Primary school pupils across Tameside have been learning that all families are different and that difference should be celebrated. 

From 21 March to 1 April, the play Tango's Big Adventure toured 17 schools across Tameside. The play was funded entirely by Tameside’s Community Safety Team and was completely free for all schools.

Tango’s Big Adventure helps schools meet the latest statutory guidance on Relationships Education for KS1. Created in partnership with Healthy Schools, the play helps teachers discuss different families, what makes a family and that all families should be respected and celebrated.

A Tameside Council spokesperson said: "Tango’s Big Adventure helps deliver important messages to young children in an exciting and engaging way. The messages are not only important for community cohesion but for personal health and wellbeing. Children must be aware that it is OK to be different and those differences should be celebrated and respected." 

The play was performed by actors from Hive North (formerly Hope Theatre Company). The actors included Patrick Price, Jess Woodward and Alexi Papadopoulos.

Tango’s Big Adventure is a development of a previous play from Hive North, which toured in 2016 called Here Comes Tango! The new play is based on a true story of a penguin called Tango, who was raised by two male chinstrap penguins in Central Park Zoo.

Tango’s story inspired the bestselling children’s book ‘And Tango makes three’. The play lasted around 45 minutes and included puppetry and interaction with pupils.

Tango the penguin takes a trip around Central Park Zoo meeting a variety of fascinating animal families which are all different. The animal families include Tango who has two dads, a fish dad who stays at home to look after his children and their mother goes out to work. The different families the pupils are introduced to help explain that not all families are traditional but this should be celebrated and appreciated.

This was a two-week pilot tour with hopes Community Safety will commission the play on a bigger scale. This would allow more schools to benefit from watching Tango's Big Adventure.

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