Last year, Team Leader Alison Wood, and I visited St Luke's Primary school in Endon and explained the BT Education Programme, BT Volunteers, and what we could do for the school. They were excited to hear all about it and agreed for us to concentrate on delivering the Citizenship DVD and lesson to their year 5's.

The teacher, Mr Rushton, and the children enjoyed the lesson, and were eager to move things further, especially around Communication skills. Mr Rushton and the children discussed the possibility of making a video to demonstrate good and bad Communication skills similar to the style used in the Citizenship DVD. This could then be presented to BT, and to the teachers and parents at the end of term. Alison agreed to loan them the video recorders and I arranged for 8 children and Mr Rushton to visit Yarnfield Park for some training on how to record and produce a video. This was kindly carried out by our Video Producer, Phil Mathews, in his own time. The children had a great time and learnt a lot from Phil.

Throughout the year, the whole class designed sketches of Good and Bad scenarios of communicating with their peers, which they recorded, and then edited back in Yarnfield, with the help of Phil. He was so impressed with their editing skills that he said very little needed to be done.

Finally, the night arrived when BT Volunteers, parents and teachers were invited to the BT Communications Evening, held on 21st July 2005, at St Luke's Primary School. Over 100 people attended, and the effort the children had made was outstanding. The show lasted for an hour and every child in the class had a part to play. Every communication technique (from dance, song, mime and video sketches to speeches, role play and sign language) was used in the show and the teacher informed me it was all the children's own work. They worked together as one team, from script writers to technical support; everyone had a part to play. The evening was magical, and all the parents thoroughly enjoyed it, including Alison and myself. The headmaster was very impressed with the children and congratulated the parents on producing such talented kids!! The most impressive part for me was how much FUN the children had even though they had worked so hard to bring the show together.

The next day, I visited the school, and - thanks to Alison painfully printing and handwriting each child's name on the BT Gold Certificate - I personally handed them out to each child, and gave them a sweet along with congratulations.

Note from the Support Team
Ian Clarke and Tony Wildgoose from Leeds Club have carried out a similar project, and we are working with Alison and Linda along with Ian and Tony to produce an activity based on the superb work done by both clubs.

Summary and Feedback
The school were thrilled with the activities which had completely engaged the children and provided a welcome opportunity to get parents into the school.