David McKenna, Beingfrank Physical Theatre – Engaging children and parents May 19, 2012

‘Urban vs Rural’ - A project where children’s enthusiasm engages parents.

The project provided a platform for Year 5 children (two classes totalling 43 children) to connect with their environment and engage with their parents.

In my many guises as a dancer, as a choreographer and most recently as an artistic director I have had the pleasure of working all over the country on risk taking Creative Partnership projects since the very early days. These projects have had me travelling all across the country from Cornwall in 2004, Birmingham in 2006-2009, Nottingham in 2007 and Coventry in 2009-2010. By the end of Creative partnerships in 2011 I experienced 6 projects all lasting between 6 months and a whole year but by far the project that made the biggest impact was the Cre8us project ‘Urban vs Rural’. It was a project devised by the school Windy Arbor Junior & Infant School (Solihull) and Cre8us’s Creative Agent Claire Marshall. There was an interview process for the role of artistic lead where I had to send in a proposal of how I artistically envisaged approaching the concept of engaging children and parents in the school’s work and I am so glad that I undertook the procedure!

I was appointed and quickly created a small artistic team that consisted of myself plus a local professional dancer Hayley Guest. Together with a school representative and Claire Marshall we decided to use street dance as a means to engage; working with staff to deliver aspects of a thematic curriculum, drawing on a number of curricular areas. The street dance was really well received by the teachers and children, everyone felt very safe and participated with gusto eager to learn new skills. As the project grew and developed we started to deconstruct the street dance material to make creative tasks exploring the theme of ‘Urban vs Rural’ and the material gradually became more contemporary and therefore allowed the participants to be more exploratory and imaginative in their devising, this also gave space to introduce different styles of music and performance techniques.

To further explore the theme of ‘Urban vs Rural’ the students forged links with St Patrick’s Primary School, a rural school from their district. In this process they shared experiences and ideas of what it is like to live in an Urban or Rural area. Each school hosted a day where they explored their local areas, taking notes and creating poetry that was then explored physically in the dance sessions. All of the children were very respectful of each other, they shared loads of ideas and socialised perfectly.

We invited parents to participate in sessions supported by their children. We had been briefed that we might not get any as the attendance for events like nativity plays and parents evenings were very low but to every ones surprise we had a turn out of 8 parents for the fist session and 54 for the second. It was obvious from the start that both the children and their parents were nervous but after the first few creative tasks the atmosphere had totally changed and everyone was happily working through their tasks in groups. By the end of the session the whole group shared all of the dance material they had created with each other.

At the end of the project all of the parents, friends and family were invited to see the final sharing of the work created by the children inspired by the artists and their parents work and the turn out was extraordinary, particularly when you consider the attendance of past events (15% usually to 95% for the project). The atmosphere was electric as the children presented their dances, some video presentations of their poetry and exhibited their artwork. There was an incredible sense of achievement from everyone involved and it created such a buzz in the school. A third practitioner who lives locally was added to the project to start an after school street dance club, continuing the legacy of the project.

Impact

A Cre8us Council comprising of six vulnerable children was established to work alongside staff and give voice to the opinions of the pupils. This proved to be very valuable for the project and staff.

Street dance became the inspiration for their artwork and has helped to improve literacy: when they had to work on recounting text they did so with purpose, able to draw on the real experience of their city centre trip. They also exchanged emails with St Patrick’s School children and used this content in their recounting text as well.

After only the first parent workshop with the practitioners, attendance at parents’ evening increased significantly from 15% to 95%.

The sharing event had huge support with over 90 parents attending, much greater than expected or seen in the past.

Attendance of the after school street dance club exceeded expectations; there are now 20 regulars, twice as many as had been targeted.

Before the project, the school had been struggling to make contact with a particular child’s family; four family members attended the performance.

Results

One child, whose parents rarely came into school, came to the performance. The child said “I enjoyed it when we was doing the performance in front of my parents.”

“We have learned much about how to involve parents, what language to use, what activities will bring them in and the role of the children within that.”

“The boys were dancing and smiling… one boy who usually takes the day off with anything similar, turned up and was fully involved.”

“One boy who rarely showed emotion, smiled during this project.”

“They enjoyed working with the other school, going out and experiencing ‘urban versus rural’ and not just talking about it.”

“The children feel their parents are more involved, especially with brain builder homework and inspire workshops, and they said their homework has improved because of this.”

It was a totally amazing project to be involved in, seeing the teachers, children and their parents grow in confidence and see the ability to express their own creative ideas was a delight. It taught me what can actually be achieved when you formulate a really supportive hard working team operating strategically, all challenging themselves and each other to try new ideas and take risks. That concept is now the model of good practice that I try to use on a regular basis in all of my work. Thank you for The Cre8us Way!

David McKenna

Email: beingfrankpt@me.com

Website: www.beingfrank.co.uk

Phone number: 07870683979

Pyn Stockman – Creative and inspirational delivery of Maths May 13, 2012

Brooke School – Enquiry Question

Can the intervention of three practitioners in different artforms, one for each class, help KS4 staff to increase confidence in the creative and inspirational delivery of Maths and help develop children with complex needs as co-constructors of learning?”

The project, what happened – a personal reflection on the work

Who was involved?

The project was based at Brooke School in collaboration with Years 10 and 11 and staff. All students had a range of additional needs. 3 artist were contracted 2 visual artists one who was to primarily focus on the outdoor space, a textile artist and myself whose focus was drama. I was also given the role of lead artist.

What were you trying to do or achieve? What went well?

My focus and way of delivery and in a lot of ways my practice, was to make an offer and pretty much see what happened. Constantly looking for the way the students engaged with the tasks. It was also important to me that in each session there was a reason for doing the math – We were secret agents with codes to crack, cases to open and bowler hats to wear (an exceptionally popular theme) that came out of observing the students on the very first day when they took part in imaginative role play at break and lunch time.

Having an element of surprise – something to discover, uncover, reveal – was key to my sessions and provided a hook and a focus for the math. Even when we were working imaginatively – secret agents on a mission uncovering the answers to fairly difficult mathematical problems to provide them with the code to put into the padlocked case – it was the context that kept them focused and the fact that it was a real situation.

I was very keen on the students being able to ask questions and set math problems themselves. From this grew the idea of making games – big physical games with quiz leaders and then as we were making games we also planned a party that took place just before the Christmas holidays. It was these contexts that were a real strength of the project – a way of framing the work.

Students worked with a budget, they shopped, prepared food, set up the hall, explained their games to each other, played games and used the money they had made (featuring their faces) to buy food from the buffet – expertly run by three of the students.

We also adopted a school based reward system of raffle tickets but with a particular focus to identify student’s achievement in line with the project criteria. So at the end students received prizes, but I think most of all we had fun.

Additionally to this the project was really collaborative. From the outset and because we needed to, working across 3 classes with 3 artists. Keeping everyone informed about what we were thinking, how it was going. Using the collaborative way to really understand how the students were responding and making our practices as transparent as possible to staff.

