This week, we welcomed back the children and staff from Year 4 at Blakeley Heath Primary School, who were our guests to explore the theme of “Playlist”. So after a quick tour, lunch and meeting the tutors, we set straight to work in sessions to begin creating. 

Forty kids, a four century year old house and lots of arts and crafts. What could possibly go wrong? Well, thanks to the fabulous staff and facilities of Ingestre Hall, Stafford, absolutely nothing as the students of both St. John Plessington, Bebington, and St. Mary’s Catholic College, Wallasey – both schools being on Wirral, Merseyside – made full, creative use of the state-of-the-art facilities on offer for three days and two nights. 

St Leonard’s Frist school 

 

A brilliant first week back. This week Ingestre was host to a small group from Staffordshire. With just 17 children, St Leonard’s were able to have Ingestre all to themselves. The groups theme for the week was ‘Wind in Willows’, focusing on expressing this through Drama and Visual Art. 

On Monday Ingestre Hall hosted the annual SRES 'Sandwell residential education services' training day. This was a brilliant coming together of all four of sandwells residential centers. The day was celebrating the significance of our residential expiriences highlighting the difference that we make to young peoples lives. 

 

Once everyone had arrived and streched from the long journey from Plas Gwynant, Frank Chapman (and the not so far Edgmond Hall) we began with a emersive 3D Virtual Tour of Ingestre Hall and a few words from Richard Oakes, Head of Service. 

The Christmas Spirit has really been in out full force here at Ingestre, for our last week of term and our last residential visit of the year from the children and staff of Gilbertstone Primary School. 

It’s such a shame it didn’t snow this week! 

 

We welcomed a small group of delightful children from Lanesfield Primary School. With Christmas fast approaching, we chose a beautiful picture book to study called “Winter’s Child” by Angela McAllister, which had an enchanting story about a boy called Tom, who loved Winter and wanted it to last forever once he had found friendship with the Winter’s Child, and played with all Winter long, until the Spring arrived and the Winter’s Child went home to his father.  

This was a special week. St Johns International school came to visit Ingestre Hall all the way from Belgium. Being an international school there was huge variety and cultural richness within this group. This was a unique opportunity for children from all over the world to use Ingestre Hall as their hub for creativity and expression. 

What a week; a fantastic group of nearly 80 students from Hagley came to Ingestre and experienced an exciting arts programme jam packed with creativity, fun and performance. The theme for the week was conflict, a powerful and relevant topic, linked to the schools curriculum but also to the lives of the children who, in this climate of change, were helped to understand that in order to build a better future, building dialogue and expression through the arts can generate resilience and opportunity. The group tackled the subject with respect, creative intuition and maturity. 

Another fantastic week full of talent and creativity. Windsor Park school have been visiting Ingestre for a number of years and each year they come they raise the bar for the next. The theme for the week was based on Charles Dicken's ‘A Christmas Carol’. Students produced astonishing work with Christmas wreaths in Visual Art, festive songs in Music, a unique spin on Scrooge's story in Dance and a classic production in Drama. 

Visiting Schools - Mere Green and Curdworth Primary Schools 

 

A fantastic residential involving the very best in Drama, Music, Dance and Visual Arts. Mere Green and Curdworth Primary schools collaborated to create some unique and memorable pieces of work based on the Gunpowder Plot and Time Travel. The work clearly demonstrated how young people could tune into contemporary issues and news whilst find exciting and new creative ways to express their thoughts and feelings through a variety of art forms. The children should be justifiably proud of their achievements; as one of the tutor’s comments “we were absolutely blown away by the quality of their work and the great array of individualism that the children expressed throughout their stay”.