Assembly and Workshop at Browick Rd Infant School

So-today was the day! After weeks of preparation this morning we trekked through the snow to Browick Road Infant School and went straight into our Theatre in Education (from now on I will call it TIE) performances. Unfortunately several important members of our group weren't there so some very brave  people kindly stepped in and improvised for us. I was dressed as a teddy bear, Jacob was a robot and Laura took Freya's place as a Barbie doll. However, the Red Cross charity group went first with Elliot, Ellie, Holly and Ryan at the last minute instead of Bradley. They portrayed a quiz show, with Elliot as the host, asking Ryan questions about how often he donates to charity and how the donations help others worldwide in war-torn countries. Next we watched a 'clip' of the Red Cross helping a young person who had lost a close friend. They tried to show how one minute he had just been an ordinary boy playing with his friends and then suddenly he had been shot. They interacted well with the audience but obviously it wasn't as good as it could have been because of the absence of some students.

Then it was my group with me, Jacob, Sam and Laura stepping in. It went surprisingly well; we said all our lines and Laura did really well making up lines that would fit with our idea of some lonely toys who wanted to be played with or at least donated to someone who wanted them. At the end Sam asked the audience some questions about what charity shops were and if anyone donated-we got a good response from the Year 2's.

Jacob's robot costume

Next the Browick students went back to their classrooms and we got into our workshop groups. Again we were missing some members and in the end it was just me, Laura, Ross and Jacob in our group. Disaster struck again when we realised Chloe had our updated workshop plan so we had to do just what we could remember. We started by playing the traffic light game  (red means stop, amber means sit down and green is go) and some other games to warm them up. Jacob 'hid' some giant foam jigsaw pieces and told the Year 2's to find them. but explained that if they found more than one they had to give the other to someone else who didn't have one-this was to try and get them to share. After this Ross and I acted a scene where Ross is playing with a toy and I snatch it from him; we were showing them how NOT to share and asked a little girl to show us what we should do. Then they got into pairs and asked them to share either a toy or a book and they were really good-they even managed to both play with it nicely together. We played a game of sleeping lions to finish off and calm them down and Laura asked them a few questions so we could see whether they had understood and whether it had been a success. Altogether I think it went well but it would have been even better if we had everyone so we could do everything we were supposed to and if we had our workshop plan it would have seemed more professional.
Browick Rd

Artefact Lesson 23rd Nov

This lesson we looked at different ways to construct our shoes-Miss Pinnington showed us pictures of some artists work and how they used different materials for different effects. For example, Marion Mitchell documented a woman's life in shoes. Each stage in a woman's life; from childhood and her teenage years, to her twenties and thirties, and finally middle age and retirement was represented by a different type of shoe.

Another really interesting idea was portrayed by Doris Salsedo; she covered her  shoes with wax sheeting and kept then in a wax shoe box. They were made not to be worn but almost to be preserved, like they were really precious or she just wanted to remember them, even though she didn't wear them.

I also started production on my shoe! I began by covering my last with cling film; then I cut up some strips of Modrock, dipped them in water and pasted them onto my last. I still need to finish this before I can apply my jewellery but it's great!

Theatre in Education Performance-lesson 23rd Nov

In today's lesson with Mrs Haythorpe we did some extra rehearsing of our assemblies and workshops for Year 2 on 30th Nov. These performance are using theatre in education-we are raising awareness and trying to educate children on donating and sharing while performing. So far I think it's going well-we are almost completely prepared with our script and costumes, and our workshop has been slightly rewritten to allow for extra time.

Campaign Lesson 23rd Nov

Last Tuesday we were supposed to set up a donation stall at lunchtime for everyone to bring in donations that we can then sell or give to our charity shop. However this didn't really work as no one brought in any donations! The main problems were that we didn't advertise our donation stall adequately; the posters didn't stand out enough and there was generally not enough awareness around the school so many people didn't realise it was happening. Also, high school students don't really give so much to charity anyway and our campaign idea is not very cool. So, our new scheme to get good quality donations is to aim the campaign more at staff; they are more likely to want to give donations and most have children, so they may want a clear out before Christmas and all the presents that will be received. We have written a letter to staff explaining our situation and requesting donations, as well as making flyers and colourful posters to be put up in the staff room. My group are also making a giant 'Charity Monster' out of cardboard to go in the staff room, which will hopefully attract more attention and get people to donate!