The final phase of the project saw Deb focusing on the outside area assembling and creating sculptures, Michaela exploring time and making a big trellis work with myself looking at the idea of creating an adventure game (with maps) around school with the idea being that ultimately a similar game could be created outside once the garden area was complete (something that would be ongoing after we had left).

In some ways the mapping and the clues and questions drew together many of the student’s previous experiences whilst acknowledging that we were now working with some different students who were very able.

Each day ended in a large group feedback session and it now felt right to hand this questioning over to some of the students along with the photography/documenting.

The key point to legacy is all about handing it over, giving people the opportunity to practice skills while you are still there.

What has changed for you?

I have become a more confident practitioner generally speaking and look for ways of encouraging exploration and learning in all my work – I am less prescriptive and try to find the question or exploration that is needed to learn a skill. It’s significant and important. I also realized how interested I am in increasing confidence in students – the confidence to take risks, I guess and that I see this as at the root of much of my practice.

I was really pleased to be invited back to Brooke in the summer term to deliver another project for their less confident students who are looked after children. We made a ‘performance’ I am including the audio for this as one of the main storytellers was a student that when I first arrived at Brooke was very nervous of speaking up and would not have his voice recorded at all.

The main change for me was to view all my projects in a similar way, to be constantly looking for the learning and encouraging and asking questions at every twist and turn. I also now have a major focus on how to capture it and what to do with it once it has been captured.

Working with Enquiry questions: Once I began working with enquiry questions I found a deepening and expansion of my educational practice. It provides a focus for the work from which everything else can grow. It’s also worth noting that there is the central question that has to be broken down and then there are all the other questions that arise from the first. In addition as a practitioner you also have your own questions.

If we take the idea of developing the students as co-constructors of their own learning and if the 3 different art forms achieved this, then we have a specific focus to reflect on.

As lead artist it was partly my role to facilitate discussion and collect this evidence. Much of the evidence was anecdotal so it was about looking for patterns and using raffle tickets – something students could identify with as a way of collecting data. There was a strong theme that certain students responded to certain activities more than others. For some it was the physical work preparing the garden, for others it was working with materials sorting, ordering, whilst for others it was the role-play and framing of the session. What we all did as artists was look at where the engagement was occurring and respond to this in our planning and developing the next session.

What I discovered in my own practice was that by listening to the responses that the others had in their sessions I looked for ways to incorporate elements into my more ‘drama’ based work in order to engage the students who had shown a preference for working in a more craft based way. The maps are perhaps the strongest example of this.

I saw other cross over’s happening too – the groups really enjoyed being secret agents and everyone responded to a session on disguise where hats were available for hire but where the students had to keep a tally of the amount that they had in stock and the amount that was out on loan. Michaela used the hats for them to wear for photographs to go on the money she made.

Reflection: A key thing for me is don’t reflect in isolation – it’s a skill that needs to be out there – plan a session so that reflection is part of it and make it fun. I like audio recording as a way of capturing instantly, but it can’t stand alone and for some people it’s not appropriate. My favourite example of this is one student sat quietly drawing on a white board what he drew was a picture of himself as a café owner selling the food we had prepared that session as party practice. By the side were all the costs and sums. He had told me that he enjoyed everything but it struck me, by the drawing, his real feedback was that he had engaged most in that role. He talked about this later on. I also used a series of photographs to reflect with one student about a wonderfully creative process he had been on and that showed up in the images. It helped him become more aware of and able to articulate the journey.

I think there are several points to reflection: What you have observed, what the staff have observed, what the students have observed and what the students have experienced. Personally I think it is useful to check in during a session, at the end and later on when as a practitioner you put it all together, looking for patterns and using it to help your planning. (see attachment)

It’s also really important to share reflection: Part of my role at Brooke was to collate and provide an overview for everyone at the end of each day: it was an email to everyone who worked with the children drawing out the main points of what had happened and then following it with a brief overview of what would happen the following week. It also provided staff with the opportunity to ask questions.

It’s also just as important to share it with the students. I often had impromptu chats with people because I had noticed something. This idea was taken further by giving it place within the project structure.

The extra reflection we used at Brooke was in creating the display – every 3 weeks (approx) we printed a selection of images staying with our group, instead of getting together in the hall for the large group reflection session. We asked them to look for what learning was happening, this was recorded on ‘Looking for Learning’ cards and added to the image that had inspired the comment.

A Student talking about Masks and Numbers

A student talking about his Snooker Table with Goals game

Buster Saves The Day


What has changed in the school?

I think that the way the display was implemented – the idea for this was a total collaboration between us artists and was a kind of montage of images, comments and stuff from the project, all displayed on washing lines using pegs. Staff were always commenting on the display, as were students. It was a visible living growing montage a report of what had happened. As pictures were taken down and new ones were added they were kept and at the end of the project and placed into 3 photo albums along with comments and all the raffle tickets.

Pyn Stockman

Email: dramask@gmail.com

Website: www.dramask.com and www.secretcityarts.com

Kate Morris – Recycled art to help develop the curriculum and learners May 4, 2012

Email: kate.morris7@ntlworld.com

Website: katemorris.carbonmade.com and tonimorris.carbonmade.com

Louise Braithwaite – Developing practice for working with children with disabilities April 27, 2012

Welcombe Hills School, Stratford upon Avon
A setting for children and young people with learning disabilities aged 2-19

CRE8US CHANGE SCHOOL PROGRAMME 2009-2010

LOUISE BRAITHWAITE
Freelance musician, workshop leader and creative project manager


Working as a practitioner on a Cre8us project taught me more about my creative abilities in 20 weeks than I had learned in the previous 20 years. Reflecting on the experience, my learning came about through the opportunities for collaboration and risk-taking which the project’s construct enabled.

I’d worked as a music practitioner for several years before I became involved with Cre8us, as an orchestral musician and workshop leader with Orchestra of the Swan. I already had a particular interest in working in settings for people with additional needs. I’d designed, led and managed school projects and had almost always worked with other musicians.


Collaboration
A year or so before the Cre8us project I’d introduced Welcombe Hills to the Music Technology associates of Town Hall Symphony Hall Education, and we’d explored working together in series of three or four sessions. This led to some really interesting work and, though we’d all recognised that the students both enjoyed it and were able to achieve new things, further collaboration wasn’t possible at that time. The school had also begun to work separately with film specialists from THSH.

With the involvement and financial support of Cre8us, the school took a bold step. They invited a collaboration of live musicians from Orchestra of the Swan (a partner in the school’s specialist status), film and animation specialist Jonathan Lee, and Mat Beckett- music technology specialist.

