Imagine; you’re a primary school child, living in Fishermead. One night you are woken up by a loud bang.
You think nothing to it, turn over and go back to sleep. But in the morning, your school is cordoned off, with police officers and a professor from the Science Museum on site.
A spaceship has landed in the playground! And when its door begins to open, nobody knows quite what to expect…
In 1988 the children at Newlyn Place First School in Fishermead didn’t have to imagine, because it happened in their playground. The alien who emerged from the spaceship was named Zerena – she was friendly but lost and far from home.
The children adopted the visitor as one of their own, teaching her to speak, showing her what was safe to eat, how to cross the road, how to go shopping and how to live in our world.
They made a replica of her house to help her feel at home, helped her communicate with her parents back on her home planet to tell them she was safe, and worked with a Professor from the Science Museum to help get her back home.
For six weeks they put all their maths, English, science, art and design skills to work to educate and care for their visitor until they finally found a way to return her to her home planet.
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This new film Educating Zerena: An Alien Encounter from Living Archive MK – premiering at MK Gallery on 8 October - tells the extraordinary story of The Zerena Project.
The film and an associated exhibition in MK Gallery’s Project Space celebrates the children’s and teachers’ creativity, leaving an inspiring legacy for parents and educators today to look for equally exciting ways for their children’s learning to be brought alive.
This chapter from Milton Keynes’ untold history tells a tale of hospitality and kindness as the Fishermead children, teachers and wider community took Zerena to their hearts and made her welcome.
The Educating Zerena Exhibition will run between October 8 & 30 in the Project Space at MK Gallery.
A public screening of Educating Zerena: An Alien Encounter (2022) will be hosted in the Sky Room on October 29 at 5pm.
More details here
