Later this month, our Artistic Director will be speaking at the UK’s largest family arts conference, on a panel exploring how family arts can tackle the hard stories – conflict, climate change and belonging. It feels like the right moment to talk about a project that does exactly that, in its own quiet way.
Last year, we were shortlisted for a Family Arts Award for Marvellous Microbes – a workshop we created for children aged 4-7 and their grownups. It’s a hands-on workshop where families meet the tiny superheroes living all around us – microbes. Through storytelling, music and a lot of wiggling about, children discover that these invisible creatures help clean water, make energy and even live inside our bodies doing important work.
We created it with scientists from Newcastle and Durham universities. Dr Pavlina Theodosiou and Dr Sharon Velasquez Orta from Newcastle, and Lorraine Coghill from Durham University helped us get the science right while keeping it playful and age-appropriate. Lorraine also connected us with the G. J. Russell Electron Microscopy Facility at Durham, who provided beautiful microbe images for the workshop. From our first conversation, the researchers identified the central challenge, “making the unseen, seen.” That idea shaped everything – how we planned, rehearsed and delivered it
The result is a workshop that introduces big environmental ideas – water treatment, climate, sustainability – to children in ways that make sense to them. The whole stage set fits on a bike too, keeping our own environmental footprint small.
Since June 2024, Marvellous Microbes has travelled across the North East. We’ve run public workshops at the Great North Museum in Newcastle, The TCR Hub in Barnard Castle, Queen’s Hall Hexham, Discover Festival at Newcastle University, Newcastle Fringe Festival and family sessions at Chillingham Road Primary and Hotspur Primary School. We’ve also taken it into schools across Newcastle and County Durham, reaching hundreds of children and their families.
In the workshop, the children become microbes. They dance, imagine and learn through songs and stories. We use Makaton and audio description throughout, making it work for more families. Schools and families get activities to take away, so the learning (and fun) continues at home.
We developed it with our partner schools where we’ve built relationships over time and where teachers tell us what works with their pupils. We tried early versions, tweaked things based on what we saw, talked to educators and access specialists and kept refining until it felt right.
The feedback has been lovely. Parents told us their children “loved it” and were “smiling and laughing the whole way through.” One 4-year-old asked, “Can we go back and do it again?” Weeks later, a child who’d done the workshop spotted us at their school and immediately said, “Teaching us about microbes” – they remembered.
Teachers have said things like “We should teach everything like this” and “The students were engaged from start to finish – they were hooked!” One described our work as making “complex ideas tangible.” For us, one of the most meaningful responses came from a parent whose children are autistic: “I loved the use of Makaton. So refreshing to see!” Schools have rebooked. One where the session was oversubscribed invited us back. We recently returned to a school where children’s microbe artwork from January was still up on the walls.
When children learn that microbes “help the world” and “clean water”, they’re learning that invisible things matter. That tiny actions have big effects. That we’re connected to systems we can’t see but can understand. These feel like important stories to tell right now- stories that help children think about how the world works. Families who came to workshops have followed our work since. Teachers have downloaded our follow-up activities. And we’ve used what we learned to develop a new space-themed workshop for young families, building on what worked here. More on that soon!
When Brad speaks at the Family Arts Conference later this month about telling hard stories, Marvellous Microbes will be part of that conversation – proof that even the smallest, most invisible things can help children understand the world around them.
Want to know more about how we made it? Our Artistic Director Brad McCormick talks about the creative process and the brilliant team behind Marvellous Microbes in this blog post.
