Run Ranelagh Run – a school’s archive journey with Salvatore Rubbino
About this record
Twelve pupils from Ranelagh Primary School, most of them born in 2012, became archive investigators for six months in 2022 to uncover the secrets from their local community of what the Olympic Games was really like.
The group use art techniques and archive research skills to create amazing results and organise their own Olympic inspired sports day parade for Newham Heritage Month in June 2022.
If you’d like to come along please see more information by clicking here.
The Ranelagh Archive Investigators are Miguel Galivo, Fahad Youssef, Izabell Caetano, Taybah Choudhury, Maliha Hasnat, Sulaiman Hussain, Karina Cotoava, Tina Pun, Daniel Tesfay, Shariyah Farley, Lakshmi Dhunnoo and Zaki Khan.
Accompanying the students on their journey were some grown-ups:
Aisha Sheikh (Mrs Sheikh) – teacher
Salvatore Rubbino – artist
Mrs Sheikh and Salvatore led on planning the project and decided to create a large artwork with the children based on their research in the archives and speaking to the local community. Over six months, Salvatore has been a regular face at Ranelagh Primary and met the whole school at assemblies and will be part of the School Sports Day Olympic Parade on 28 June 2022.
Salvatore Rubbino is an acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator, having illustrated the “Walk in…” series of Walker Books. Salvatore lives in Newham and although he has worked in museums and schools across London, he has never worked so close to home!
Ranelagh would like to thank Alex Oma-Pius and Carolyn Estares (“Miss Carolyn”) for providing their oral histories for this project and sharing their brilliant ideas about how we can take time to make our lives more positive in the community.
The journey begins
In March, the archive investigators took their first ever archive visit to the University of East London Archive. They took the the Docklands Light Railway to Dockside and met the friendly archivist and team. They were accompanied by Ranelagh sports teacher Mr Jordan who was very excited to see all the Olympic and Paralympic treasures.
Creating archive notebooks
Each Archive Investigator made notes and sketches to be used in the later sessions creating a large artwork for their school and a public parade on Sports Day. Some of the sketched research is here:
Recording memories from our community
Ranelagh Primary school is on Corporation Street in Stratford – not far from the Olympic village. Two local residents volunteered to have their memories from the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games recorded as oral histories that will be available to listen to in full.
Alex Oma-Pius is a local resident and remembers his time volunteering for the Newham chapter of the Rotary Club, an organisation that provides international relief and aid. During 2012, Newham’s Rotary Club set up a free welcome meal at a restaurant in Stratford for visitors coming into Stratford Station.
Alex remembers the torch relay passing nearby Ranelagh School and how quiet the streets were during the Olympic Games, because he thinks everyone had been warned how busy it would be so they avoided the area. In reality the traffic networks were never overwhelmed and the roads remained quiet and easy to navigate throughout the period.
"If there is one thing I would urge children to do is to join in and be part of things like this, volunteer to be part of the community it's really worth it!"
Also living beside the school is a teaching assistant at Ranelagh Primary school, Miss Carolyn.
She came to share her experiences of being a Games Maker, or Olympic Volunteer in 2012 and wore the uniform that she was given a Games Maker for the recording of her interview.
At the time, Miss Carolyn was seven months pregnant and was given the duty of driving Olympic athletes and team members around London. Sometimes her shifts were in the middle of the night and once she was asked by her passenger (she won’t tell us who!) to take her to a local fried chicken outlet and the Plaistow Chicken & Pizza shop did the trick.
"I volunteer because I love going to sport events and being part of something big. I've done the London Marathon too - it's really exciting and makes me feel proud!"
In March the Archive Investigators went on a trip to Museum of London with Salvatore Rubbino and they worked together on drawing their research and ideas from the fantastic Cauldron Gallery and permanent display of London 2012 memorabilia.
After their research, the Archive Investigators met regularly with Salvatore Rubbino at the school to practice art skills and create drawings and prints using graphite pencils, Indian ink, paint and pens to make work that will be compiled for a huge public artwork that will be displayed in the entrance of Ranelagh Primary School from the 28 June 2022 – a lasting memory of the Run Ranelagh Run project for Newham Heritage Month.
Salvatore asked the children to include their own favourite places from Stratford in their notebook research, here are some of the children’s drawings:
The final push…
Last week, in late May, the Archive Investigators and Salvatore Rubbino made the final plans for their artwork by discussing collaboratively how the children’s beautiful cut-outs might be arranged on a huge scroll or exhibition paper. The artists discussed movement, balance, framing and eye line whilst moving the pieces around to explore the possibilities.
We can’t wait to see the final result!
A little bit extra….
Salvatore created images that illustrated the children’s work in the sessions and some of the school teachers! We thought you might enjoy these too:
We hope you enjoyed coming on our archive journey as much as we have – the Archive Investigators are putting their final touches to the artwork with Salvatore Rubbino. We are preparing for their massive whole-school Olympic parade on 28 June – we hope to see you there!
Additional record details
- Contributor: Ranelagh Primary School
- Type: PhotographsWriting
- Date created: March 2022
- Location: Corporation Street
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