News PW

1 - 7 August International Summer School 'Fairy Tales and the Shadow'; participants from Japan, Moldova, UK, Ireland, Romania and Czech Republic. Staff: Maggi Squire Community Artist, Ase Minde celebrated Art Therapist, Les Losty Play Therapy and Sue Jennings Dramatherapist. Practical workshops in play, art and dramatherapy exploring 'The Flowering Tree' through movement,log painting, sand-play. Workshop and performance with local Gipsy dancers and storytellers.

1-13 July CTC coursesd in Dublin and Ballymore for teachers, play therapists and therapeutic play workers.
Summer School: working creatively with teenagers

week beginning 14 July: performance of Rainbow Silk and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The children surpassed themselves as the photographs show.

week beginning 2 June rehearsals for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at Priddy School and 'The Rainbow Silk' at Kilmerston School.

Two primary schools with a strong commitment to the arts. For Priddy I am integrating the whole school for the production and it will be performed in Malaysian costumes reflecting the diversity of ethnic groups: Malay, Chinese, Indian and Aborigine.

For Kilmerston I am working with one class on the story that is being turned into a play (this story was also developed on the Silk Route storytelling courses, in Glastonbury and Wells).

7 May UK workshop in Gravesend to fundraise for Bambi Children's Home; we raised £700 from the sale of puppets and books. Generaous benefactors have donated the rest. This means that all 10 children and care staff can have a seaside holiday. There was also enough money for them to have their own parachute and some puppets.

21-25 May penultimate training course for Prague students. They have established 'The Czech Association of Dramatherapy' and many of the students have decided to come to Romania on placement in August

late diary entries with ALL the upheaval of moving to Romania, closing various projects and real changes.

4-6 April 'Resilience, Trauma and Attachment' with Les Losty, Linda Hanlon and Sue Jennings, Brasov Romania. An excellent course that was over-subscribed; social workers, psychologists, teachers attended from all over Romania,

Meeting to establish the principles of setting up 'The Romanian Association of Play Therapy and Dramatherapy'; the name has been registered, the need has been expressed so we await statues, constitution and recognition of the training programme.

Project Wolf (Romania) is proud to be a partner in the Avatar Schools Project, together with Italy, Spain, Germany and UK.

The project is developing 'virtual role plays' in which pupils and teachers can try out strategies for conflict resolution. We are using the School Peer Mediation approach.

The first school for the project to be tested is Liceul George Moroianu, Sacele, Near Brasov. It is hope that other Romanian secondary schools will participate in the future.

More information from: www.avataratschool.eu

6 - 8 March, aVata@School Meeting, Weston-Super-Mare, UK; Eu Project to create anti-bullying and peer mediation virtual role-plays for secondary schools

14 - 21 March, Children's Therapy Centre, Ireland: Play Therapy Cerificate training, Supervisor's training

23 - 30 March, Project Wolf Greece: 'The Dancing Camel' - stories and attachment; 'Children who cannot play roles', seminar and workshop
(there will be more on these initiatives in a later write-up and dvd)

8 - 17 February, Children's Therapy Centre, Ireland: 6 day Creative Care Course, Play Therapy Certificate training and Supervisor's Module 3 training

18 February, Athlone College, Ireland Lecture/Workshop Play and Attachment

28 February - 2 March, Dramatherapy Training Czech Republic, Sue Jennings and Salvo Pitruzella, Fairy Stories and Texts, Application

Answers given by grade 2 primary school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers
1. She's the only one who knows where the sticky tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mum just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of