Tales from the Fort is a page turner for city school pupils

Published on Monday 7 December 2009 08:42

THEY are used to reading stories about their favourite cartoon characters – certainly not about themselves.

But now, pupils from the city's Fort Primary are enjoying a taste of their own fame by appearing in a specially-commissioned comic book.

Written by the children and parents from the area, Tales from the Fort features two stories illustrated using photographs of the pupils.

Karen Buist, a city council community learning and development worker, said: "It's been a really successful project and if I could ever have the chance to do it again, I would. It has been obvious just how much both the pupils and parents enjoyed it."

The Tales from the Fort project began in February with parents invited to come into the school every week until June to work with P4 and P5 pupils and a team of experts, including Ms Buist, a storyteller, photographer and digital artist.

Sharing story ideas and learning how to use photography and computer graphics, parents and pupils brought their tales to life in the 12-page comic book, which was launched last week at Leith Library.

Standard Life agreed to fund the cost of printing 500 copies, which are now available at the library or by getting in contact with the city council.

P6 pupil Laura Forrester, 10, who features on the comic's front cover, said: "We really looked forward to the days when we were working on the comic and we really liked doing the pictures. It was great fun."

Hip Hip Hooray follows the story of a "lonely boy in need of friends" who has a magic spell cast on him by a Hip Hop fairy, allowing him to wow fellow pupils at a dancing competition that evening.

The second story, Janny, I Shrunk the Class, is set in Fort Primary and tracks events after a resizing machine is accidentally used on pupils, causing them to shrink to thimble-sized objects.

The stories were created by parents in response to pupils' ideas on what makes a good story.

Parts were then allocated and costumes and sets designed to get the children to act out the story to camera.

Ms Buist said: "There were so many things we wanted to achieve through the project.

"The parents certainly seemed to enjoy being creative with the pupils, many of whom were working with children far older than their own.

"They also got to meet other parents, which was very important for lots of them.

"In the end, they were all amazed at how professional the final product looks. We hope there could be other projects like this in the future."