This project is a Digital Storytelling collaborative partnership between Blatchington Mill School and the School of Humanities at the University of Brighton for working with migrant children.

Digital Stories are short workshop created films using still image and audio-recorded personal narratives based on personal experiences. Digital stories are a film form but also a mutually supportive personal storytelling process.

The project developed this partnership to provide storytelling opportunities for secondary school age migrant children, to create resources for teachers and tutors around understanding and empathy building, and volunteering and placement opportunities for University of Brighton students.

The process of making these stories was designed to empower the students; by giving them the opportunity to tell ‘their’ story, celebrating their successes and highlighting the challenges faced.

The stories can be used in a whole host of different ways; through school assemblies, training and lessons, which could lead to a deeper sense of empathy and understanding, whilst highlighting migrant children voices. These stories will also become a regular presence at the annual School of Education PGCE Inclusion conference adding a personal storying approach to the aims of that conference. They will help training teachers understand some of the issues that these children face.

Contact Ross Adamson or Christine Heaton for more information

[r.k.adamson@brighton.ac.uk] and [cheaton@blatchingtonmill.org.uk]