Brunswick Primary School – school of punk rock ’16
How we got on teaching at Brunswick Primary School in Hove
It’s always great to be invited to Brunswick Primary School in Hove to teach the year 6 children about our work, and their responsibilities around making sure people with disabilities are treated equally.
If you have choices denied you; you’ll probably develop mental health issues, and behavioural issues too!
My first challenge of the day was trying to pretend to the kids that I knew what they were talking about when asking them what their favourite bands were. As ever the kids are always engaged and thoughtful in their contributions. One girl said that she’d recently been to see The Vamps in London and saw the accessible viewing platform was full of people. She said “I had no idea there were so many disabled people who liked the same music as me”. She’ll make a great future Gig Buddy I’m sure.
Our lesson took in:
- A brief history of Heavy Load and some of the crazy things we did.
- A brief history of punk.
- Disability hate-crime and the importance of language.
- Our responsibilities to supporting people with disabilities.
When we talked with the kids about how they would feel if they were taken away from a concert with their favourite artist about to come on stage, because their mum or dad wanted to get up early the next day, their reactions were:
“Annoyed”
“Speechless”
“I’d throw a tantrum”
“Upset”
“Disappointed”
These were 10 year old children who were able to empathise with what it would feel like. So how have we got to a situation where adults aren’t shown this empathy and taken away from events before they want to?
The children also very succinctly explained what happens if you have choices denied you; you’ll probably develop mental health issues, and behavioural issues too!
What wise words from a bunch of 10 year olds?
So here’s a few things that we learned from our return to school:
- Mentioning ‘The Sex Pistols’ never fails to raise a titter from a classroom of children.
- The kids absolutely love Simon’s dancing in the ‘That’s Not My Name’ video
- That children tend to have two bedtimes these days. There’s the official one which their parents impose – around 9pm or 9.30pm and then there’s the actual one which involves being under the duvet with a tablet/iPad!
- There is a band called ‘5 Seconds of Summer’
- The kids at Brunswick have got some seriously cool parents who’ve taken them to loads of festivals.
- With children like the Brunswick Primary School growing up and becoming adults things are looking pretty good for society in terms of having thoughtful and caring people around.
- We can get through 3 hours of teaching without dropping any swear words!
We’re looking forward to next year.
And if you want us to come and teach your kids (or adults) how to be little punks, or other things check out our training page and let us know what your requirements are.
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