Bartek Lorbiecki has been helping us with workshops over the past couple of months. Born in Poland, he now lives and works in St Ives in a hotel - all while studying accountancy.
He's been a very thoughtful co-worker - witness his detailed review of last week's workshops at Penrice School, St Austell.
Entering the school, I noticed a big suitcase and he explained that he did set a competition where students had to make a big poster showing what they would take going for a long time abroad. What was surprising comparing to other schools was a discipline at Penrice...it was palpable in the air that there is great respect for the teachers in that school (you know I like it).
On Tuesday ...year seven had a very unique assembly – thinking of what they would take for a long journey and checking what was in a Portuguese suitcase and then asking me what I had in mine when I came to England). There were quite a few really good pieces of writing saying something like that: ‘my life in Cornwall is ok and I will be back home after I pick another 400 000 cabbages:)’.
Wednesday was completely different as it was a drama group (apart from the fact that we were late a few minutes having satellite navigation frozen and missing our left turn). Again, that teacher did a great job starting assembly by asking the students to think of how it feels to live in a foreign country. I was more than surprised seeing no desks in a classroom and when I expressed that to the teacher she said they usually don’t use chairs either (they did only because we were there)! They were a really nice and friendly group and we had lots of fun there.
On Thursday we had another drama group. Driving there I discussed with Jo a small change as instead of telling them a story about two fingers I wanted pupils to perform this situation with me in front of everybody. However, before I could do it we (6 students from this class and I) were taken to the library for a brief photo session with suitcases of travelers. The photographer said that it will appear next week in ‘Cornishman’ or ‘West Briton’. After coming back to the classroom we performed a short role play and it worked perfectly well!!! A girl with red hair sitting next to us burst laughing really loudly and even those few students who seemed to be a bit negative about foreign workers at the beginning suddenly became really interested in what was going on. At the end they had to prepare a small play showing their lives as people who came to work on a farm. I have already seen somebody chopping his finger off but this time a person has lost a leg!!!
After seeing that I said to Jo on our way back that tomorrow I will take my digital camera so we can record some of them. However, on Friday I had to get up much earlier as we had a fire alarm at 5.30 in the morning and we had to evacuate the guests (at the hotel in St Ives). When it started ringing (not knowing what was going on) I had to dress myself in a minute as I was not sure If I come back before catching a bus to Camborne. Because of that I completely forgot to take my camera!
At school we had year 11 during assembly and then year 10 drama group for a workshop. I thought that they were very stressed sitting there, but I think that they were much more brave than me having my Maths exams. Before taking Mechanics I was like a huge jelly! Our workshop group on that day was really demanding and thoughtful (I have to mention that a drama teacher we had on Wednesday and Friday was a real deal! I don’t mean that the others were not good but that lady was a genius!). When we were talking a few of them seemed to me much more mature intellectually than just 15 years old. Actually, 6 or 7 of them in a few weeks time are going to visit Poland (their partner school in Plock) so I taught them a few words in Polish they can use and gave a list of good chocolates and a few dishes which in my opinion they should try. Well, they were a lovely group and I am sure kids in Poland are going to love them!
Apart from the trip and discussion about what they may see in Poland that group will stay in my memory for one more reason. Their performances were simply brilliant!!! The opening one, where three girls started in a strange position, looking more like turned to stone, and one of them started performing as a foreign worker getting up in the early morning and then after getting up and eating she touched her friend who suddenly came to life and she became a stone was a masterpiece!!! When the girls finished the applause just emerged out of nowhere and was really loud and wild! In another performance a girl, who asked Jo what time people working on the fields get up to work was pretending to be a huge clock alarm and when she reached five am a boy who was behind her (he was shorter so you could barely see him) started jumping as a symbol of a ring (they had to be voiceless while performing, I am sure Jo has some pictures of it). Their imagination was endless! It is a pity they didn’t do classes like that in Poland when I was in secondary school! We had a really good time and the Penrice school seems to be a nice place to be in.
