Monday 19th May saw New York Stadium open its doors to celebrate the achievements of local children from St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Catcliffe Primary.
The children were celebrating the achievements of their Heritage Lottery Fund Project ‘All our stories’. The project was a twelve week programme delivered in partnership with the grant holder Mini Millers and Rotherham United Community Sports Trust.The project took the children on a journey of toys and play through the ages. Initially the children were introduced to a variety of old fashioned toys from local collector Joanne Blunt, they were then fortunate enough to visit Clifton Park Museum and Ilkley Toy Museum to view their private collections.
During the project the children invited in the grandparents and elderly relatives to record
oral histories of by gone times whilst also making their own hand crafted toys as was done in olden times. The children then went on to plan their own story boards and record them on the green screen thanks to Winterhill City Learning Centre.
The project has not only increased the children’s knowledge of the heritage of toys and play but, it has developed the children’s, social, interactional planning and presentation skills in addition to raising their confidence and self-esteem.
Delivery tutor on the project, Carole Foster said “This has been a fantastic project, every week the children have amazed me with their imagination and sheer enthusiasm, last night’s celebration was a testament to their achievements and I have no doubt that their schools are very proud of them.”