Makaton & Sophie Lancaster

Makaton workshops and The Sophie Lancaster Program

Throughout the summer and winter term, we have been working with Kitty Short from Creative Confidence, who has wrote two blogs about her time here at Our Lady’s. The first explains the collaboration with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation program;

“Over the past 7 weeks, the year 7s, have been on an incredible journey of discovery not only about themselves but also about the people that surround them. They became part of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation Program which was developed after the horrific attack on Sophie and her boyfriend in 2007 which sadly led to Sophie’s tragic death. The year 7’s explored how they can often make judgements about someone solely from what they look like and how they dress. They discovered how we can’t always

“Over the first half term, I have had the privilege of teaching a small group of Year 7 girls Makaton Sing and Sign. This was a new venture for Our Lady’s that was developed during lockdown for students to access online. Due to its success, it continued over the summer holidays and now it is back in school face to face with all social distancing measure put into place.

Each of the girls have embraced this new project bringing their own sense of style and expression to each session. They have developed the skills to use Makaton in a judge a book by its cover and I admired how open and honest they were about their feelings. They had a mature attitude to learning about alternative sub cultures such as Goths and Emo’s and were excited to explore the individuality of each one by dressing as them. They developed an understanding and respect for alternative sub cultures in our community and appeared more open minded about everyone having the right to express their uniqueness. variety of songs and are able to compare the similarities of the vocabulary in each one. Every week the girls have become more engaged and are now setting myself the challenge of learning new songs and how to communicate them in Makaton. Throughout the sessions I have watched the girls grow in confidence and selfesteem which is really rewarding and I am extremely proud of what they have achieved.” I am exceptionally proud at how the students embraced the program, and I hope that they continue to challenge the prejudice and intolerance that alternative subcultures face as they would make perfect ambassadors for The

The second blog post explores the Makaton Sing and Sign group that began to take place online and allowed several of our students to explore new skills that will benefit them throughout their school lives and future careers;

Sophie Lancaster Foundation.” These sessions have been well received by all students involved, and the poetry workshops have also continued through this term. We would like to thank Kitty Short for her hard work, and all the students a big well done for their hard work and dedication to all the activities that have taken place.