Superheroes at Loughborough Public School!

Wilma Kenny | Jun 30, 2021

It all began with the question “What if?”

Faced with the prospect of three weeks of online school at the end of June, LPS primary school teacher Sharon Isbell posed this question to her class: “What if you had a secret super-power that only you knew about? Something like Superwoman, Batman, Spiderman? What would your superhero self look like? How could you use your special power to help others?

Very quickly, they began to emerge: Superclown, Rainbow, Red Raspberry Rocket, Flash, Heather Horse (a super sniffer), Flame Thrower, Jiinx, Felix, and more…There even was a super-villain; Inviso-horse, brother to Heather Horse.

The children drew and coloured pictures of how they imagined their super heroes would look. This led to teacher Isbell asking herself ‘What if I could find someone to create a superhero doll for the class?’ A few queries later, she had enough volunteers lined up to be able to have a doll for each child, based on their drawings. Supplies were not much of a problem: every knitter/crocheter has a stash of bright yarn. It was mostly a matter of trading colours: “Who can spare some orange?”, and discussing challenges like ears and eyes.

After that came the stories, all beginning with a local crisis: a robber gang stealing candy and children’s toys from Foodland & Home Hardware; an invisible villain damming the creek, depriving fish, frogs and turtles of their water. The superheroes sprang into action, and working together, solved the problems. Even Inviso-horse repents his mischief, and at the Mayor’s suggestion becomes the best stone-bridge builder in the Township.

This week, the children all received their superhero dolls: a few even met their (masked) doll-makers.

Three potentially long and lonely weeks of online studies had been turned into an exciting time full of imagination, empowerment, art, story-telling and community connections, culminating in the reward of having created an alter-ego superhero and getting the doll to prove it.

Perhaps Ms Isbell herself qualifies as a “Superhero-teacher?”