The TARDIS lands in Barwell!

We are Target Who and one school recently made us an irresistible offer.  Brenda Davies, Head Teacher of Barwell Church of England Academy in Leicestershire, wrote telling us of how their two Year Four classes had been studying with a loose Doctor Who theme running through the entire year.  We were told of Doctor Who themed classrooms, local history lessons using the classroom TARDIS and lured with a fantastic junk modelling photograph, which we are saving back for another day!

Barwell Church of England Academy

We looked at dates hoping that both Andrew and I could attend, but in the end I went alone.  I spend the whole day with the children.  The school had arranged a special assembly for the Year Four classes where I again talked about the ‘magic book’, but also about how being a Doctor Who fan was so different when I was their age.  No DVDs, no iPlayer and no repeats.  I demonstrated this by acting out the end of episode two of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, where Jon Pertwee’s Doctor was menaced by a (not very convincing) Tyrannosaurus Rex.  I selected children to guess what had happened the following Saturday and roared my way across the hall towards each of them in turn!  I received some wonderful answers that ranged from “He gets eaten” to “He zaps it with the sonic screwdriver.”  Of course the actual answer was I had to go out to a family event and was forced to miss the next episode!  I mimed my childish tantrum that I’d had back in 1974 as I was made to miss my favourite programme - much to their delight!

The sign in the Doctor Who model gallery.  We'll reveal some of it's wonderful work later in the week

For the rest of the day I helped out.  The children told me about the work they had been doing and showed me many paintings, drawing, plans and models.  We also spent some time making Daleks.  Accompanying this are a few photos of some of their wonderful work.  More will follow over the next few days.

We are Target Who and sometimes we get to see the wonderful ways teachers use Doctor Who to inspire and educate the current generation of children.

The TARDIS in the time vortex as visualised by some Year 4 pupils.  More artwork later

Target Who would like to thank Brenda Davies and the Staff of Barwell Church of England Academy for a wonderful day and agreeing that we could share photos of the children work here.  We would also especially like to thank Brenda for delivering books to four other Leicestershire schools on our behalf.