Collaborating with other experienced creative practitioners was fantastic because each individual brought a different creative viewpoint and skill to the work. Before Cre8us I was making my way in the dark really, going on instinct and taking what I could of the training and networking which came my way. I knew that I was concluding projects feeling a bit dissatisfied and that there was more substance to be had, but couldn’t quite put my finger on what was missing. In common with a lot of freelancers, I seldom got to see how other practitioners worked or how they assessed themselves, and the educational work of other artists seemed difficult to access. I’d had great conversations with supportive and encouraging teachers, but these were disjointed and rushed because of time pressures and interruptions. It could be difficult to make meaningful observations or to implement changes in projects which lasted just three or four sessions. Working with my co-practitioners and Cre8us over a long-term project gave me the tools to identify and implement positive change.

Cre8us scheduled routine planning and reflection sessions within each school day which were facilitated by our Creative Agent, Nikky Smedley. In reality they were free-ranging creative conversations, pretty similar to the ones I was having in my performance practice. Ringfenced time was set aside with teachers to ask questions, examine progress and problems, and simply to imagine. The discussion time seemed incredibly generous compared to my previous experience. I felt that I should be offering Delivery all the time! It seems obvious now, but it took a while for me to realise that being able to talk in depth and to explore the needs and responses of the individual students carefully made the quality of the work better. Quite often, the ensuing class activity produced the answers to questions which had been left open in the discussion. It also enabled us to reflect in the context of the earlier planning, allowing us to draw sound conclusions and take decisive action for learning in future sessions.

I now schedule much more time with school staff to jointly plan and monitor the work we’re going to do, and I have the right vocabulary to explain why this is so important to meaningful outcomes for a school, its pupils and practitioner. If you’re only looking to tick boxes in the curriculum, you miss so much other valuable learning. I’ve learned to work much more effectively with teachers. I’m better placed to support them objectively, better understand the pressures facing them, and am better able to support the assessment of pupils’ development.


Risk Taking
As a performer you take a risk every time you go on stage, but the rehearsal process manages out most of the unknowns to produce a polished ‘product’ for the audience. Workshops aren’t like that. Cre8us workshops are especially not like that. Thanks to the Unknown and Untested, they’ve been among my most satisfying musical experiences.

Before Cre8us, I’d planned session outlines in consultation with teaching staff and shaped them to work with curriculum goals. I’d noticed that when it was possible to go with the flow of what the pupils brought to the day, they were better engaged because they could influence the activities. I loved being led by the class. The downside was that this ‘risky’ method didn’t always sit well with class teachers. It sometimes led to moments of excitement (often interpreted as disruptive behaviour) and I sometimes struggled to find the right language to explain the learning which had taken place. I didn’t want the students to ‘sit down and keep still’ all of the time- it seems to contradict the effect of music on the body and mind. The absence of a Product felt like a tension. Given the pressure on teachers to account for pupils’ learning and behaviour, this is completely understandable, but I felt limited by it.

With hindsight, I needed to find a way to manage the attitude that a Music project should, inevitably, result in a high quality performance after two or three short sessions. I knew this wasn’t achievable given my genre and style of working, and I felt uneasy about a ‘product’ being the only means to demonstrate shared learning, alongside the loathing some students have of performance situations which can put them off joining in at all. I found it hard to put a voice to the real learning that was taking place from week to week within sessions, which frequently had nothing to do with the musical or curriculum aims of the project. They were associated with social and teamworking skills, problem solving, constructive discussion, creative thinking, confidence and self-esteem. I hadn’t yet been able to phrase these things in a way which would make the value of the sessions per se tangible and clear to senior stakeholders. I needed to be able to explain the benefits of risk-taking, going away from the session plan, and for the children’s creative choices ‘in the moment’ to have more weight, regardless of where they might or might not lead.

Finding myself with Cre8us in a special needs setting which supports holistic learning and celebrates every individual achievement was a gift. It enabled me, with the support of teachers, practitioners and the Creative Agent, to develop a flexible creative practice which I can explain, promote, justify, enjoy and- most importantly- evidence, thanks to Cre8us’ rigorous evaluation programme.

Cre8us put the Creative Process at the centre of everything that goes on by formally recognising that risk-taking is integral to learning and the development of ideas. The way we were supported to work led us to all manner of unexpected places and, by virtue of putting the students centre-stage and without limitation, allowed them to show us just how well they could achieve. They told us in their own unique ways what they liked and didn’t like and, in doing so, helped us to learn to look and listen in new and better ways. There is no greater challenge than to be asked to seek out Student Voice with students whose ability to communicate is severely restricted.

Not planning too tightly, and not seeking to create a concert-quality musical artistry each week were potential risks at the start of the work. I was fortunate in working with an excellent team of colleagues from Orchestra of the Swan- always willing to take a risk, always concerned about high quality workshop delivery but not worrying about artistry out of context. Able to improvise, relaxed about safe physical contact with their musical instruments, having an endless supply of ideas and encouragement. Tactile, sensitive and intuitive individuals. There were sessions which were challenging and difficult, but we took the learning from them and moved forward. The wider experience of our co-practitioners Jonathan Lee and Mat Beckett was a tremendous resource, and we worked hard to understand one anothers’ artforms so that we could support the students to combine the resources effectively.

We learned from teachers that Welcombe Hills valued our involvement as much for our personal qualities and non-verbal communication skills as for our musicianship, and in sharing that they have given us insightful, personal learning.

At Welcombe Hills, the idea of a performable Product had never been at the forefront of the school’s priorities for my practitioner work there. We shared our work with the other students when the pupils and staff felt that we’d made something they’d like to see, not with that being the aim at the outset. Within Cre8us, this really blossomed. The students were agreeable to a final Sharing of work in progress, demonstrating the types of activity they’d taken part in, much like an open session, and showing the films and audio work they’d created. I felt completely supported by the staff and the programme as a whole, and there was no pressure on anyone in the room. The response was overwhelming and moving.

In the sharing, the students (aged 10-16) danced with string ‘laser beams’ to improvised music, starting and stopping with the sounds; drew and painted free-form shapes whose shapes and textures beautifully mirrored the improvisations we played and – in reverse – drew shapes for us to characterise in music. Seeing this happen so naturally, with such synchronicity between a silent student and musician had a marked effect on the audience. We sang and played a song we’d written together called ‘Chocolate Land’, using well-developed language like, “Drink the chocolate river, choccy fox, lick it up in little drops”; and showed their films of a sad Hobo Oboe Snowman who finds new friends to cheer him up, and a Flying Carpet ride through the school. The response of parents and teachers was tremendous.


What have I learned?
I used to have quite a limited definition of myself as a musician who used the oboe as my means of expression. Through the challenges and formal reflection of Cre8us partnership work, I now think of myself very differently.

Having the mirror of reflective practice and the supportive honesty of co-practitioners, pupils, teachers and my Creative Agent, I learned that I’m a creative individual, not just an interpreter of other peoples’ compositions. I can be a producer, a catalyst for others’ creativity; I can use no instrument or any instrument or a piece of junk to stimulate ideas; I can make lots of sound or no sound, make it organised or chaotic and not worry about the restrictions of classical performance.

