‘Mischief Deer’ - Forest Health & Safety Officer

When the Grumpy Bank Manager interrupted our workshop this week, calling in with a mystery for us to solve, a group of smart Year Threes from Radipole Primary School answered the call. The Bank Manager had found all sorts of strange items scattered around the offices. The pupils quickly became detectives, working out who might have left the things behind and how they ended up there.

Using the clues, we began to build a character, deciding on their name, their job, how old they were etc. As we added more information, we began to explore their personality, appearance and backstory. Behold, The Mischief Deer - a baby reindeer whose job was to be a health and safety inspector for the forest.

Once we'd created our shared character, we moved on to making characters of our own. Each child created a new, individual character, complete with hopes, dreams and fears, and a fully flashed out backstory, on a ‘Top Trumps’-style character card. These could then be kept and used for future stories.

It was a wonderfully creative morning. The children were an extremely imaginative bunch and stayed engaged throughout, throwing themselves into the challenge and coming up with some fantastic ideas.

The teaching staff got involved too, and a huge thanks to Mr Hargreaves for his support of the children alongside our marvellous mentor volunteers, Jackie, Michaela, Linda and Clive. Offering one-to-one support for every child, makes a massive difference.

It's always brilliant to see what happens when you give children a few objects, a little bit of mystery and licence to let their imaginations take over. At Radipole, it resulted in a Health & Safety deer — and we're looking forward to finding out what happens to them next.