Wednesday saw the first Fairyland Trust school sessions of the year. One of the medieval tents was awoken from its winter slumber the day before and loaded into the van with other Very Important Things such as pipe cleaners, coloured wool, feathers, eight different species of stick and a sprinkling of green fairy dust. Emma and Vicky squeezed in too and set off to find Maldon Primary School in Essex. The tent was erected on the school field in the late afternoon sun (and rather chilly wind) with the help of some eager teaching staff. The staff were allowed home for their tea and us Wand Makers worked some magic to decorate the tent like a small piece of Fairyland. The children arriving at school the following day were amazed; they had no idea how the tent had suddenly appeared on their field, although some may have suspected fairies had been at work.
The school had been studying fairy tales and folk lore over the week and everyone came in fairy tale costumes for the day, including the teaching staff. Pirates rubbed shoulders with fairies and princesses, a musketeer chatted to Puss in Boots, and Shrek even made an appearance! Four wand making sessions ran over the day with groups from Year 1 & 2, teaching the children about wand folk lore and the powers of our native trees. Each group was asked about trees; it was decided that they were “good for lots of things”, but no one knew about the story of Flint, the first Wand Maker. Flint’s story was read to engrossed listeners who learned about the different species of tress and their folk lore. Once the wands had chosen their owners (a truly magical experience) the children added feathers and wool to decorate them.
Each of the eight tree species was discussed and its power revealed – hazel, favoured by wizards as the tree of wisdom and hawthorn, the Fairy Queen’s favourite and the tree of happiness, etc – and the children began to think about how their wands could power some wishes to help others in their class and families (“My Nanny lives far away, I’ll send her love with my apple wand”; “I have elder, I can protect the class from things, like… um, fire!”). The children were gifted some ivy to prolong the wand’s life, learning that ivy gives life to wildlife through winter with its long-lasting berries, and finished off their creations with a good dusting of glittery fairy magic. As the session ended, wands were given a test drive to make sure feathers sent wishes through the air properly, then the group returned to their class.
At the end of the day around 80 fairy tale characters gathered back on the school field together for a nature walk and, despite the cold and the spitting rain, everyone was keen to explore. We found most of the species that had been talked about in the workshop, including a huge weeping willow wrapped in ivy, a small hazel (“can we look for nuts to be clever?”), fresh green leaves on a hawthorn (invoking another chorus of Pharrell’s ‘Happy’!), a huge sleeping ash (“that’s good for your brain, that one”), and even a tiny magic elder growing its way out of the top of an old, dead tree.
Each child was ready to head home and share their magic wand with their families; the wand label holding an identification photo, some interesting information and their species’ name for the others to read. Teaching staff reflected on how impressed they were with the knowledge the children had picked up and how much everyone had enjoyed their day (one child adding, loudly, “Fairyland day has been the best of all the fairy days”). With thanks echoed from each class, the Wand Makers waved the fairy tale characters off as they returned to their classes. Using their last bit of magic, the Wand Makers packed the up van and disappeared back to Norfolk in a cloud of fairy dust.
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