Initially, I was worried about the absence of pressure to create a ‘product’. I thought we might just meander through the programme and not be able to support any real learning. My more-experienced co-practitioners and our Creative Agent’s insightful observation showed me that learning will happen in most situations. The skill lies in identifying that learning (which may not be related to the musical aspects of what you’re doing at all), feeling confident to do so retrospectively, and having the skills to properly document the work and the learning.

In learning environments where time pressure and assessment can have such a high priority, it’s unusual and liberating to be encouraged to try new things; to not have to plan work to fit a curriculum; to stay away from a formula you know to be successful, and have someone ‘holding your hand’ while you walk the ensuing tightrope. Cre8us gave me that and, what’s more, celebrated the risk for its own creative sake. You can learn far more from something that doesn’t work the first time than from something that does. I suppose that’s the essence of the creative process which Cre8us helps to promote- the learning is in the doing of the thing, the journey, and not the finished product.

I now have the confidence and methodology to assert that a Learning programme is exactly that. It isn’t a series of rehearsals for a show. Preparing a performance calls for different skills.

I was allowed to take risks- that is, not to produce a concert performance, and even not to play my instrument within a session. I no longer feel guilty about making that choice because I have a better understanding of my creative ability. The students pushed me- deliberately and accidentally- to stretch my imagination, to make original and familiar things happen, to respond to them musically, physically, verbally and silently, and to laugh and enjoy the times when things didn’t quite work out.

I learned more about orchestral musicians’ ability to communicate without speech and to channel emotion in those weeks than I had up to that point in my life. We could sense something of what the students were saying even when they had no audible voice. We could internalise their mood and give it life in the world through our instruments, thereby influencing the experience of others. That’s what music, any art, is for. Giving voice to things for which there are no words. How did I forget?

With thanks to the teaching, support staff and management of Welcombe Hills School, Stratford upon Avon.


Creative Agent
Nikky Smedley

Artists

Freelance Musicians from Orchestra of the Swan:

Sally Harrop- clarinet

Naomi Rump- violin

Amelia Jones- violin

Tom Caldecote- clarinet

Simon Chalk- violin

Louise Braithwaite- oboe


Freelance Town Hall Symphony Hall Associate artists:

Jonathan Lee, filmmaking & animation specialist

Mat Becket, music technology specialist


Email: lnerbraithwaite@btopenworld.com

Website: www.orchestraoftheswan.com

Sally Harper-Kenn – Collaborative Approach to Outdoor Spaces April 11, 2012

St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School.


A collaboration project with Year 1, Helen Dixon & Kate Kinnay (class teacher& TA) and Sally Harper-Kenn (Creative Practitioner)


‘How can we develop a creative approach to teaching and learning using the outdoor environment to foster creativity?’


From our initial discussions and planning meetings it was apparent that there was a need to develop the outdoor setting as a creative hub of investigation and child centred learning. The outdoors was not utilised and the space was large enough to use during lesson times and to develop a source of stored materials. From the schools point of view they were interested in promoting independent learners, developing an exciting space outdoors and encouraging a hands on, practical approach. Did we achieve this? Yes in some ways I think we did! We reflected well and we definitely were effective risk takers.


After a planning session with the class teacher, we decided to give the children a great starting point by collecting lots of scrap and recycled materials, which would be permanently stored outside the classroom. The children were offered the chance to work with whatever materials they wanted and with who ever they wanted to work with for the first session. They worked well in small groups and their imaginations ignited when offered several buckets, boxes and bags full of recycled materials. They enjoyed working in groups and their conversations were about cooperation and investigation, which was a positive start. The materials were arranged outside the classroom in large containers (there is now a bunker for everything to be stored) but this was a task in itself to keep it tidy and organised as the children were so excited about using it and most of it ended up scattered around the outside area. From the first open-ended session the children developed houses and dens, motorbikes they could sit on and even a rocket larger than them. They talked about their constructions in great depth, explaining how they had made it and the story behind it.


Some children found the experience a little overwhelming, given the open space, the fact that they were outdoors and to them, given free reign. For these children they needed a little more guidance to progress, so over the next couple of visits the children worked individually in the morning learning how to join and connect how to imagine in 3D and inspiration for building structures. This seemed to work very well and gave all of the children the knowledge to build and construct for themselves.


As the sessions developed it was obvious that the children were not only enjoying the making and building but also the feeding back of information. In the afternoon we would work for an hour to finish off outside then the remainder of the afternoon was set aside for evaluating and developing ideas for the next session. As this idea progressed the children got much better at telling their story, being able to articulate to their peers their ideas and reasoning for their work. I think the class teacher was inspired by this and started to include this into her model of teaching on days when I wasn’t there. From these plenary sessions the children developed ideas to build dens and houses (this tied in with the theme running through their learning for that term) and this then progressed into ideas for housing in general resulting in animal and bird houses created from the recycled materials.


So while these sessions were taking place could we document other areas of learning? With the structure building came about role play, the children started to make up stories about who lived in the buildings and these characters they brought to life by dressing up in some of the fabrics collected with the recycled materials. Some children were more interested in the mathematics of getting the buildings to stand, adding windows and developing construction techniques.


To push their learning on further and to develop other ways of using the outdoors the children were offered different materials to experiment with. As the maths coordinator, the class teacher was looking at different and interesting ways of using the outdoor space which she could then use and adapt for future sessions. To give the project the sustainability and assurance that the space was going to be utilised we designed a set of tasks for the children to work with linking it to the building they were already doing and to link with curriculum tasks. The weather had impacted a lot on our sessions, often working in the rain or being very cold. To utilise these effects we set about creating rain gauges and looking at the transfer and flow of water using drain pipes. Each activity was documented and the children recorded and shared their findings. This also started a discussion about environmental issues and we returned to our original discussion about the use of recycled materials.


As a frequent visitor in different schools, this was a great opportunity to work with a class teacher and TA who were keen to try new ways of working and to not plan for every second of the session. They were open to new suggestions and ways of developing the children’s interests and ideas, they were also very good at communicating ideas in between session via email, so I had an idea of what learning had taken place when I wasn’t there. I learnt a lot about how children use spaces and why and given more time to develop the project we could have utilised these findings more.


Before the project finished Year 1 invited Year 2 to come and join them for an afternoon of sharing ideas. The area became alive and a hive of activity with year 1 explaining what they had done and how and working with year 2 to create new structures and to rebuild some of the original structures from the start of the project.


The materials, once the project finished were still available for groups of children to access and were stored in a bunker to keep them in easy reach which will hopefully keep inspiring the children and staff to utilise more of their outdoor space and to develop the children’s interest further by offering open ended activities.


