A Pocket Full of Treasure A new Collaboration between Sharon Campbell and Rachel Ramchurn

“a child picks up an acorn cap, a shell or a shiny broken hair clip and pops in their pocket” “an adult carries a small momento in their wallet or bag, that no one sees” Investigating tiny pocket sized treasures, maybe of little intrinsic value in themselves but for the keeper, immensely precious, holding memories, stories and moments in time. Chapel Street Primary School Residency in Primary School with the EYFS ‘early year’s foundation stage’, nursery and reception aged children, resulting in an interactive sculpture in the school playground. Both artists were in residence for three days of engagement activity with all the EYFS children, The process of engagement had a two-fold aim; to investigate treasures both natural and brought from home or found around the school scribing associated descriptive words, and the process then used to inform an interactive sculpture commissioned by the school for the EYFS playground. The schools specific remit being to stimulate and encourage descriptive language development through creative play and art. At the end of the residency, all the collected associated words from the children were formed into a poem written by the Head Teacher, performed by the children and used within the school as a learning tool. “The quality of Sharon’s and Rachel’s work with both our children and staff was outstanding. They displayed excellent teaching and motivational skills and great sensitivity to the needs of each individual child; our school population is highly diverse and multicultural and many of our children are in the very early stages of learning English. " Jonathan Power Head Teacher Chapel Street Primary School (just retired this year).