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In Play and in Education
All the characters of Haven Hope have been created by Tracey Scott-Townsend in the form of a handmade doll. These dolls are like the illustrations to the story of Haven Hope. StoryDolls are great to have as a loveable companion at home. They're also excellent as a resource to engage learners; first of all in the main story, then in the background story of the character which will lead to an exploration of a variety of National Curriculum linked issues. These will include diversity and community; democracy and justice, global citizenship and rights and responsibilities.
Literacy
StoryDolls is an imaginary world of characters.
In the story, all the characters live at Haven Hope, a very special home for children who cannot live with their parents. At Haven Hope, the characters grow food and have lots of animals to look after such as dogs, cats, chickens and horses. Haven Hope even has its own school, where the characters can learn their chosen subjects at their own pace and in their preferred way.
Encourage story-writing by engaging learners in the Haven Hope story and in the personal situations of each StoryDoll character.
PHSE and Citizenship
Each of the StoryDoll characters has a specific background story which has led to their arrival at Haven Hope. These background stories encompass a range of social and cultural situations. Examples include Freddy, who is an unaccompanied child asylum seeker from Nigeria and Grace, born in South Africa. Through Grace we learn about her mother's experience of Apartheid in the 1980s.
StoryDolls themselves are attractive, inviting soft-sculpture dolls. These qualities encourage engagement with the characters they represent and identify a start-point for exploring the circumstances of their stories within all kinds of education.
Workshops
StoryDolls characters can be utilised in education, therapy and other types of workshops to explore characters' background stories and make comparisons with participants' experiences. Use to inspire creative activities such as art and writing, role play, acting out and research.
The artist Tracey Scott-Townsend can accompany some of her characters into your school and we can explore the website together and use this to inspire literacy or art activities.
Alternatively I could bring in a 'blank' character which the class or group can personalise to create a StoryDoll of their own.
I intend to develop National Curriculum-linked schemes of work based on specific characters, which can be purchased with the relevant doll for use within education. | 