What is the project about?

'Depicting Africa' took place in Spring 2012 at City Academy Norwich, involving 26 children in a new sort of project to challenge the ideas they held about Africa. The project aimed to integrate learning in geography, history, religious education (R.E.) and citizenship as well as reinforcing personal, learning and thinking skills.

Students at City Academy Norwich explored perceptions of Africa and Islam while also developing a deeper understanding of themselves.

The pupils took part in an exchange with Lycée Amadou Kouran Daga Zinder, a secondary school in Niger. The students were taught simultaneously via Skype and had the opportunity to communicate by writing letters, contributing to shared documents and email exchanges.

The students, in role as anthropologists, explored issues of identity, stereotypes and our perceptions of others. Each session had a research question as its main focus, and students from both schools were encouraged to learn from, and about, their partners.

The City Academy students also experienced the challenges of university life, taking part in seminars and using library resources at the University of East Anglia. As a final assessment piece they created a learning tour around the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts for their peers in Year 7, which showcased what they learned throughout the project.

Students engaging with objects at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich.