Students from Priory Woods show their creativiTEA!

The school borrowed a ‘Teabrick’ from Middlesbrough Museums – a solid block of tea leaves that was once used for trading in countries like China and Japan. As it was an historical object, students couldn’t physically handle it in their classroom, but they also borrowed a variety of loose leaf teas that they could touch and smell.

To really get students thinking about the Teabrick and its history, they met Jean Banwell – one of our Education Officers. She led an online session in which she posed lots of interesting what if questions and students came up with some great insights and ideas.

The next step was to meet children’s author Gabrielle Kent, who lives in Middlesbrough. Gabrielle’s books include the Alfie Bloom series about a boy who inherits a castle and the Knights and Bikes series based on the characters and world from the video game of the same name.

Students had an online workshop with Gabrielle where they learned about her work and some tricks of the trade they could apply to their own writing. She really got them thinking creatively about their own teas and challenged them to think about what those might be.

They met Gabrielle online again a week later and shared their ideas. She, in turn, worked with them to build and extend their writing, sharing some tricks of the trade. The students were inspired and fed lots of insights from these sessions into their writing.

But that was not the end. Having got the bit between their teeth, students decided to carry on work on their teas. They created displays, scripted, performed and recorded adverts and even organised a tea party for friends. What started as a two-week project lasted closer to two months!

If you want to have a go at making up your own amazing teas, click on the link below to download this resource created by teachers working with Gabrielle Kent at one of our CPD sessions.

Any school can do a Literacy Loans project as part of your History topic or as part of English lessons. Find out more about Literacy Loans and how to take part on our Teachers Resource page.