One year. One hundred and twenty primary school students. One Thousand Words for belonging.
What does it mean to belong? Are there different types of belonging? What is the difference between belonging and ‘fitting in’? What role does language play in a sense of belonging?
Inspired by the 1000 WORDS FOR WEATHER project, Neela went back to Gearies Primary School to work on a multilingual arts project entitled 1000 WORDS FOR BELONGING. Over one year, all of the students in Year 6 explored the concept of ‘belonging’ through playwrighting, poetry and visual art. The project has been documented on instagram and through the creation of a new (upcoming) podcast.
Insights from the 1000 WORDS FOR BELONGING project are being documented in a new 4-part podcast, due for release in Spring 2025. The podcast will explore multilingualism in arts education and will include conversations with students, teachers, artists, and academics. Each episode will be practical in focus, sharing stories of multilingualism in the classroom. Many schools in England still have posters on the walls that state ‘students must speak in English at all times’. This podcast will speak directly to the message in those posters, fighting against the policing of language as a form of behaviour policy.
1000 WORDS FOR BELONGING is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and a grant from the University of London’s Knowledge Exchange fund.
You can follow our 1000 WORDS FOR BELONGING antics on Instagram @words4belonging.
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