This is our new poster using our Charity Monster logo, aimed more at staff who may be nore interested in clearing out before Christmas. However it still has the cute monster logo to make it more appealing and to make them look twice at the poster and take it in.

Barnardo's Campaigns-Why are they so controversial?

Barnardos' is a well respected children's charity that has, over the past few years, been involved in a number of campaigns to improve the lives of children across the country, supporting over 100,000 families and giving help to the children who need it most.  Barnardo's are fearless in their approach and despite controversy over their campaigns they have succeeded in changing the law and Government policy with regards to children's rights, including the scheme to improve wheelchair access for disabled children, protecting young asylum seekers who are unable to find HIV treatment and providing Scotland's poorest children with free school meals, as well as persuading the Government to try and help end child poverty by spending £1 billion to improve the situation.

One campaign that Barnardo's is strongly backing is The Robin Hood Tax; a small 0.05% tax from international banker's transactions that would generate enough money to stop public services being cut, help the fight against child poverty here and all over the world and help us fight climate change. They believe that this tax would help vulnerable children living in poverty by providing them with the essential services they need. £4 bn is needed to halve child poverty; this is a huge sun to pay in the current recession but this tax would provide more than enough money to make it possible.

Recently Barnardo's received a huge amount of public support over their campaign to help the children of asylum seekers by providing thier families with more support and higher funding. They successfully campaigned to Immigration Minister Phil Woolas that they were in desperate need of more money and so far they have received increased support rates; however there is still more work to be done.

Barnardos' campaigns use facts, research evidence and their knowledge gained from working with children to produce reports and summaries for decision makers (politicians and the government) and the opinion formers (the public and media). They then lobby the government. brief and meet with them and respond to consultations. They are clearly passionate about the work they do and the children they are helping.
This image of a newborn baby attracted a storm of controversy, after another leading children's charity claimed it was 'insulting to the very people they purport to help'. The Advertsising Standards Authority also received 92 letters of complaint; however Barnardo's stuck by its campaign to raise awareness os how children born into poverty will grow up to be living in squalor, addicted to alcohol or drugs and be involved in crime. Despite the outcry against their images last year Barnardo's received an advertsising effectiveness award for these powerful images on child prostitution.

How the visit to Van Dal affected my shoe design.....

It was interesting to see how shoes are made and has made me think more about the technical implications. For example, I have never used Modrock before so it could take longer than one lesson to do all the Modrock modelling onto my shoe last. I still think I can do it, as I am not mass producing like Van Dal. I can always modify my plan and take my shoe home to do extra work on it.

Unfortunately I will not be able to use ion technology on my shoe. This is where the shoes are covered in a special flurocarbon to make them completely hydrophobic. If you cover them in water, they won't soak through like normal shoes do, instead the water droplets simply roll off. This is MOD technology and Van Dal are the only shoe designers at the moment to use it when creating their shoes.

16th Nov - Trip to Florida Shoe Factory, Dibden Road, Norwich

This morning, we took the coach from Wymondham High to the Florida Shoe Factory in Norwich. They design and make shoes and handbags for Van Dal, a huge older women's shoe brand based in Norwich. Norwich is especially famous for making shoes (mainly for ladies and children)  and have been a major part of the shoemaking industry for over 700 years! They once made around 7 million pairs a year, however since the mid 19th century the shoemaking process has become mechanised and because of the downturn during the war  Van Dal now produce on average 1400 pairs a week. While they do produce shoes in thier own factory, the vast majority are now exported to China and India to be made in huge factories, as the cost of labour is cheaper out there.

