Actions Speak Louder than Words at Walker Riverside Academy

Walker Riverside Academy approached us with an inspirational request.  A group of Year 9 students had reported experiencing racially-motivated abuse and the school were looking for innovative ways to support pupils to share their experiences.

The school asked us to produce a residency, co-created with the young people who had come forward and their peers, aimed at a creative exploration of the issues and situations involved and potential ways forward.

Actions Speak Louder than words

Working with Northern Roots, we recruited artists Kay Greyson and Kema Kay to work with the young people, discuss the challenges they were experiencing and experiment with ways of sharing their stories.  The group decided to co-create a film, and developed their storylines in a series of “writer’s room” sessions, storyboarding scenes in their GLOW Newcastle creative journals to record of their creative processes.

“This was a really fantastic opportunity for students and staff, with excellent artist contacts. I have learned a lot about the creative process and how to shape young people’s ideas in a productive way”

Kate Perry, Careers Lead, Walker Riverside Academy

Kay Greyson and Kema Kay supported the young people to draw their ideas together into a script, which they then rehearsed, and filmed.  They worked incredibly hard to complete this work within ten weeks, and they celebrated with a special showing at Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle.

“Having them open up was good, and having them come to an agreement that the message they are trying to send is positive and the film has to be put in a constructive way to reach the people they want to reach.”

Kema Kay, Resident Artist, Walker Riverside Academy

The young people’s advocacy and creative work has had important legacies.  The Senior Leadership team have been showing their film in assemblies and in Continuous Professional Development sessions for staff, in order to facilitate discussion and new approaches to critical issues such as bullying, tackling offensive language and positive mental health.

If you would like to learn more about Kema Kay and Kay Greyson’s work, follow this link to their video interviews on our GLOW Newcastle Creative Careers Gallery.