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Let''s Talk About It  KS2 Yrs 5-6

This is Your Life  KS2 Yrs 5-6

Wish You Were Here?  KS2 Yrs 3-6

Marcia Hutchinson MBE on Radio Leeds 17th September 2010

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As featured in Sunrise Magazine.

An innocent remark by a child lead to the formation of a book publishing business. Today it is one of the leading providers of high quality, culturally inclusive resources. It’s founder, recently awarded an MBE speaks to Sunrise.

When her three year old daughter announced that she wanted to ‘have white skin, not brown skin, Marcia Hutchinson knew she had to act.
 
Bradford born Marcia, who grew up on a council estate, attended a local comprehensive school and gained a place at Oxford and studied law, said it really made her think.
“If she saw black skin as a ‘negative’ at such an early age, something had to be done to promote positive images of black children”.
 
Her first port of call was to see what kind of images of black people were out there for children but says, “I couldn’t find really good books so I decided to create my own.”

She felt that is was important to create books of a very high quality which would immediately catch people’s attention. A keen photographer, she decided to put together photographic books using real children and real life situations. Making Music and Away From The City were her first books, aimed at three to seven year olds - both are still in print today and are now also available in teaching pack formats.

“I decided to make a simple book using pictures of my daughter and her Asian friend,” says Marcia.

The Oxford educated lawyer started the process of looking for a publisher and eventually decided to publish it myself. She left a city law firm to set up Primary Colours in 1997.
Marcia admits to not knowing anything about the publishing industry, but knew she could find people to help her.

Of course there were learning curves. “Initially, I aimed it at parents, but we decided to focus on schools because schools would buy books, teachers’ packs and CDs in bigger quantities,” says Marcia. “The most difficult part has been getting the marketing right. Anyone can publish books and end up with hundreds of them under the bed. Selling them is the real trick!”

Fast forward twelve years later and her company is a well-established social enterprise producing books, teachers’ learning packs. The packs are used in over 1,000 schools and over two thousand teachers have attended its unique fun-based courses. 
 
It soon became clear, however, that schools needed more support than this so, in addition to the books and resources, Primary Colours, which work with individual schools and local authorities all over England, began delivering Theatre-in-Education performances. The approach is creative and fun, using drama techniques such as role play, freeze frame, hot-seating and including the history of popular music.
 
The theatre-in-education side of the business has grown dramatically (no pun intended) with over 150,000 children having seen the shows. The actors are now being recruited to take the shows on the road all over the country.

To date Primary Colours have published over 20 books and 2 CD ROMs on culturally diverse topics. The material focuses on cultural diversity, but contributes to other areas of the curriculum, including geography, IT and literacy.

During the space of a month the company’s busy diary of engagements saw Marcia or her team members visit Kent, Nottingham and Sunderland to win business with local education authorities or individual schools – all by way of word-of-mouth recommendation.

One project, piloted at Spring Grove School, involves 300 youngsters across Yorkshire conducting interviews with people who have migrated to Britain. The youngsters also produce online images, maps and captions to accompany their audio interviews.
It’s the combination of services that we offer that really makes an impact ,” says Shazia Azhar, fellow Director, and assistant headteacher at Spring Grove Primary School Huddersfield.

The study books include a series of one-page biographies on famous people such as US president Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Lewis Hamilton and Bollywood film stars. Another book now in preparation focuses on well-known footballers, some of whom were asylum seekers.

Another series of posters for display on classroom walls features an A to Z of exotic foods, encouraging teachers and children to talk about them and where they come from.
Marcia, whose mother was from Jamaica is proud to acknowledge her British roots although she admits she’d always “thought of myself as Jamaican until I went to Jamaica and I realised I was British because people laughed at my accent and said I walked too quickly to be Jamaican!”

Marcia was recently honoured with an MBE (which stands for Member in The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the Queen''s birthday List. It is a honour that recognise famous names and private deeds. Marcia fitted into the latter category. “When I was opening the envelope I just thought it was going to be a bill but I when I saw what it was I burst into tears,” she says, “When you are working in the voluntary sector you are just beavering away thinking nobody is noticing what you do, so this is wonderful.”
Cluny McPherson Regional Director of the Arts Council Yorkshire says “This is a brilliant and well deserved accolade for Marcia. Primary Colours, provide high quality, culturally inclusive resources for teachers and pupils of all ages. Arts Council England supports this excellent work that teaches us about ourselves and the world around us.”