The concept of a shoe starts in the design room, where the designers have their ideas and draw them out on paper before they can become a reality. However they don't have total creative freedom-they subscribe to the magazines 'Insight' (predicts the next seasons trends) and 'Pantone' ( a magazine which shows next seasons colours and patterns). Because they are designing for a certain market ( the over 45's) they have to use heel shapes, designs and materials which will appeal to their customers. They firstly have a design meeting, wher they are told by the managers which designs they like and think will work. The next step is a specification sheet-these are technical drawings of the shoe, with information about colour, materials and the general shape of the shoe. They also use theme boards which display images of a certain idea that the shoe design will be based around and colour boards, with different images all representing the same colour. Theme-nature, flowers and animal print
Colour-indigo and navy blue

After sending out spec sheets to the factories in Asia and getting samples sent back, the design is put onto the computer using a digitiser. They then edit on the computer to make sure that once made the shoe will fit comfortably and will fit together properly. Once satisfied, they send it the cutting table where the shapes are cut out onto card.
This is a different cutting table I found on the internet.

This process used to be done by clickers ( so called because they used to make a clicking sound ). They would cut the paper out by hand.

Next we headed downstairs where a lot of the work is done by hand. The card template is traced around and cut out onto leather and the pieces are sewn together by women on sewing machines. They pieces are moulded onto lasts and the stifler (back of shoe) is also moulded. The soles are stuck on with adhesive and any untidy fibres are burned, wiped and cleaned away.

The shoe boxes are made in flatpacks in China. These are shipped back to Norwich and sent to Norwich Prison, where the prisoners make them into proper shoeboxes.
The labels are added, the shoes are put into boxes and are now ready to be sold!

This modern way of making shoes is quite different to back in the 19th century, when cobblers made shoes by hand, using traditional methods of sculpting the leather and sewing it all together.  While some techniques have remained the same-they still use shoe lasts to model the shape of the shoe, although today they are mad of plastic rather than wood and made by machines.

Questionnaire for Browick Road

1. Did you enjoy today?
2. Did you understand about sharing and donating?
3. Do you think you'll donate more to charity?
4. Do you understand what happens when you give to charity?
5. Do you know where your local charity shops are?
6. Do you know what a charity is?
7. Anything else to add?

This is the questionnaire my group will hand out to the Year 2's at the end of our workshop. We need to make sure they have understood the day so we can judge whether our campaign was successful. If not, we need to understand what went wrong and how to improve it.

The Year 2' seemed very knowledgeable about some well-known charities as they do a lot of fundraisng events at school-such as non-uniform days for Children in Need and Comic Relief. Unfortunately we were unable to give them this actual questionnaire but they all seemed to understand and some even said they were going to start donating their old toys to charity.

My Group's Plan for Browick Rd Workshop

Campaign Weekly Plan

Week 1: 7th Sep-told about our Campaign Unit and what we are expected to have achieved by Christmas.
Week 2: 14th Sep-researched campaigns and brainstormed ideas for fundraising. Set up our blogs.
Week 3: 21st Sep-Put into groups and chose our charities; asked ourselves what we wanted to do for them and brainstormed ideas for fundraising. Looked at charity shops and how they needed better donations, and how we were going to raise awareness of the need for higher quality donations.
Week 4: 28th Sep- watched a theatre in education performance and told how to write a live review-writing a review set for homework.
Week 5: 5th Oct-I missed the lesson but planning of storyboards, posters and adverts.
Week 6: 12th Oct-Creative Industries event.
Week 7: 19th Oct-finished posters and began working on our assembly at Browick Rd Infant School.
Week 8: 2nd Nov-worked on our assemblies and started planning our workshops. Speaker came in and talked to us about making video journals and for homework we planned our own.
Week 9: 9th Nov-finished homework from before half-term and worked on our blogs. Rehearsed assmeblies and workshops.
Week 10: 16th Nov-no lesson due to trip to Florida Shoes. We were going to do a donation stall at lunch for people to bring donations in, but this idea didn't work.
Week 11: 23rd Nov-preparation for trip to Browick Rd; rehearse and have costume sorted out.
Week 12: 30th Nov-performance and workshops at Browick Rd.
Week 13: 7th Dec-I was ill.
Week 14: 14th Dec-'Sale Day' for sale of donations-all the money goes to the charity shop. This idea failed as we had no donations. Finish blog work.

