LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
NOTES ON THE STORIES FROM THE STONES – SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

WHAT HAPPENS?

Wearing a heavy woollen grey cloak and very strange shoes a wandering minstrel sits in the school hall playing a little harp. The strangely haunting music stops and for a minute, an eerie silence pervades the room. Who is this man? Why is he here?

WHO IS HE?
The man’s name is Robin and he is a teller of ancient myths and legends, nobody knows how old he is or why he is here.


WHY IS HE HERE?
Today Robin will entrance the children with his songs and stories, stories of questing knights, of King Arthur and Arthur de Caldicot (born 1186), the fictional hero of ‘The Seeing Stone1.’ Remarkably Robin still meets this Arthur near his Manor on the banks of the River Teme. Robin is aware that Arthur is on a Quest, a quest to discover if there is anything in the towns and villages of today that he might still recognise.

So Robin is in the school on a mission; he is travelling the length and breadth of the land to find people prepared to help Arthur in his Quest. Before he leaves this school today he must tell the children about Arthur’s Quest and enlist their help. He needs them to be heritage detectives and has already prepared a Quest Trail around this area to make sure nothing is missed. He will give them a box of tools and clues to help them. Most importantly he will tell the children how to make wonder cards and use timelines, skills they will need to develop to make sense what they see!

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
Robin will leave the children and their teachers to explore the Quest Trail and complete a report that he will pass on to Arthur. The Quest Trail is essentially a short circular walk that includes a visit to the Parish Church, many of the clues relate to this building. Everyone completing a report will be invited a Heritage Knight’s Fun Day which will culminate in a colourful costumed ceremony where the heritage detectives will be admitted to the Order of Arthur’s 21st century Heritage Knights. (girls as well as boys can be 21st century Heritage Knights)

HERITAGE QUESTS
Heritage quests are designed to be fun; they encourage inquisitiveness and develop imagination. Most quests follow a theme – special places and buildings or faming and food being the most common. Each quest has three stage; preparation, exploration and completion. To complete the quest the heritage detectives must make sense of what they have a seen around them and go on to compare what they have seen with what they discover about Arthur’s medieval world, only then will they be able to work out what Arthur might recognise. Needless to say much of the most significant evidence can be found in the church. Arthur’s report also asks the children to look into the future to the world they will leave behind them, he wants his 21st century Heritage Knights to consider what they want future generations to find out about them and to continue to ‘fight’ for what is important to them!


BENEFITS OF QUESTING
Heritage Quests give children in Years 4, 5 & 6 an enjoyable way to test their skills; skills of observation, enquiry, communication, imagination and problem solving. Although there is a common format to all Heritage Quests their complexity and timing is dependant on the objectives of the organisers and the age and abilities of the detectives.

Heritage Quests can contribute to many aspects of the school curriculum, they can also be developed for fun days and special events. There are obvious links to local history, religious education and spirituality but church buildings, with a little planning, can offer learning opportunities right across the curriculum. Teachers and organisers of events are invited to discuss their requirements with Go West, the organisers of the Stories from the Stones Schools Programme.

ABOUT GO WEST
1. Go West is an unincorporated association with roots in the Chaplaincy for Agricultural and Rural Life in the Diocese of Worcester.
2. The programme director is Sandy Marchant, a Heritage Manager, who has been involved with rural churches interested in heritage education and tourism for many years.
3. Robin’ is a professional storyteller and musician, he trained as a teacher and is an ex head who has also worked as a Diocesan Children’s Officer.
4. Skilled Go West volunteers assist in many ways including providing the historical costumed characters for the Heritage Knights Fun Days.
5. Go West is very aware of Health and Safety Issues and carries out its own risk assessments; it has an active Child Protection Policy but never works alone with children. Heritage Quests also can be arranged for families and group, special events and village fetes.
6. The success of the programme depends very much on the teamwork that develops between Go West, its volunteers and the participating schools and churches

THE USE OF STORY
“When I’m standing on Tumber Hill, I sometimes think about all the people, all the generations who grew up on this ground, and grew in to this ground, their days and years…..” Written by Arthur de Caldicot, age 13, from page 1 of The Seeing Stone.

Good stories offer a ‘way in’ to the past. The Seeing Stone is a book set in our area at a time when many of our churches were undergoing their first ‘makeover’, what a gift! Through it Go West volunteers have been able to ‘people’ the past and through it, the present. We are extremely grateful Arthur’s creator, Kevin Crossley-Holland, who actively participated in the development of the original pilot and whose ongoing support has made this approach to exploring and valuing the heritage so successful. A copy of The Seeing Stone is included in every Heritage Detective’s Toolbox.

THE FUTURE
Church buildings are at the heart of Go West activities. There are over 50 ancient churches along the 74 miles of the River Teme, most date from Norman times; each has a unique story to tell. Church buildings are tangible links to the national and local story, whatever our beliefs they can contribute to our sense of place and our understanding of our past. For Christians they tell our story, yesterday, today and tomorrow - our work is only just beginning but like everything it takes teamwork, time, commitment and importantly money. Go West has been fortunate to have received generous funding which has enabled it to create a format that is transferable and a methodology that can share. Anyone interested should contact us via the website www.temevalley.org.uk

NOTES
1. The Seeing Stone is the first book in the ‘Arthur’ Trilogy by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Published by Orion Books. ISBN 15 17 20 18 16.

2. Go West was set up in 2002 to find ways to harness and use the rich history and heritage found in and around country churches in ways that would benefit the rural community and contribute to greater understanding between town and country. The Go West Teme Valley Project (GWTVP) followed later that year and coincided with an outbreak of Foot & Mouth.

In 2006 with funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund Go West ran a Stories from the Stones pilot. They asked the question” If the walls of this church could speak what stories would they tell? They listened and then they installed audio Listening Posts into 6 churches up the Teme Valley between the city of Worcester and the town of Tenbury Wells - the churches started to tell their stories! Go West has installed ‘Stories from the Stones’ audio boxes or listening posts into six church buildings up the Teme Valley. Local volunteers did the research and selected the stories but employed a professional company ATS Heritage to develop the hardware, write the scripts and manage the recordings. They can now be switched on by visitors to the tiny parish churches of Cotheridge, Broadwas, Martley, Shelsley Walsh, Stockton on Teme and Lindridge.

The Stories from the Stones Schools Programme is an outcome of the Stories from the Stones pilot, a project funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund which completed in 2007. School children from three local Primary Schools helped create schools project. The programme has been further developed with funding from The Elmley Foundation and the Three Counties Agricultural Society.