Creative Engagement

Pupils from St Joseph’s Secondary School, Rush and pupils from three schools in Ciutat del Prat del Llobragat, Barcelona took to the stage in Barcelona recently bringing to an end their year long Creative Engagement Collaboration. The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) sponsors the Creative Engagement Initiative in a project funded through the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism. The Creative Engagement Project in St Joseph’s is organised as part of a twinning with Fingal Co. Council and in collaboration with the Arts Office of Fingal Co. Council.

Peter Baxter and his team at Song School worked with twenty five pupils from El Prat and twenty five pupils from St Joseph’s in February. Pupils from Barcelona spent a week in Rush. The pupils wrote and recorded songs in Catalan and English and came up with a new language-Spanglish! They called the project PRUSH and during that week in Rush, the pupils began making a DVD and photographic record of the collaboration. At the end of the first week of the exchange, the pupils put on a show in St. Joseph’s, school hall featuring one of the school bands, “Wings of Redemption”. They performed their newly written material. The show in Rush was a great success but in many ways it was just the beginning.

Over the next few months, pupils from St. Joseph’s and Barcelona kept in touch. Both sides worked on ideas that could improve and develop the work that had begun in February. Peter Baxter from Song School and Letiticia Marfil from the Council in El Prat, identified a suitable theatre in which to hold the performance in El Prat. At the end of April, pupils from St. Joseph’s boarded a flight to Barcelona complete with instruments, cameras and costumes. During their week in El Prat, pupils recorded their many experiences and practised for their big night.

The performance took place on the last night of the exchange. Parents, friends, teachers and officials from the El Prat Council came to the performance. It was spectacular!  The energy and happiness of Prush was electric. The performance brought tears to the eyes of all there.

Now pupils from St Joseph’s and El Prat are putting the final touches to their DVD and CD. An exhibition of photographs is planned for the new academic year. There are also plans for a website to enable continued collaboration between the two groups. In the meantime, next year’s transition year students are preparing their Creative Engagement Project.