South Tyneside youngsters shout about their favourite words

South Tyneside youngsters have been shouting about theirs as part of an innovative arts project, which saw them take part in a march of words with musicians from Sage Gateshead along King Street where they displayed the words on banners.

Pupils from Marine Park Primary and Hadrian Primary schools have been working for the past six weeks on a vocabulary project with Dry Water Arts.

The project also aimed to maintain the relationship that had developed between the schools and the Central Library, from where services and facilities have moved to The Word, National Centre for the Written Word.

Frances Anderson from Dry Water Arts said: “The project was about the importance of words and about maintaining the links between the schools and the library service. The schools were close to the old library and there were really good relationships that had built up. We were asked to help continue them now that the library has moved to The Word.

“So after we’d done some work about words and how important libraries are, we transferred words on to banners and umbrellas and the young people helped us design a laser-cut map showing the route from their schools to The Word.

“The idea of the procession was to emphasise where The Word is and how close it still is to their schools and the old library.”

The project was funded by Arts Council England as part of Arts in Libraries project aimed at adding arts activity into libraries and is managed by South Tyneside Council in partnership with The Customs House.

Daniel Clifford, learning and participation officer at the Customs House, said: “Over the years, the Shields Central Library had established and maintained great working relationships with local schools, and this project aimed to continue these important connections.”