Lesson 9th Nov

Today we put our posters for the donation stall around the school and finished off our homework. In Mrs Haythorpe's lesson me and Freya added the finishing tweaks to the letter we are sending to Browick Road regarding our assemby and workshops there on 30th November. We then had a quick rehearsal of our assembly and in the last half an hour we started doing more planning on our workshops. Laura is the leader in our workshop group and we now have a written out plan of how things will work.

Lesson 9th Nov

This lesson was mainly a re-cap on what we have to get done and a catch up for those who are behind. I finished my brainstorm and my shoe planning-after the trip to Florida Soes next week I will be ready to start making my shoe!!!! I have even chosen the shoe last my shoe will be modelled on and I will start by wrapping it in cling film and covering it in Modrock, which I have never used before. This will be a new experience!

Plan for Video Journal Format on Campaign Unit

Format for Campaign Unit Video Journal

1. Film clips of The Children's Society and the work they do, focusing on the happiness of the children.
 2. Members of my group talking about the work we have done so far and what we have achieved; cutaways of us working hard.
3. Talk about the importance of our campaign, with maybe more cutaways of the charity's work and inside their charity shop; talk about the shop and the need for higher quality donations.
4. Talk about what we are working on now; the assembly and our donation stall, actuality footage of us rehearsing our theatre in education performance.
5. What we hope to have achieved by the end of term.

Lesson 2nd Nov - Video Journals

Today we had Jackie Heffer-Cooke, a woman who has worked for Anglia TV and done lots of TV work behind the scenes, come in to talk to us about how video journals worked and how they were used in TV e.g. on The X Factor; before they watch an act perform, they watch a short clip about last week and what they have been doing to prepare for their next performance. They start with a Promo Buffer ( a shot of the act used to fill gaps) then re-cap  their previous show and the judge's comments. Next they start an off-camera interview (an interview where the interviewer is not seen or heard by the audience) about how they felt last Saturday went with cutaways (footage) of last week being shown. Then they might move onto talk about some kind of personal experience (such as footage of them when they were very young) or something exciting that happened to them during the week (like going to the new Harry Potter film premiere) with another Promo Buffer added in. After this the interview will move on to discuss how rehearsals for this week are going with some actuality footage-footage of them 'actually' rehearsing and going behind the scenes, followed by more actuality of the judges expectations for the performance and what they're looking forward to. To finish, an extra Promo Buffer before we see their live performance.


I found this session quite helpful as video journals are very relevant to what we are doing and making them is a part of doing this diploma. We also need to plan a format for our own video journal and this information will be very useful.

Campaign Learning Objective 1

5.1: Understand the nature and purpose of campaigns.
Children in Need Campaign
-The main message behind Children in Need is to raise lots of money for disadvantaged children living in the UK. They aim to help all under 18's realise their full potential, despite their home or life circumstances. The children they help include young carers, runaways or children with disabilities or life-threatening illnesses. They operate all year round  but the huge fundraiser they hold every year helps raise millions for the charity. The trustees include  Stevie Spring (chief executive of Future plc), Tim Davie (BBC Director of Audio and Music), charity workers like Peter McBride (Group Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health) and Sir Terry Wogan, the nationally renowned TV and radio presenter who has been the face of the TV marathon since it first aired in 1980. He has since become the Life President of the charity.

Every year the website comes up with lots of different fudraisers and tries to inspire people to donate in different ways. This year they launched a huge Get Baking campaign to inspire people to hold bake sales and make delicious Pudsey Bear cakes and biscuits for Children in Need. There are also ideas on how to use arts and crafts; by drawing, painting or making something artistic to raise money.
The Children in Need campaign also uses Pudsey Bear and Blush, the two mascots, to raise money; they sell Pudsey and Blush products such as keyrings, bear ears and T-shirts. This is effective as the bears are so associated with the charity and are very cute so customers will buy them so they can feel they're 'treating themselves' while also donating to a good cause.

