The sports field at Ingram Road Primary School was turned into festival site on Wednesday (20 July 2022) with live music, food, stalls and a new political party.
Ruth Saxton from Slung Low, who have been working with the school all year, explains:
“The Imaginative Intelligence Warriors of Ingram Road Primary wanted to create an event that promoted kindness in Holbeck. Inspired in part by their visits to The Conference of Holbeck Moor and Beeston Festival, their vision was different activities linked to being kind to each other, with food (of course) and entertainment.
“The day has been full of joyful moments, whether it’s the children standing on a soapbox with a megaphone giving out kindness advice like: ‘make your mums and dads cups of tea’, or sowing seeds for NHS workers with thank you messages, or building a pay what you decide thrift stall with their unwanted toys for three chosen charities.
“Coming at the end of the school year, this has also given the pupils of Ingram Road the opportunity to simply have fun with their friends, where the only result required is to be kind to each other. Something that comes easy to this brilliant group of children.”
Photos: Mark Ratcliffe
The Imaginative Intelligence Warriors are a group of children from Key Stage 2 who have been working all year on cultural activities with support from Slung Low. They have held campfire storytelling and a concert from the acclaimed Manchester Collective at the Holbeck amongst other events.
Egg People, a theatre company from Liverpool helped the children develop a manifesto for a new Kindness Party. Children’s suggestions ranged from ‘stroke a cat’ to ‘rich people should buy poor people homes’ “share your ideas’ and ‘making people happy makes you feel happy.’ They then got the chance to stand on the soapbox and make their suggestion for how to be kind through the megaphone. They also made placards and rosettes to carry around the field.
Headteacher Sarah Millard explained that the Imaginative Intelligence Warriors project was about helping to make rounded individuals who can play their role in society:
“When our children leave us you want them to have good communication skills, to have confidence in themselves, to know where they can help from if they need it, but also to know who the other organisations in the community are. The children’s work with Slung Low has brought all of that together.
“Anything that gives children confidence in themselves will impact on their academic work too.”
