Trevor Roberts is an independent primary school in Camden. They espouse an inclusive and non-competitive ethos to guide young people, particularly in the younger years education.
The young people with whom I worked on the initial pilot were in year six, a cohort that included approximately 30 students. Having just completed a series of exams known as the 11+ and 13+, the ABC program was used to help the students to think creatively following this stressful time, using ABC to cultivate a more creative ’non-exam’, focus.
Because theirs was the first group to pilot ABC methods in schools, this project was formative to the programme as a whole. Through work with the young people at Trevor Roberts, we first begin looking at proxemic mapping as a means of understanding power dynamics amongst children and also how they seek to operate within those. We also worked on what would become ‘Surrogate Voicing’, a method that allows young people to interview and then take on the voice of the person they have just interviewed. Using the first person as they speak, they learn what it is to voice on behalf of another person, and feel the responsibility of representing some else’s truth. This exercise also helps them to cultivate discussions of how to tell one’s own story, the right to opacity, as well as the discomfort one may feel when giving up their own story to someone else’s care.
What makes something so special to you?
“… for me [this place in the playground is] special because my brother was in the senior side while I was in the junior side. Um, so this is a place where like swarms of junior side people lined up to see other people from the senior side. Yeah. And I remember always looking there saying, oh look, it’s the ping pong tables. I can’t wait to play on the ping pong tables and all that. And I always like spoke to my brother and stuff…”
“| care about her a lot and if I lost her or she was stolen, nothing could,… could replace her even if I bought the exact same lamb…”
“… I don’t suspect this coin has been used many times as it’s in great condition and it’s still looking good.
And it’s been around for over a hundred years.
(My mom hopes she would still look good after a hundred).
I keep it in a bag as the acid in my skin could erode it, which would make it worth nothing. It has a lot of characters.
It’s got a slight um, it’s got a slight bullet chip and that, and that makes, gives me a sense of security as it as it feels like I wouldn’t be killed…”
(Trevor Roberts Yr 6 students 10-12yrs)