Another successful fundraising technique is the huge TV appeal every November. The most recent one was hosted by Terry Wogan, Tess Daly and Fearne Cotton. It is watched by millions nationwide and every year countless celebrities, TV shows and touching appeals are involved. Popular TV shows such as 'Merlin', 'Strictly Come Dancing', 'Eastenders', 'Coronation Street' and 'Dragon's Den' all host special one-off episodes to try and convince the viewers watching at home to donate. Special music performances on the night from musicians like Cheryl Cole, Pixie Lott, Ellie Goulding, The Script, Take That, Alexandra Burke, The Saturdays, McFly, Susan Boyle and Peter Andre aim to not only make the programme enjoyable to watch, by reading out the donation number they show the public that they support the campaign and are asking others to get behind it; because they are celebrities people look up to them and obviously if someone famous is supporting it it must be a good thing. In between the fun there are always videos from children that the money is going towards; children who are disabled, seriously ill or abused share their stories to pull on people's heartstrings and show how the money is making a difference for the better. These are also designed to get more people to donate.
Every year a top music artist or band release a Children in Need single-this year it's a song called 'Love You More' by JLS. All the money received from the single's sales go to Children in Need and these factors usually result in the song getting to number 1-yet more donations to the charity.

This campaign has been extremely successful. It was first started in 1927 on a small, 5 minute long radio transmission on Christmas Day and received £1,143 18s 3d which was split between 4 children's charities. The first televised appeal the 'Children's Hour Christmas Appeal' was broadcast on Christmas Day and was hosted by Harry Corbett and Sooty-these Christmas appeals continued on radio and TV until 1979. In 1980 the telethon format was introduced and was an instant success. The idea was conceived by Mark Patterson, who late became Executive Producer for 9 years. Now it has become one of the biggest television events of the year and in 2009 a total of £39 million was raised.

Shoe Construction Plan

Week 1: 7th Sep-introduction to the unit and making felt.
Week 2: 14th Sep-finished felt and made paper shoes.
Week 3: 21st Sep-look at old artefacts and tools used to make shoes. Looked at the Van Dal shoe factory and the history of shoes in Norwich.
Week 4: 28th Sep-we were given the shop we are designing a shoe for and researched them. Looked at famous shoe designers and wrote up a piece on them for homework.
Week 5: 5th Oct-I missed the lesson but the others in my group visited Hemstock's (our shop) and filmed the inside and took away some ideas.
Week 6: 12th Oct-Creative Industries event.
Week 7: 19th Oct-given list of what we need to complete and our deadlines; for homework made a mood board and drew some fashion drawings.
Week 8: 2nd Nov-given our sketchbooks and stuck in our work; made a plan for my shoe.
Week 9: 9th Nov-catch-up lesson and finished my shoe plan.
Week 10: 16th Nov-trip to Florida Shoes and research shoe making today.
20th Nov-go into Norwich and buy cheap jewellery, especially pieces with chains, gems, studs, sparkle etc.
Week 11: 23rd Nov-begin construction during the lesson. Gather remaining materials (wire, shoe last to model the design onto, modrock.
Week 12: 30th Nov-Continued with modrocking, left it to set on my shoe last ready for cutting off next lesson.
Week 13: 7th Dec-Unfortunately I was ill and couldn't go in.
Week 14: 14th Dec-Had a crisis! I tried to cut my modrock off my last and it fell apart! AAAAHH!! Fear not, I re-covered my last with cling film and used PVA glue to stick scraps of tissue paper to form my shoe.
Week 15: 11th Jan-Continuing with tissue paper and working on my sketch book-deadline 25th Jan.
Week 16: 18th Jan-Have done more tissue papaering at home and am almost done. That weekend I stuck my gems and jewellery onto my shoe with superglue. Hooray, am almost there!
Week 17: 25th Jan(deadline)-finished off last minute bits in lesson on my sketch book. Part of my shoe is not so strong and cracked under weight of gems, but am unable to reinforce it. Blog work done. I am pretty much there.
Health and Safety
Using wire can be dangerous as you could cut youself or someone else badly. I will have to make sure I am careful, use the proper equipment to cut and don't muck around with it. Also, don't play around with the modrock as it may not be very good if swallowed or it could make horrible stains whch are tough to get out.

