwhenwedried worked on web pages which are at ments will be included. £10.
masks, batik prints, clay pots, fig- and stretched them across the www.millenniumschools.co.uk Dance workshops, 5 week taster
ures and animals.
With the help of Geoff Miles from
Kaya Drum Workshops, the group
made their own drums with mate-
rials imported from the Gambia.
Victoria Hill said it was grue-
some at first. "The drum part came
from mango wood but we had to
unwrap these goat skins which

MEN'S
SHOES
an outstanding selection
• Church's • Grenson
• Loakes • Padders
• Barker • Clarks
• Hush Puppies • Rohde
Also an extensive range of slippers
BLAYLOCKS
Bath Road Corner
Old Town, Swindon
Tel: 534271

kept tailing Ott at tirst and then our clown to teamwork. 'We all
headteacher lost our programme worked together to find solutions
and we had to write it again." to the problems. It was really hard
Phillip Scarisbrook put success work, but good fun in the end."
Well travelled soft toys
Whether you are a complete beginner
or want to extend your current Children from Oliver Tomkins Infants School in Toothill have been
discovering what its like on the other side of the world with the help
knowledge, New College is
of stuffed toys.
offering FREE computer training to
In an unusual exchange, chil-
anyone over 16.
dren from Woodcrest College in
Brisbane, Australia sent over two
Courses are running in venues
ambassadors Cookie the Koala and
throughout Swindon and all training
Polly the Cockatoo. In return the
is done on a flexible basis. Oliver Tomkins mascot teddy 011ie
was posted down under.
All you have to do is sign up for your Cookie and Polly's walks around
chosen course and pay the exam West Swindon and visits to the
fee and you could be on your way to Link Centre were recorded on film
a new career or maybe just catching and video, and individual children
7!91u p with the or took turns to take them on trips Polly outside West Swindon Centre
which were photographed. with Liam Allison, Cloe Ewin,
011ie saw the sights around Bris- Shanjida Begum, Callum Bascombe
bane and was taken to the Great to find out more about Australia.
Barrier Reef and into the outback. They wrote about their own lives,
Headteacher Penny Summers composed stories and poems for
said the project had been incred- Cookie and Polly's scrapbook as
ibly motivating. "It's fantastic how well as exchanging e-mails with
the children were caught up in the children at Woodcrest. We've had
excitement and took the initiative a brilliant time."