Sally Harper-Kenn


Email: www.sharper-arts.co.uk

TALKING BIRDS – SPACE OF POSSIBILITIES April 2, 2012

In 2006 Coventry was writing its cultural strategy. The city at that time was quite punchy about its future – the Millennium developments had bedded in, the big cultural institutions had, or were in the process of being, expanded and developed, inward investment was up, and there was a sense that the city was moving away from an identity rooted in the past, and was instead open to locating it in the future. Educators, born and bred in Coventry, were telling us that, for the first time, they had noticed a tangible shift in the attitude of their school pupils about their experience of living in the city. Negativity was much lower in the mix now, and though Coventry was far from perfect, there was the feeling that there were more things to do, more places to go, and consequently expectations were higher.

In this context, Talking Birds wanted to push this optimism, capitalise on it, be inspired by it, and use it to explore what a cultural strategy written by young people would look like. Space of Possibilities was the result.

Thirteen artists, from various disciplines, worked with thirteen schools (both primary and secondary), to explore how the city made them feel, and what the city needed to be, to make future generations feel even more excited about living there. The artists were able to explore, through their artforms, a series of hopes, aspirations, challenges, and provocations to the city, which were then distilled into ten ‘possibilities’ for Coventry. To this day I find those possibilities incredibly moving, and believe the statements still resonate with a kind of truth, which is both straightforward and honest, yet incredibly rich and complex. This was a testament to the seriousness with which the artists took the children’s contributions, unpacking some quite difficult thoughts and ideas, and committing to exploring thoroughly what lay behind them.

Pragmatically, it was difficult to express, in a concrete form, all this thinking into a coherent strategy. In many ways, the results were anti-strategy and existed in some different category altogether – a poem, or a dream, or a scrapbook. In the end, a document and walk-in exhibit was produced which was sited at the Herbert Art Gallery, and then the Ricoh Arena. Though there were limitations to this form, the ideas and discussions around it resonated strongly and were the start of much rich conversation and debate in both social and council contexts. The document became an appendix in the council’s official cultural strategy, and its name was lent to the strategy as a whole.

There was, of course, an elephant in the room with Space of Possibilities that was apparent to some of the children, especially the older ones. What’s the point the imagining a city, if it won’t be made reality? It was the beginning of an important lesson in the complex process of How Things Get Done In The Real World. A tangible example of this was expressed in the baroque attempts to develop one of the off-the-cuff ideas – imagined by a Southfields School pupil – that Coventry should be home to the world’s biggest helter skelter. It actually reached surprisingly advanced stages of development until the sheer practical immensity of the project grew beyond the skill set of a small theatre company. The spirit of the idea though, that all journeys to work or school should be ‘thrilling’, still expresses much: that those transition moments in a day should be about joy, about reflection, about readiness, about stimulation, about a ‘gift’ from the city as you make your way through it.

Space of Possibilities is six years old now, but if it did one thing for me personally, it was to remind me of the power of a simple idea, and the energy and passion that comes, for free, along with it.



Space of Possibilities Brochure

Nick Walker, Coventry, Jan 2012

Email: nick@talkingbirds.co.uk

Website: www.talkingbirds.co.uk

Phone: (024) 76 15 8330

Skatz – Adapting Outdoor and Indoor Spaces March 23, 2012

Who was involved?

Milverton Primary School, Spring 2009

Practitioner: Andrew ‘Skatz’ Scattergood

Creative Agent: Claire Spooner

Teacher/School’s CP Co-ordinator: Katie Gane

Other teachers: Jo and Helen, Year 2

And not forgetting: Ben, the Head Teacher


What were we trying to achieve?

Our Enquiry Question was: How can we adapt the school’s outdoor and indoor spaces to improve and inspire our children’s communication skills and have an impact on their learning?

Excerpt from project planning form: Over the last few years we have become aware that we frequently ask children to use their ‘imagination’ when story writing and telling stories in order to create a picture in their minds. Previous assessment (SAT writing) illustrates that this is often a stumbling block for many, particularly boys and children who do not read. As a result we are interested in taking a sensory approach as a starting point for the project to generate discussion and vocabulary with the children.

Our intention is also to find a way to extend our ‘gifted and talented’ children through creatively developing an environment for them to confidently take risks and extend their vocabulary and language skills and offer them an opportunity to develop different outcomes, evaluate and challenge themselves.

Priority 1 of the school SIDP is ‘to improve pupils learning and achievement’

Within this priority area there are two main target areas that this project would relate to:

1. Raising achievement in writing across the school

2. Improving the quality of teaching and learning through the school

We recognise that children thrive best in learning environments that are a good fit for the level and pace of their development. In the programme planning phase we’ve begun to develop this ‘child led focus’ for the project by facilitating a workshop enabling the ‘children’s voice,’ in order to gain an awareness of what the children enjoy learning, when learning is fun and environments that they would like to work in. Throughout the project staff will embark on a journey alongside the children, learning from the children, developing their confidence and self esteem through an exploration of innovative approaches and delivery of planning and practice.

Some of the things we did

We began by using the school’s planned term theme of ‘Space’; we made up some stories beginning with the phrase, ‘If I was in charge of Space…’.

There were lots of discussions and sharing sessions, and we made soundscapes and danced to music we’d created.

Based on the children’s ideas, we used a load of recycled materials to create a Space Control Centre in an area of the playground called The Amphitheatre.

We wrote poetry about Space.

We looked at which Wow words we could use to describe what we’d done. We even made the Wow words 3D.

We wrote several songs, here’s one of them:


From The Edge Of The Universe (The Space Song)

There was a space frog, named Rosetta, purple polka dots all down her back

She lived by the river, the chocolate river

Saved her friend Lilly from a river attack

Lilly was a space bird, purple and pink

And when Rosetta pulled her out of the drink

Up popped a floating monster chocolaty goo who said

“H, H, H, E, E, LO, LO, OOH, OOH, OOH, OOOOOH” and

“H, H, HOW, A, AH, A, R, UH, YOU, OOH, OOOOOH”

(Chorus) These are the things that we saw from the edge of the universe

Things look so much better from the edge of the u……….niverse

I’d make a space car, made of chocolate

You jump on it to stop and you bite it to go

Or a jet aeroplane ‘cos it’s the fastest thing

Sending gravity into space at 100 miles an hour

Mars is like a little silver bowling ball

It’s a planet you could visit, takes an hour or more

In a space buggy gleaming bright with seats made of goat

You’d hear the chocolate monster as he started to gloat

And say “HA, HOW, HOW ARE YOU?” from the back of his throat (Chorus)

On the planet, all the letters

They’ve all got chickenpox from A to Zee

S is for Scratching, P is for Poxy

A is for Aaaargh, that’s too itchy for me

C is the cooling ointment cream

E for Everybody is starting to scream

Let’s make a sweetie leg that’s sticky and fat

And freeze you cold in chocolate, what do you think of that?

Then you’re melting, getting smaller, then you know where you’re at (Chorus)

Squeezing chocolate from hanging planets

The colour would be green & red with coloured straps

Eat the planet, the tasty, shiny planet

Sticky, lumpy, gooey, squelchy, slippity splat

Bright blue dolphins flying in space

Jumping like a mountain all over the place

And crazy, grumpy alien with hands on her ears

Says, “Take me back for tea or this will all end in tears,

“I’ll be living in the cheese shop for a thousand years” (Chorus)

We made masks and reacted to each other’s creations. Using music, words and movement, we improvised with the masks.

