Fen School C, School Walk 1

This walk took us through various parts of the town of Soham which the children had chosen as important to them. As well as 10 children from Year 5 (ages 9-10), we were accompanied by the deputy head and a teaching assistant.

As we move from the school to the high street, a couple of the children start singing 'We’re going to the high street, the high street, the high street…' Others in the group discuss with us places where they go to play. In this group that there is a consensus that there are not many places for play in the area; one girl tells us 'I went to the park every day in the summer, but now it’s boring.' Others talk about how there are patches of grass outside their houses, 'but not many other places.'

Two of the girls on this walk were Polish, one very recently arrived. Passing by the flower shop, the flowers prompted one of the group to tell a sad story about her little brother who had died, and how her mother had cried and cried and cried and kept some of her brother’s things in a box. It was clear that she was trying to understand the amount of grief that her mother had felt.

Moving towards the duck pond, one of the boys tells us how he used to his bike along here “all the time” with his dad, until he was old enough to ride with friends last year, and now on his own. He rides on his own to the park but tends to avoid the skatepark because he can’t do tricks on his bike. Another boy adds that he doesn’t usually like go to the park, especially on his own, because of the older kids smoking.

We reach the duck pond, which is a widened point in the lode (an historic drainage ditch). The children talk about the birds here, with one girl saying 'I saw moorhens down here, they have got like red beaks', and another boy joining in, 'what are those really vicious duck like things called that are like black and white with red beaks?'. There is also animated discussion about the “vicious” swans here. Then one girl calls out 'oh my God oh my God that swan nearly got you, that swan was trying to bite your legs!'

Several of the children tell us about having gone with their family here: 'I go there all the time to feed the ducks. My mum takes me and my dad sometimes'; 'I go with my nan and my little brother.' One of the girls talked about going into the water with her friend although when asked to say more about this, she told us that there was also glass in the water and she had clearly decided that this had not been a sensible thing to do.

We stand here with our eyes closed for a minute, then ask the children to tell us what they sensed. They talk about the sounds of the birds in and near the pond, and also the sound of the cars. They also talk about the feel of the breeze, while one boy tells us: 'I was thinking mostly about the sun because I could almost see it and feel it.' We then talk about what it might be like here 100 years in the future. Some focus on technological developments, and there is a discussion about hovercraft; when we ask where the hovercraft will be, there is some suggestion of flooding: 'there might be more water.' Others focus on how the town will have developed, telling us that there will be more houses, but also more prosperity: 'the houses will like be much updated and they will be posher and stuff and like more expensive.' This leads to discussion of bigger timescales of the future with one boy saying to his friend, 'eventually a meteor will his us, a german will bomb us and the sun will hit us eventually', and the other replying 'that is very true it will get so old and then lose its gravity.'

As we move along through the streets, the theme of increased wealth remains with children commenting on the cars outside some of the houses and how they indicate that the people who are living there are wealthy and that there might be more wealthy people and more expensive cars.

Returning to the High Street, we move towards Soham Village College. There is some comment on the Red Lion pub, which has now closed, though none of the children had any personal connection with it, one girl commenting: 'the only people who went there were people with no lives, they went there and drank and they left.'

We reach Soham Village College, which is clearly a site of great importance to the children, who are proud of how beautiful a building it was, and describe the 'Harry Potter spires' and the new arts building. Several of the children talk about how other family members go there and so they want to go too. One boy remarks, 'If there was no college, we’d all have to stay at the FenSchoolC.' The Deputy Head agrees that this would be terrible.

The route from Soham Village College back to the High Street takes us past St Andrew’s School; interestingly, several children mention how they feel awkward walking past the other primary school as it is their area and they felt a bit like they were intruding by being there.

On this walk back, one girl talks about the explosion of a train in Soham. This event was very important to her, and loomed large in her sense of the town; but interestingly, though the event she was referring to (the explosion of a munitions train) took place during World War II, she placed it much more recently in time, perhaps in the 90s. We also talk about computer games and although one boy said that he never goes out and plays indoors on computers all the time the other boys on this walk talk balance between their indoor and outdoor play, one boy talked about the fact that he would sometimes take his computer outdoors.

As we return towards school along the High Street once again, one boy goes back to the discussion about what it will be like in the future, saying that in 100 years there might be 'no animals' around Soham because at the moment we rely on our food coming from outside the country. This comment was partly prompted by the sight of a chicken on the street. 'A chicken! A chicken!' calls out one boy, only for another to say in a matter of fact tone 'I see chickens here all the time' and to explain that they wander out of the vicar’s garden. 'In 100 years there might be chickens walking and talking like us!'

As we reach the school, there is a short discussion about what the children might like to investigate in the future; the majority are interested in knowing 'what will happen in Soham' and where they are likely to put new housing.