The Cathedral Education Team is delighted to work in partnership with The Linking Network (TLN) and to be able to offer a safe, stimulating, neutral venue for children to explore the four key TLN questions:
Who am I? Who are we? Where do we live? How do we all live together?
We aim to support schools and communities, by providing positive learning opportunities for children to meet and interact, in order to deepen their understanding of themselves and others and broaden their perspectives. We offer a safe space for children who would not normally meet to get to know each other to talk, listen, think, play and learn, through interaction and shared tasks.
Currently the Cathedral Education Team works alongside our valued creative partners at Kala Sangam and the Linking Day entails children spending half of the day at Kala Sangam and half at the Cathedral, but it is possible to spend the whole Linking Day at the Cathedral if required.
If you are interested in visiting the Cathedral and Kala Sangam as part of your linking work, please contact TLN direct either by phone 01274 439248 or by email, or visit the TLN website for more details. Should you wish to use the Cathedral solely as a neutral venue, please contact education@bradfordcathedral.org.uk in the first instance to find out more about our offer.
A Linking Workshop at the Cathedral
The current TLN workshop lasts approximately 60 minutes and is part of a linking day offered in partnership with Kala Sangam. The workshop is designed to encourage children from different schools to get to know each other better through using the Cathedral as a shared heritage site, that tells the story of Bradford as a city, from Saxon times to the present day through the space, artefacts and signs and symbols. It links well with the Bradford Museum’s Services topic ‘Proud to be from Bradford.
Part I The workshop begins with the facilitators asking the children to share their personal initial responses to the Cathedral as a place and introducing themselves to a new friend from the TLN school that they are working with. They are introduced to the idea of the Cathedral being a special place, not just to Christians, but to all the people in Bradford. They are asked to identify a space that is special to each of them and say why. Working with a friend from their new partner schools, the children are then encouraged to find out more about why the Cathedral is special to all ‘Bradfordians’ and about its place in their shared Bradford heritage. They search the Cathedral, acting as detectives and exploring the signs, symbols and heraldry (often displayed on shields) around the building; collaboratively recording the information that they collect on the way.
Part 2 Using this experience, children move to the South Transept and each pair is asked to design a shield, like a badge, using a collection of picture symbols for each other, that shows what they are like as individuals and also what they share and have in common. This involves dialogue – talking and listening, to find out more about their new friend. Each pair is encouraged to share their finished shields with the rest of the group and explain what they have learnt about each other and Bradford through the activities. Each child takes a shield back to school; this may be used for further linking work in the classroom.
A Linking Day at the Cathedral
New for 2022 the Cathedral hopes to be able to offer a Heritage Time Line Linking Day, comprising investigations, trails, story telling, drama and art work, to explore the four key Linking questions:
Who am I? Who are we? Where do we live? How do we all live together?
More details to follow in the new year.