We built, in a covered area of the playground, a dark space using blackout material. We had bought some UV blacklights to put inside the space. These make certain colours glow very bright. We took the masks inside.

We decided that the space was the inside of a Head, so began to think about what ideas might look like, and make these to put in the Head.

We added some words to the Head, there was a clipboard for the children to write what they thought and experienced.

We thought about what else the Head did, and looked at how we could see and hear and speak with it using tubes.

The Head gradually developed into a brain after suggestions and discussions.

We talked about what the brain did and what it controlled, which turned into a drama game with children playing the parts of the body and the electrical impulse ‘messages’ sent by the brain.

At each stage we were writing ideas down, drawing pictures, reflecting, reviewing, using our journals, a vital part of the process.

We wrote a song about thoughts being like butterflies:

Butterfly Song

The butterfly is beautiful, the butterfly is like a ballet dancer, bing bang butterfly,

It made me feel sleepy, dark and dreamy, stepped up through the clouds

(Chorus) Wicked, weird, and wonderful, boogie happy wild alive

Everything was glowing in the light, everything that’s pink and white

Things were flirty, tasty, small, like you’re inside a rolling ball

Swishy, swirly, starlight, squooshy, splooshy, sushi fish, sushi fish, sushi fish

(Chorus)

Amazing cheerful floaty gleaming, colourful, wobbley, strange and smokey, dark, scared and alone

Everything is different in the dark, in the dark

Bumpy, strange, weird, high, huge, Shocked and jolly like I need to dance

Just a little frightened, I’m just a little frightened.

We discussed what to do next. We discovered how sounds felt.

The head became a brain, became a cauldron for a recipe, then a seed, then a garden of thoughts, then ‘Skatzland’. Here’s a song about part of that:

Thought Garden

There was a secret garden, there was a secret, magical, amazing garden

It was a garden of thoughts

There were strange little thoughts flying around

There were weird and wonderful big thoughts jiggling about happily (hee hee hee)

All of us feeding the big and little thoughts with ideas and learning

As a result the thoughts show, they grow and grow,

They burst into stars and shower down, feeding us with beautiful magic

And the magical words are:

Wow, extremely courageous, skillful, wicked, catastrophic, lovely, excellent, prickly, lucky, hairy, horrible, yeah, la la la.

And in our secret garden

All the animals are thought finders

They sniff and they sniff and they sniff to find the stunning perfume

As well as that they look for dying thoughts, to feed them with glorious new ideas

And in the end they do, and the magical words are:

Wow, extremely courageous, skillful, wicked, catastrophic, lovely, excellent, prickly, lucky, hairy, horrible, yeah, la la la, in the secret garden.

We created a word game to play around the brain, using tubes to whisper words and connectives to create sentences. It was a team game to see who could complete sentences the quickest out of the words inside the brain.

There were emotional scenes when my time at Milverton was over.

Final Comments from Skatz

I learned such a lot on this project about myself, my methods, my creativity. I know that I always have big ideas to begin with, usually too big for the project! It’s very important to get a good relationship with teachers, treat them as equals and work with their strengths while encouraging them to step out of their comfort zone occasionally. I think the teachers’ and children’s comments say more than I could about how it all worked.

What the children said

“My journey in Skatzland – Today I shall tell you all about how Skatz stole my imagination and after 3 or more fantastic days I got it back topped up again but this time better than ever…”

“My teeth are glowing… spooky.”

“Stick to the brain!”

“I like the way there were speech bubbles inside the brain.”

“It was like a planet without any rubbish.”

“It felt really weird. It felt like you were shaking about inside someone’s head.”

“An enchantment was soon happening.”

Extract from teacher’s notes during the project

A busy week with the enquiry project ‘artist’ time coming to an end. I just want to reflect a little and share my thinking with everyone! I think we have done lots and lots of work inspiring and improving our children’s communication skills.

The work has also become very much ‘child led’. We have created a physical space for the children to think in; to feel; to provoke thoughts; words; dialogue and questions.

It was also great to return to that space on Friday and develop it into ‘Skatzland’! During discussions and work in the morning and building on the work done with Jo and Skatz on Tuesday we asked the children to reflect on their work with Skatz and use some ‘WOW’ words and a connective to create a sentence to describe their experience.

Quincy then described working with Skatz as if ‘Skatz’ was a place and an idea grew into ‘Skatzland’ – if Skatz was a place what kind of place would he be? What would they see, hear, feel etc…. – so the outdoor ‘brain’ is now a vehicle to create a place, with wow words pasted to the outside and connectives inside!

I think Tuesday will be about developing their thinking into physical ideas/designs/plans for spaces with the plastic piping being a method for the children communicating their ideas to each other and changing and adapting sentences.

The next step….could be that their ideas then become the basis for us to plan topic/literacy/numeracy work around within exciting environments that awaken the children’s thinking and imagination, making it real!

I do think that on reflection the ‘brain’ almost became a bit of a stumbling block and too ambitious – that actually just draping fabric over apparatus works just as well as an adapted space-I created a tunnel in the playground as part of our train journey and that was enough to create language – using all the stuff from ‘creates’ in the amphitheatre was also a wonderful days work, provoking and inspiring language. So maybe Tues/Wed am – might be a time to think of something that is quick and spontaneous to create from the children’s work to adapt another space around the school-that might also involve sound (music) as a ‘finale’! (we did also think about sharing all the songs/writing with the whole of Y1/2) maybe we could incorporate the two!??

Extract from end-point evaluation conversations with the teachers

Project team

- Trusting other staff when working with my class… I’m a born again teacher! Free but not wild. What a difference when they know you love them! Being able to give myself permission to do things not by the book – I’ve changed the spaces that I work in. feel more confident to take risks and do things in a different way and revisit the things that I used to do. I felt I’d lost my way a little bit recently and now I consider myself more of an equal again with my creative skills v young teachers with all of their ICT skills. Not frightened of ‘doing it wrong’ able to justify what I do, ‘that it is good enough, more that good enough because…’ when you lose yourself and this project has helped me to refocus.

Because of the project I brought a digital camera and brought a new camera and can work it!!

Skatz has had positive energy in a gentle way. Claire has inspired me but not scared me, Skatz as well. You and Skatz came to us as an equal. Skatz inner child comes out to play and that’s been great for the children.

Letting go of my baby – the project… not having control of that, letting it go naturally. Literacy wasn’t literacy it came out in all sorts of different ways, not getting hung up on delivering it through that, but through science etc. developing language through actually going out and seeing, doing… writing was a pleasure. Freedom, trusting the process and the children. How to learn – how to communicate, aspects of learning is holistic. As a team we’ve shared. Looking at peoples strengths and using those strengths and supporting them in areas where they need it.

