Blown away by Living Scenes programme

THE wind of change was blowing in Spanish Point this week for the participants of the St Joseph’s Secondary School Living Scenes programme, who decided to go fly a kite. 
Living Scenes is an NUIG run programme that first began 10 years ago which brings young and old together in a classroom setting. The programme has been running in the secondary school in Tulla for the past seven years and sees transition year pupils come together with members of the local community from the ages of 70 to 88.
Together they participate in drama, art and writing sessions and hold a variety of discussions.
The group made the kites as part of their weekly class where Vincent Killowry, the facilitator for the art module, taught them the technique over a ten week period prior to Christmas. However the group had to wait until now to set them on their maiden voyage
Siobhán O’Sullivan, living scenes facilitator at St Joseph’s Secondary School, explained that the participants had to incorporate aspects of a discussion they had on leadership when designing the kites.
“They actually put their hopes, dreams, fears onto the kite tail and we flew them. The students discovered then that the fears the adults had when they were their age were no different to what the students worried about. So for the adults when they were young, love worried them, their relationship with their parents worried them, their future worried them. So it was no different really than what the young people now worry about,” Ms O’Sullivan outlined. 
The kite flying was arranged for Monday afternoon at Spanish Point beach where the wind allowed for a great day out.
“The adults really enjoyed it. Some of them had never flown a kite before. It really went fantastic. They were in teams of six so you had adults with the students and they all flew their kites in these groups. It was some fun. Some of them said they felt a great sense of freedom. Others thought they would have never done anything as daft. They had a ball, none of the students would have had any experience with kites before either but some of the lads are thinking of making bigger kites and are already talking to Vincent about that,” Ms O’Sullivan added.
The kites were put together using a range of items from household plastic, bamboo sticks and fishing gut. The participants decorated the kites themselves with some putting their names on them, some put their hand prints.
“One of the adults, Dun Purcell was with one of the groups and they decided to put Dun and Roses on the front of their kite, like Guns and Roses. It’s all about the interaction between young and old essentially and deciding between them what they want to represent their group. It’s all about getting them to talk to one another. That’s really what this intergenerational learning is about,” she continued.
Ms O’Sullivan explained that the numbers of adults looking to participate in the Living Scenes programme continues to rise each year. Adult participants attend from Tulla, Broadford, Feakle and O’Callaghan’s Mills.
The Tulla grouping will be attending NUI Galway on May 25 to attend an event with all the other living scenes participants from across the country, where they will display work carried out in their sessions.