Using the work of Roald Dahl as a thematic link, this course covered some of the fundamental drama based skills - storytelling, characterisation, singing, movement and text, leading to a public presentation: 'Dastardly Dahl' on Saturday 17 March at Haverstock School, Chalk Farm.

Anti-bullying Drama Project – the group rehearsed scenes from their own real-life experiences, for a forum theatre project, ‘The Bystander’, which they took into St Mary's & St Pancras Primary School (years 4/5) for national anti-bullying week in November 2006. Their issues were discussed as a group to support primary school students who may have experienced bullying and suggest methods/forums to share and resolve their own issues.

December 2006 – we said goodbye to our year 8’s and welcomed in the new intake of year 6’s with an end of term workshop and presentation of artwork and poetry from the year.

Intergenerational and environmental focus
Wild in the Parks project - year 6, 7 and 8 all volunteered on two days at the wildlife garden, digging the pond and bog area, planting spring flowers, making bird pictures to attract rare birds. Six of them participated in a workshop to make birds nesting boxes to attract rare birds to the Camden area and were interviewed and featured on BBC London News in late February.

Intergenerational project - the group researched into the lives of older people in the community. From March to April 2007, they rehearsed a drama piece to take to Hillwood Age Concern Day Centre, with the Youth Mentors, based on ‘Memories’. This is the basis for the Youth Mentors Big Boost bid, referred to below.

Final term
Thanks to John Lyon’s Charity, the Transitions will have a final term under the auspices of Weekend Arts College during April/May 2007 concluding with a weekend camp at Pertwood Farm.

16 brilliant and diverse young people from Camden, aged 16 to 18, took part in the Youth Mentor Programme from September to end March (culminating in a weekend camp at Pertwood Farm), assisting younger children on Rise Phoenix`s creative arts projects. The Youth Mentors learnt a lot about supporting their own communities in the process, and were loved and respected by the children for their enthusiasm and commitment.

The group has been successful with their bid to the Big Boost! They will run an intergeneration project in Camden over summer 2007 with some of the members of the Transitions group, under the auspices of the Roundhouse.

London Central Mosque, St John’s Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St Michael’s Church, The Jewish Museum (Camden), St Michael’s Primary School, Richard Cobden Primary School and the Ampthill Square Muslim Mother tongue school joined together in a series of workshops and celebrations inspired by the idea that “there is more to life than meets the eye”.

In September 2006 through a series of workshops and presentations, children, artists and faith leaders collaborated towards creating lanterns, puppets and banners for a Multifaith gathering that took place on 28 September in St Martin’s Gardens. This is a time of the year which is hugely important on the religious calendar of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths, when the St Michael’s celebration, Yom Kippur and Ramadan all share a focus on self-reflection, repentance and justice.

Camden Multifaith 2007

The children from the partner groups and schools worked with a storyteller and 4 artists on ideas and stories around multifaith to design and create 5 pieces of permanent public art that from May 2007 form an inspiring walk through Camden and Regent Park.

St Michael’s Church, Camden Road
- stainless steel wall mounted sculpture
- artist: Dave Appleyard with Year 3 group 1 from Richard Cobden Primary School
- through exchanging and reflecting on stories about happiness, sharing, friendship and angels, the children produced symbols included in the piece, and cardboard angel forms that inspired the main image of an angel. The angel or messenger plays a significant role in Christianity, as well as in Judaism and Islam. Dave: “It was particularly inspiring to see the children interpret a word as a symbol or graphic; their thoughts were honest and unbiased by reality.”

St Michael’s Primary School, Camden Street
- ceramic wall mounted sculpture
- artist: Chris Bramble with Year 5 children from St Michael’s Primary School
- through stories about the heavens and justice, children were asked to identify what was so precious and beautiful to each one of them. They each made a drawing of the thing that meant most to them, which they then sculpted in clay. These images decorate this Tree of Life.

Richard Cobden Primary School, Camden Street
- wooden bench inlaid with stainless steel images and graphics
- artist: Dave Appleyard with Year 3 group 2 from Richard Cobden Primary School
- through storytelling, children were asked to develop symbols using the following themes: happiness, sharing, friendship and angels. They were also asked to write a message to someone who might sit alone on the bench. These messages were written on an angel’s feather.

London Central Mosque, Park Road Mosaic
- mounted panel
- artist: Sally Kendall with London Central Nursery group
- young children from the Mosque’s Nursery group listened to a story about what happens when everyone contributes to making something a bit better: we make good and beautiful things. The idea behind the mosaic was to make a non-figurative piece in keeping with the traditions of Islam; one that represented the idea of small things such as fruit, vegetables with stars, moon, sun and and how these can come together to make a beautiful garden.

Ampthill Square Estate
- aluminium tapestries displayed above the Estate’s entrance gates
- artist: Christiane Franz and Amanda Lock (LOCK/FRANZ) with young children living on the estate
- stories about visions of paradise for different religions were shared with the children, who then created a big banner with words and drawings depicting their personal ideas of paradise. They then created the metal circles using these images and words together with symbols, design patterns and words from Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

In partnership with Ampthill Square Estate in Euston, the children of St Mary's & St Pancras Primary School designed and created a 4ft sq mosaic panel to reflect the theme of ‘Healthy Lifestyles’. This vibrant mosaic, depicting children playing leap-frog, fruits and vegetables, is now temporarily installed at the front entrance to the school, for the entire community to enjoy, before being transferred back to the Estate later this year.

Fantastic Planet, summer 2007

We have been successful in our bid to BBC Children in Need for the summer 2007 programme - our 6th year of Fantastic Planet.

We are hoping that Weekend Arts College will host the programme for this final year.

Young Roots (Heritage Lottery Fund) – film project in partnership with the Roundhouse

This project has been reassigned to the Roundhouse due to Rise Phoenix closing down. It is taking place from March to October 2007 and will involve 12 young women from King’s Cross. They will look at the history of women in the area, consider their own heritage and ambitions, and will then produce a film, booklet and trail in the area.

In September 2007, Rise Phoenix started to facilitate parallel work by year 8 at Haverstock School, Camden and the Cobet group, Maji Matitu school, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to enrich the school’s work on global citizenship. The first step was a presentation/workshop by Rise Phoenix artists at Haverstock looking at citizenship issues, life in Tanzania and what defines ‘poverty’. The end result was a huge banner created by the students from plastic bags and various recycled materials.

Monday was fantastic; almost all students were focussed and committed to completing the project. It is always difficult when the end always seems so far from them i.e. lack of vision. However knowing my year group as I do - it was a great success. So much so that when Jig bought the pretty much finished banner in for me on Friday, a number of year 8 students were still around in school. The response and comments made were certainly very positive ‘oh I did that bit’ ‘where’s the letter I did’ - very proud!
Year 8 teacher, Haverstock School

The next stage was a photographic recording of ‘a day in the life’ to follow the kids in London and those in Tanzania. The students in Dar sent those in Camden workbooks filled with photographs (taken on disposable cameras provided by RP) and commentaries in both Swahili and English about their daily lives [‘They are just amazing!’ Haverstock teacher]. The students in Camden sent those in Dar letters about themselves (and included some from a centre for the elderly in Camden). The Haverstock students have put together photographic posters about their lives which will go on display at the school.

Over the summer term, we hope more exchanges will take place of photographs and text which will exhibited in both places, and possibly also on the Haverstock website.