Not working with the national curriculum… back to teaching in more of a less constrained way, that degree of freedom and that it actually works. Being allowed to be creative again. Exploring with the children rather than imposing. Using the good things that we used to practise and balancing that with the positive aspects of what skills we utilise now, lifting barriers. Helen was very positive and gentle when I worked with her. The way she deals with the children is warm.

Trust – this is the best project I’ve had where the teachers have taken on aspects themselves and used the skills. To let go and allow the children to run with it.

I think big, sometimes too big but learnt to rethink.

Sometimes you can have a big idea but you can do it on a smaller scale and that’s enough.

You have to have something in a project that doesn’t work and that actually blew away the cobwebs and we worked really well after that.

Behaviour of pupils has improved, less disruption by certain members of classes – different / new ways of expressing themselves. More confidence and feeling comfortable in their own skin and with their skills.

See assessment tracking grids for writing!!

Email: skatz@btinternet.com

Jacqui Rodger, Creative Solutions – An Action Research Approach to Humanities March 13, 2012

Creative Solutions – David Grange, film & new media artist and Jacqui Rodger, visual artist.
Lyndon School and Specialist Humanities College

Enquiry

Our initial enquiry was to look at how the humanities ethos of the school was reflected in its environments, both physical and virtual. Our approach is entirely pupil led, and is based upon the principle of action research, and when the school saw the pupils taking control and leading their own learning, they asked us to return for another year to look at ways of rolling out this process across the curriculum, with a view to developing creative learning tools.


Collaboration

Our approach is very much to work with the whole school. For the first phase of the project, the school had identified 3 groups for us to work with,

• the ‘LSI’s (Lyndon School Investigators), mixed year group, with whom we were to investigate how the school’s physical environment reflected the humanities status
• Year 10 design students to look at the VLE
• Year 9 History students, to look at creative learning.

With all 3 groups, we started from the beginning, enabling them to ask questions of the topic they were being asked to investigate. This led to unexpected results, the LSI’s found that there was no consistent understanding of what ‘humanities’ meant, so there resulting work explored what was important to all in the school; the Year 10 pupils started running a highly successful viral scheme to stimulate curiosity around the VLE, only to find that the existing platform could not deliver what staff and students needed; the History students took it upon themselves to start digging a full size WW1 trench.

All of these schemes meant that their had to be an astonishing amount of communication and trust between the students, staff and the wider community. Students were asked to make real decisions about the form and content of the schools actual and virtual environment, and present these to SMT & the rest of the school community. This included fundraising, looking at materials, Health & Safety, researching & interviewing VLE providers and even applying for planning permission.

The impact on the staff and students who were directly involved in the first phase was such that the school then wanted to open up this opportunity to more staff and students. As well as delivering a number of creative, practical INSET’s that looked at risk taking and collaboration, Creative Solutions then worked with staff and pupils in a further 10 subject areas to look at how students could co-plan & evaluate their learning.


Innovation

Specific activities that could be seen as innovative delivered over the two years included:

• Students designing and leading staff INSET
• Students taking on board ALL aspects of creating a life size WW1 trench – starting by bringing in spades and digging, moving through obstacles around H&S, fundraising and PR, and finally organising community events like the ‘Big Fill’ where over 30 people gave up their Saturday to fill sandbags
• Students researching and encouraging the school to take on ‘Cloud based’ computing
• Students trialling and designing tools for creative learning, including ‘Bank of Knowledge’ cards
• Creating films & drama exercises for a range of subjects including science, mathematics & business studies

Risk Taking

One of our early exercises was getting the students to design and implement a full staff INSET on risk taking. The pupils had been using a Japanese theme on the VLE project – using the word/symbol ‘Ki’ which means ‘Tree’ in Japanese – the motif of the school. Staff attending the INSET were greeted by pupils in Kimono’s, who then blindfolded them and guided them into a darkened room where they were asked to sit down. The students then whispered in their ears, that in front of them was a Japanese snack, which if they chose to eat, they would receive a treat. The snacks included wasabi (horseradish) peas and sour plums.

This exercise was brilliantly received by both staff and students. Staff found the giving over of control challenging, and it highlighted both the need for trust, and the place for being guided. It highlighted a comment that was made over and over again by staff over the subsequent 2 years working with the school – the fear teachers have of giving over control to students but the potential rewards that this can bring. Students were empowered and excited by being ‘allowed’ to give staff a new experience, and interested in the different reactions from staff.


Reflection

Our process is very much about creating space for reflection, which then allows students to define what the next actions will be. We hope that this is something that is now instilled into the teaching practice of the staff we worked with, and it has certainly empowered the students. We feel that this is the most important legacy of our work with the school, and have made a personal commitment to go back into the school in the future to see how this legacy has manifested itself.


Outcomes

The nature of our work, is that the process will, inevitably, lead to high quality tangible outcomes. Over the course of less than two full academic years, Creative Solutions changed the physical and virtual environment of the school beyond recognition (see below), what we are interested in now is how far it changed the learning environment.


‘Concrete’ outcomes

• ‘Humanities Hands’ a series of large scale metal, perspex and vinyl hands, designed by students, that reflect the ethos of the school
• Full size WW1 trench in the school grounds
• Cloud based computing being trialled throughout the school
• A series of ‘learning tools’ trialled and designed by students, including ‘Bank of Knowledge’ cards
• Processes for constructive peer assessment
• Project design documented on ‘How to’ films and photo books for design, science, business studies, religious studies, business studies and ICT.

Email: jacqui@creativesolutions.org.uk

Website: www.creativesolutions.org.uk

Phone number: 01242 703001

Mathew Beckett – Cre8us Ethos to Develop Young People’s Confidence and Increase Multimedia Skills in Staff March 9, 2012

Cre8us project March 2011


KEY INFO:

• Priors Field School
• Years 4 & 5
• Aim: to develop confidence in young people in the classroom
• Enhance the use of digital media in school
• Increase staff skills in multimedia and creative teaching techniques
• Introduce a Cre8us ethos into the classroom through gameplay and creative digital behaviours.
• Bring fun into the classroom

Stage 1: Enquiry: A school staff team identify an issue

Teachers at Priors Field school noticed that girls in a particular year group were lacking in confidence in expressing themselves in class when asked questions. It became clear that although most of the girls were more than capable of answering questions correctly they would choose not to whilst in the class situation amongst the boys.


Stage 2: Collaboration: Teachers invite Cre8us Practitioner Media artists in to assess the issue and come up with a creative way to address it along side advice from school staff.

Mat Beckett (Musician, Audio/visual artist & Filmmaker) and Jonathan Lee (Photographer, Actor & Filmmaker) met with teachers at the school and observed young people in the classroom, identifying typical behaviours and considering a creative response to them.


Stage 3: Innovation: Planning a project

Considering the needs of the young people, teachers, school and project brief Mat and Jonathan along with school teachers, develop a project using Podcasting as a creative vehicle to help build confidence amongst the girls, celebrate the school and enable the teachers to expand their digital knowledge.


