“I took children for a day of art activities on the Beauchamp in June. Two classes of Year 6 pupils worked on a variety of projects with three artists from a local arts organisation. We looked at the fish and other life which we could see in the water (the boat travels very slowly so that the children could observe these for a quite a long time) and at the graffiti on the walls along the bank.

The children then did their artwork using a variety of materials - crayons, paints, pencils and materials for collages including bits of card, beads and pasta. They made paintings and drawings of fish, plant life and other barges; they also did their own graffiti. At one point they got off to have a little walk along the bank.

It was very exciting for the children and sometimes it was difficult to drag them away from one activity to do another. The artists also had good ideas and were supportive.

The advantage of being on the barge was that they could see what they were trying to interpret rather than just having to use their imaginations. It’s a fantastic resource. Most children hadn’t had any experience of being on the canal before and this in itself was very exciting.”