Winston Way's Olympic Dome

Pupils at Winston Way have been exploring the LIFT Living Archive to find clues of what an International Festival of Theatre in London might really involve.  They have discovered that theatre can take place in unusual places, on a boat, in the street, in someone’s house and even in their very own roof garden.  Eyes widen as the children realise that they are going to transform their underused school roof garden and create their own international celebration.

Artists Sue Mayo, Mia Harris and Dan Scott worked with the group to explore the question “How could London respond to the arrival of 206 countries for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and how could we welcome all these people with so many different languages?” The children began thinking about the many different countries they already had links to and counted that they could speak 19 different languages between them. 

After sketching ideas and making models of dream homes, the children worked with Mia Harris and Kelly Garrett to build a willow dome structure in the roof garden.  Gradually, over a couple of weeks, diverse objects and flags from all 206 countries were collected and hung inside the colourful dome.

Meanwhile, Dan worked with the pupils to collect sounds that would create an exciting and welcoming mood for international visitors.  They recorded a rhythmic chant, which you can listen to here, including the names of all 206 countries, their feelings and thoughts about their own homes, and ‘welcome’ in several different languages. 

As visitors arrived to see the transformed garden the children performed a welcome ceremony including some interesting ideas for what LIFT might stand for:

Lively Inspirational Fun Team

Living In Fantasy Together

Learning Is Fun Today