Research-Hunter Wellies and Comparisons with Irregular Choice

Wellington boots first appeared in 1817, as 19th century men's fashion underwent a change. They needed a suitable outdoor boot that would would go under trousers and were originally designed by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington,'s shoemaker (hence the name wellington boot). Firstly made of leather, entrepreneurs in America began experimenting with using rubber as an alternative. One man, Henry Lee Morris, came over to Scotland and the Hunter shoe brand was born.
Since its small beginnings in 1856 in Edinburgh, Hunter has now become iconic yet also modern and stylish. Once based in Heathhall Dumfries (in September 2008 it relocated back to Edinburgh) it has supplied our army with boots during both World Wars and in the winter of 1955 they created their most famous boot: the original Green wellington, copied by designers globally. The green welly is the ultimate symbol of the British countryside. Even the Royal Family have given Hunter a warrant and they are the official welly suppliers to HM the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

Original Hunter Green Welly £62.00

While the obvious function of Hunter wellies is practical, as they keep your feet dry while walking on damp or muddy ground, the function of a more fashion-orienteered brand such as Irregular Choice is to make a statement and look good. Both brands are now iconic in their field, but Hunter dates back to literally 200 years while Irregular Choice was only launched in 1999. The materials used to make these shoes are also very different-wellies were traditionally made from calfskin leather, but now tend to be made from rubber or a synthetic alternative but modern fashion shoes are made from ordinary leather and sometimes embellished with ribbons, feathers, jewels, beads and laces.

Black Hunter wellies made from Neoprene.



Irregular Choice 'Rasperberry Ripple' heels made with fabric and ruffles.





Wellies need to look the way they do; while they can be seen as a fashion statement, wellies are generally worn by people working in the countryside who need practical, comfortable shoes that are easy to clean and offer protection against the elements. The sole and very low heel are designed to be comfortable also, as well as helping feet to grip the uneven surface of country roads, grass and hills. While you can get wellies designed to look pretty and colourful, traditional wellies are generally plain colours such as green and black, as they are more about practicality and function rather than fashion.

On the other hand, Irregular Choice and other high street and designer brands are designed to keep up with current trends (at the same time being individual) and looking good; comfort is not always the idea. While there are shoes like wedges, which claim to be more comfortable, high heels with tight straps and pointy toes are generally much more painful to wear than wellies! Furthermore, companies like Hunter that produce wellies stick to the same shape and styles, whereas top-end famous designers are renowned for pushing boundaries with shoe design. For example, Antonio Berardi designed some thigh-high leather heel-less boots famously worn by Victoria Beckham...

....as well as the 'Armadillo'boots worn by Lady Gaga in her 'Bad Romance' video. They were designed by Alexander McQueen and had a style similar to ballet pointe shoes, witha blocky end going straight down and encrusted with sparkle.

Theses shoes may have had a mixed reaction, but the whole point of them was to look unique, to be different and experimental, rather than be used for work and comfort in the countryside.

Artefact Lesson 2nd Nov

We were finally given our sketchbooks this lesson and also a sheet on our deadlines! Next lesson we have to submit our LO1 and LO2 portfolio and then on the 16th we have a trip to Florida Shoes in Norwich were we will see how proper shoes are made and get more information on how to construct our shoes. Then on the 23rd we will begin making our final shoes!!!

Campaign Lesson 2nd Nov

Today we all started to rehearse our performances at Browick and our workshops we plan to do with the Year 2's. For our workshops we were split up into groups and each person was assigned a different task; like playing warm-up games, talking to them and explaining why sharing and donating is important and acting out scenes where they have to tell us what is wrong (such as someone not sharing) and they correct the situation. The main idea is to play some games to start, then show them an example of someone not sharing and they have to rectify it, then just playing quiet games to calm them down.