Aldinga Primary School
Aldinga Schools is located in the South East region of South Australia, 48 kilometres from the GPO with an enrolment of approximately 500 students, from Reception to Year 7 in 2007.
Most of the students attending Aldinga Schools have parents who were born in Australia including 26 Indigenous students. However, there are an increasing number of students enrolling who have migrated from European countries including the UK.
Both Aldinga Schools have been categorised as Level of Disadvantage 3.
PROJECT COORDINATOR: Sue Kopp
ARTIST: Bruce Linnell
PROJECT: ‘Aboriginal Garden Classroom’ – a sculpture project
Aims:
To provide the students of Aldinga Schools and Kindergarten an opportunity to work with an artist to produce artworks which will complete an outdoor space for learning.
Objectives:
- To complete a useable outdoor classroom on the school grounds;
- To give students a greater understanding in the planning and implementation of a work of art;
- To raise an awareness of the important place art plays in society;
- To allow students the chance to work with an artist and to observe the process;
- To give students a broader understanding of the Indigenous culture (Kaurna) specific to our local area;
- Give our 26 Aboriginal students a sense of pride in their cultural heritage and identity;
- To foster a sense of ownership and pride in our school grounds; and
- To enhance kindergarten/school relationships.
The Project Coordinator believes the school achieved all of the above (the seating has been held up due to weather but it will be finished this term).
‘What I didn’t realise is that the ground work for this project would help to consolidate the fantastic work classroom teachers do every day on our school values. The students know what our values are and why we chose them. They can tell us why Respect is a fish and Honesty a book. The sculptures have given students a visual clue when they talk about our School Values.’ Sue Kopp
Originally they were going to target a group of students to work more closely with Bruce but after the first day realised that the students wanted and needed to do more sculpting if this was going to be a valuable learning experience for them. Bruce was able to access extra limestone and gave eight classes (182 students) their own piece of limestone to sculpt.
‘This was one of those fantastic teaching experiences where every student is enjoying the process of planning, creating and evaluating their own sculpture.’ Sue Kopp
The Artist:
New Zealand born, Bruce Linnell has lived and worked as an artist in the South East since 1980. Starting his career as a photojournalist Bruce now has a focus on and passion for Sculpture and likes to work with local limestone that has strong historical and geological connections to the area. Bruce enjoys working with schools and his popular works have been exhibited at the Millicent Tourist Centre and at The Beachport and Penola Festivals. He has also worked with Country Arts SA.
The Process:
- Students brainstorm, role play, dissect, discuss and draw what the school values mean to them.
- Bruce meets Aldinga students and they show him what the values mean to them.
- Students are introduced to the art of limestone sculpture.
- Bruce creates mini sculptures for students and staff to see what the ideas will look like.
- Students continue to discuss the school values in Drama and are preparing for the Presentation Assembly.
- Bruce returns and works with students on the sculptures.
- The building work for the seating is held up due to bad weather but is planned and ready to go.
- The sculptures are placed in the Aboriginal Garden. A whole School Assembly is held and different classes show off their good work.
- The whole School takes a guided walk through the Aboriginal Garden to see the completed sculptures
Outcomes:
When students were told that a sculptor would be coming to work with them many had no idea what that meant. Many, especially in the younger grades, had never used a hammer or a chisel before. We wanted students to understand that sculpting is something that you can choose to do – that some people make their living creating artworks. It was also our intention that students would try limestone sculpting so they could understand and value our school sculptures.
The students were involved in the design and creation of the sculptures and this has given them ownership of the sculptures.
Bruce’s obvious enthusiasm for sculpting infected the students and by following his instructions they were able to sculpt the limestone. Bruce encouraged them to have a go and he created a really safe learning environment by pointing out to students how some of his ‘mistakes’ were now fantastic sculptures. All students achieved success in the limestone sculpting lessons.
During the brainstorming Respect for ‘the people who came before us’ was put forth as a discussion point. This idea grew into Respect being a representation of the Aboriginal Dreaming story "Thukeri". The story of "Thukeri" teaches respect, caring, honesty and generosity. We felt it was the right idea for our Aboriginal Garden. It linked our school values to the Aboriginal culture and history of the area.
The lesson with the pre-school students was during a transition visit to the school. The pre-school students visited us and a group did the introductory lesson in limestone sculpting. Bruce also demonstrated how he had made the people for ‘our circle of friends’ and he made two little people sculptures for the preschool.
Respect – based on the Aboriginal Dreaming story of Thukeri. It is a bony bream skeleton. Thukeri teaches generosity, honesty, respect and caring.
Optimism – stepping stones to represent sticking with an idea, having a go.
Caring – a circle of friends playing nicely together.
Generosity – a bird feeder and water sculpture.
Honesty – an open book.
Highlights:
To present the sculptures to the school and community we had a special Assembly organised by the students. There was a performance by our Year 6 girls and then we heard the story of Thukeri read by our Aboriginal Education Worker, Warrick Wallace.
Bruce was invited to discuss the process he had undertaken to design and create the sculptures. Video footage taken during the lessons was edited into a DVD and was shown at the Assembly. The students loved watching themselves on the big screen. After thanking Bruce it was time to unveil the sculptures. We wanted the whole school community to see the artworks at the same time so after the Assembly all classes walked through the Aboriginal Garden and saw the sculptures in their new homes. It was wonderful to see the students ‘discovering’ the sculptures in the garden. It looked as though they had always been there – belonged there. The sculptures have been strategically placed throughout the garden – each has its own space.
‘Students have come up to me to discuss other sculptures they have seen in the community and have been able to tell me why they liked or disliked it… Flow on feeling of good will and shared ownership of the sculptures.’ Project Coordinator
‘This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I learnt heaps from watching Bruce… Because I was helping Bruce with the cutting of the limestone lots of little kids kept asking me if they could try too… Mine is the best… I think he [Bruce] is funny and he helped me do my sculpting… I really liked trying something new. I banged my fingers a few times but it was still fun.’ Students
‘The school’s support was outstanding! I was made feel welcome and of value there. If anything, my time at Aldinga Primary has further developed and reinforced my ability to share ideas with children they’ll both enjoy and benefit from. I look forward to being involved in further AIS projects.’ Artist
500 students participated in this project