Stage 4: Risk taking: Delivering the sessions

Mat and Jonathan had identified a need for the girls to work on a creative project that brought together skills in Drama, Sound recording, Peer to peer learning, Photography and presentation. The girls would produce a Podcast that employed skills in interviewing peers, performance/presentation and technical media. They would report on the school play, develop creative sketches, interview teachers and students, create pieces of music, document the process photographically, carry out peer to peer training with the boys and present their work to the boys at the end of the process.

The project had to creatively challenge existing expectations of ability and desire and take risks in its delivery to break usual behaviours.

This carefully thought out incremental confidence boosting process, would measure a successful outcome on the desire of the girls to want to share their journey with the boys at the end of the project in a way that would not have been imagined at the start of the process.

The girls would work together initially as a single gender small group on drama games developing confidence and creative trust. Whilst having fun they would be picking up the technical skills required to record their podcast, music and performance.


Stage 5: Reflection: carrying out continuous reflection as part of the sessions

The group would regularly audit their learning in each session and reflect on their achievements. ‘What did I do today that made us proud? Showing us physically on a scale of 1 to 10 what is my status? And many other drama based games to enable the young people to really share their experiences during the sessions.

This method of delivery was one of the most positive things about the Cre8us project as many projects do not allow funds for the time it takes to properly plan and assess sessions. As practitioners, this enabled us to try new creative techniques, extend our own learning and experiences of being in school and not just do what we had always done.

Key to the project’s success was the way in which the school embraced the risky teaching techniques we were promoting and supported us as artists to deliver in a way that we wanted.


Mathew Beckett


Email: matbeckett@yahoo.com

Website: http://vimeo.com/mathewbeckett

Phone number: 07890537502

Louise Bardgett – early moves & spaces March 2, 2012

My creative journey in a Solihull Infant School


I had the opportunity of working alongside two new and committed Foundation Stage teachers over a two year period as part of the Cre8us enquiry programme. As an “outstanding school” in a relatively affluent area of Solihull, this came with its own challenges and in particular, how to build an understanding and integrate creative approaches into the curriculum and also, dealing with “academic” expectations from parents versus the importance of creative play. I was fortunate to work alongside a visionary head teacher and experienced creative agent, who were prepared to take risks along the way.


Having worked mainly as a movement practitioner in early year’s settings, I was interested in how my creative practice and process-led approach would translate into a more formal school environment. Working across two classes, with 60 children, with limited outdoor space (particularly during the first year as the school was in the middle of a major redevelopment programme) was a challenge. For instance, lots of structure needed to be built in within the day, to ensure both teachers (and teaching assistants) could be involved in the planning, delivery and reflection process.


My brief was to help the FS teachers build a shared understanding of creativity and its value in children’s play, learning and development rather than within “the arts”. As the first project spanned over two half terms, I tried to link ideas to complement the class topic areas, which included ‘Through the Keyhole’ based on houses and homes and ‘Food around the World’. Books featured throughout and were used as stimulus and a way of enriching/bringing to life stories such as ‘Handa’s Surprise’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Three Little Pigs’ and ‘Mrs Wobble the Waitress’. Due to space restrictions, the majority of the project happened in and around the wooden pergola outside, which allowed for smaller groups to have a longer, more focused experience. It also encouraged children (and in particular boys) to work on a much larger scale with open-ended materials. For instance, we were able to explore different shapes through drawing, kinaesthetically through their bodies and in 3D using canes and in animating their stories of trails and pathways through recycled materials.


However, this also presented problems for staff to observe/co-deliver and battle against the sounds of playtime and PE lessons sharing the same space. With all this in mind, we decided to structure the remaining time differently, collapse the timetable (with no breaks for literacy and numeracy practice) and work intensively over one day with each class. Using the story of Handa’s Surprise, we all worked incredibly hard to transform each classroom into an African village, keeping the planning very open to allow time and space for the ideas and learning to be led by the children. Having built up a strong relationship with the teachers over a period of time, provided a level of trust, mutual respect and shared sense of responsibility. There can’t be many teachers who get up at the crack of dawn to buy exotic fruit from Birmingham fruit market on a Saturday morning, in preparation for the transformation of their classroom on Monday!


The success of the first project, led to further funded workshops with the school as part of their environmental week, a demonstration for a group of European teachers and the chance to continue working with the same teachers for a second year. This time, I was invited in at the very beginning of the academic year to help shape the project and give advice on the layout of the two reception classrooms within the new Foundation Stage unit, with adjoining creative space.

Our second year took a different journey, using the book ‘The Beautiful Stuff’ by CW Topal & L Gandini as our starting point to develop an environment conducive for learning and creativity. Brown paper bags and labels with the accompanying poem were sent out before half term, for children and their families to find their own “beautiful stuff” to create a treasure area in the new space.


‘I look, I search. I hope to see something that appeals to me.

Something unique – or maybe not.

Buttons, milk tops, straws – the lot.

A blue green shape just caught my eye.

I don’t think I can pass it by.

Whatever it is, it makes me glad.

And so, I’ll put it in my bag.’


We wanted to involve the children in the design and use of this space, including setting up a Remidi inspired area (a creative recycling centre in Northern Italy), so that children could freely access a wide range of open-ended resources and provide interesting starting points for exploration and investigation. Building on their new found confidence, teachers had already transformed this “space of possibilities” into a hover-craft, glacier, jungle, snowstorm, volcano and a waterfall and the space continues to evolve.


Throughout the projects I learnt much, especially about the value of time (and sometimes lack of it!) and in finding new ways to document projects, which proved useful to evidence learning, share our reflective process with class teachers (particularly if they weren’t directly involved at times) and, as a tool to provoke dialogue with children. It also provided high quality “promotional” resources for the school which were shared within a parents evening, governors, rest of the school and with other Solihull head teachers. Film provided a central platform and through a mutual interest with one of the teachers, we created our first I-movie. This is something that I have continued to develop in all of my work in schools and has proved a useful forum for teachers/practitioners to articulate what they did with other colleagues.


Alongside numerous other Creative Partnership projects, I have become more confident in my own creative practice and use a range of visual, multi-sensory and physical approaches as well as multi-media to support my work. The relationship with the two teachers gave me the permission to grow, to take risks and use a range of artforms to explore how we worked. I am eternally grateful for their support.


Equally it has opened new doors to what I do now and as a result, has given me the opportunity to work more collaboratively with visual artists, in longer term projects mainly in Leicester. This shared vision and approach has led to the setting up of a new artist collective, The VERY idea with fellow artists, Anna Ryder, Matt Shaw and Barbara Jones, all of whom were involved in the initial early year’s pilot project ‘Second Skin’ in 2005. We are now developing new challenges as our work is moving into new territory such as a cross generational project involving a whole village.


Email: louise@theveryidea.co.uk or louise.bardgett@hotmail.co.uk

Website: www.theveryidea.co.uk

Phone number: 07775 900177