Days Six and Seven
Saturday’s community-run workshop went very well. A lot of folk came along. Over eighty were given a lunch of home made stew(corned beef or vegetable) with a crusty roll and a host of new lanterns were created.
The mams were very pleased with their efforts.
“It went really well. It was great to have some responsibility, to be in charge” said Corrie
Zana added “Communication was good between us. Everyone helped everyone – looked after their children and everything – and there were people from very different backgrounds”
I asked if there was any point at which they didn’t know what to do
Corrie replied “No. Well, I forgot to get people to sign in but then I remembered and went round the tables with the book…”
A couple of participants were covering their creations as we were talking and commented on how much they had enjoyed Saturday. They made seven lanterns – one for each member of the family – with Janette’s help.
“The atmosphere was lovely. We’ve never done it before but we’ve seen it go past our door. It’s a great experience for the children and it brings everyone in the community together. Janette was great – taught us to make stars and everything.”
There was a good atmosphere this morning too. The workshops are over. The jobs now are to fettle and cover the lantern frames. Fettling lanterns is to check them over for strength and decoration, that they have a candle and a wire loop for carrying and a space for a door. Then they can be covered with wet-strength tissue and glue.
The team set to fettling, laughing and telling tales as we worked. We began with the green labelled Year 5 lanterns, at the request of their teacher. A psychology student from Durham is going to be working with them and it was thought that lanterns would be a good opportunity for her to get to know the children.
Sure Start were in en masse to cover their star. Some of their team are new to lanterns, whilst others are taking part for the third time.
They have an Ofsted inspection tomorrow which will include a visit to school – and to the lanterns workshop – to find out about their partnership working.
Later in the afternoon, enough of Year 5 lanterns were fettled and so covering commenced. Children came from the classroom, a couple of lanterns at a time, accompanied by the psychology student. She was pretty good at covering by the end of the afternoon!
I ended the day in a meeting with school staff whilst Gilly held the fort.
The staff at Tilery organise every aspect of the Parade. Everyone is involved in some way or another. And not only in the purely practical sense – making biscuits, being a steward, leading the choir, buying the materials, etc. They are delightful workmates – nothing is too much effort and every decision is made for the best of reasons. The meeting this evening covered all aspects of what might happen on Thursday including the very tricky subject of what to do should it be too windy to do the walk, as is forecast at the moment. Fingers crossed we won’t have to put Plan B into operation…