On Wednesday 15th January, Class 5 paid a visit to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle city centre.

However, this visit was not about art. It was our first meeting with a class from Belford Primary School in Northumberland as part of The Linking Project. The Linking Project supports schools and communities to develop a positive, cohesive ethos by helping children, young people and adults to explore identity, celebrate diversity, promote community and champion equality – which is incredibly important.

Prior to the Christmas holidays, Class 5 and its partner class in Belford exchanged ‘All About Me’ fact files as a way of introducing each other a little. Meeting face-to-face was the really exciting part and we had such a wonderful day together.

We began by playing some ‘ice-breaker’ games to get the children talking. These went really well and there was lots of smiling and laughter throughout.

After that, the children were split into two groups (a mixture of both schools). Each group had a different job to do and, in the afternoon, they swapped so that everyone had done the same activities.

In one activity, the children worked in groups of three to design and create an imaginary world. It really got all the children talking and everyone was involved in the making process, too. Some of the ideas were tremendous as you will see in the photos.

In the other activity, the children used their listening and creative skills as they had to choose a piece of art in the gallery and describe it for their partners to draw. The catch was, their partners could not look at the art work – they had to rely on the what they were being told. Some super work was produced and all the children had great fun!

By the end of the visit, some firm friendships had been made and there was lots of hugging goodbye.

We will be seeing our friends from Belford again soon, which the children are already excited about!

An absolutely wonderful day and we are proud to be part of such an important project.