Primary Arts Day: Transporting Through Time
September saw our first opportunity to get pupils from SMART Trust’s three primary schools - Landulph Primary School, Trewidland Primary and Pre-School, and Dobwalls Community Primary School, together in the heart of Liskeard for a joint Arts Day built around the theme “Transporting Through Time.” For one day, the Town Hall and surrounding buildings became a trust-wide classroom, with children moving between venues to take part in workshops led by specialist tutors, local artists, and colleagues from across the Trust’s three secondary schools.
The morning was based across four rooms in Liskeard Town Hall, with year groups rotating through each session:
- Time Capsule in the Council Chamber, led by Fiona, a History teacher from Saltash secondary school
- Art in the Emily Hobhouse Room, led by local artist Mark Gregory
- Music in the Main Hall, led by specialist music teacher Sally Butlin
- Drama in Wheal Phoenix, led by Reverend Mark
It was fantastic to see secondary colleagues stepping in alongside primary staff and outside specialists to help deliver the programme, a real example of the Trust working as one family of schools rather than six separate sites.
At lunchtime, the whole cohort gathered in the Main Hall to sing together. Every child had learned the same two songs in the run-up to the day, and hearing them performed as one voice across Landulph, Trewidland and Dobwalls was one of the highlights of the day.
The afternoon saw the programme branch out further. Back in the Town Hall, pupils took part in a Dance workshop led by Sam Day, a dance teacher from Looe secondary school, and continued their Music session with Sally Butlin. Meanwhile, smaller groups from Dobwalls spent the afternoon exploring Liskeard itself: a storytelling session at Liskeard Library led by Ed Hart, a guided tour of Liskeard Museum led by museum staff, and a hands-on train workshop at Stuart House led by Andy Greening, each one tying back into the day’s transport-through-history theme.
Days like this are exactly what the Trust hopes to build on: primary pupils learning side by side, secondary staff sharing their expertise beyond their own school gates, and the wider Liskeard community, its museum, library, and local artists, opening its doors to support it. Our thanks go to everyone who made the day such a success. We look forward to more joint events like this across SMART Trust in the future.
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