Chris Horn works his way from the Khyber to Barcelona
Best book ever
Out of Our Minds by Ken Robinson is the only book I’ve read from cover to cover in two days. It’s about the importance of creativity in life and confirmed everything I am trying to do as a teacher.
Best film ever
Carry On Up the Khyber. It’s permanently in my DVD player and, if I’ve had a hard day, on it goes. The missionary in the film (played by Peter Butterworth) is always wearing the wrong clothes; he’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time; always forgetting things. There’s one in every class.
Favourite exhibition
Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which I saw in 2004.
Best resource
Simon Woolham, our full-time artist-in-residence from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, who has a studio in school. It’s so easy to get bogged down and it’s great when, in the middle of a difficult literacy lesson, he bursts into the room clutching some funny piece of work, full of quirky ideas. That is such a tonic.
To share with pupils
Through Creative Partnerships, the whole staff went to Barcelona on a professional development outing in 2003 and found ourselves right in the middle of the Festa de la Merc , an annual celebration (pictured). It was out of this world, with dragons and mythical beasts in the streets spewing fireworks, and the reaction of everyone was: the kids should be here as well. So we have two members of staff working on that. We hope it will be a whole-school treat.
Looking forward to
Taking pupils to see an exhibition of Simon Woolham’s called Jerusalem at the Dean Clough gallery, Halifax. It will be great for them to see his work in a different context. Also, later in the year we are flying some pupils to the Eden Project in Cornwall. They were involved in creating an award-winning sculpture garden two years ago and now they want to make it more Mediterranean and bring some of it into school, so I want them to think through how they can do that.
Chris Horn, 38, a former shipyard worker, teaches Year 5 at Grindon Broadway junior school, Sunderland. Interview by Elaine Williams
