BREAKING THE MOULDHow creativity can transform teaching and learning.

How to find a fresh way for six Nottinghamshire schools to provide feedback on the Creative Partnerships projects they worked on in 2009?Well, we tried something different, and this small book is the result:

Hannah Fox, a graphic designer, and Mike Wilson, a writer, interviewed staff and young people from the six schools. Then young people from the Dukeries College, Ollerton worked with Brick, a professional cartoonist, to respond to the schools’ Final Reports.

Our work divided into two activities: Hannah and Mike summarised the interview feedback. Brick, meanwhile, worked with Ben, Matt, George, Amy, Emma and Kayleigh. The brief was simple yet challenging - produce creative responses to the feedback in a graphic novel format. The first stage was a workshop session on the art of the graphic novel where they explored cinematography, storyboarding and drawing skills. Initially the idea was that the stories would be illustrated literally - this was not what our young people from Dukeries had in mind! They wanted to use their imaginations to take their work in other directions, choosing key words and phrases from the feedback, and interpreted and explored them in their own words and images - the final results you can see in the centre of the book sandwiched between the interview feedback.

As with many a collaborative creative enterprise, the process took us in unexpected directions. The young people brought a truly creative spirit to their work, developing personal drawing skills applying their imaginations.

The deceptively simple form can also mask just how much planning, plotting and preparation, the hours of drafting and re-drafting, that’s needed for each story. Cartooning is hard work! But the six young people were careful and patient; they worked with discipline, focus and good humour.

The Product celebrates the Process!

Big thanks to the Dukeries College staff and students – it was such a pleasure to be part of this project.

We hope the six schools we’ve represented are as happy with the result as we are.

Children and young people in schools across the

East Midlands asked The Mighty Creatives to help: ‘make learning weird, good weird’, ‘branch out

and explore in our learning’ and ‘learn in different places’.

To help children and young people achieve this, 65 schools across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire worked on the

Creative Partnerships programme, bringing creative professionals into their schools to help young people develop their imaginations to

solve problems and make learning exciting and rewarding. This novel is a testament of young people’s creative skills and determination to succeed.

The Mighty Creatives is the young people’s creative development agency forthe East Midlands. Our programmes and partnerships prepare children andyoung people for a lifetime of leadership, innovation and enterprise. We aim to rise to the challenge in developing a shared vision for the importance of creativity and culture in transforming young lives and by highlighting the role creative children and young people can play in the way the East Midlands does business.

Creative Partnerships is a national creative learning programme which is designed to develop the skills of children and young people and that of their teachers by raising their aspirations and achievement. It works by matching schools, teachers and students with creative professionals such as artists, performers, architects, multimedia developers and scientists. We would like to thank the young people from The Dukeries College who worked with the Hub Agency to tell us the story of some of the inspirational learning that has

taken place. We are very grateful for all of their fantastic work.

Best wishesRichard Clark, Chief Executive.

One of the animations we made included taking screenshots of the school on google maps to look like we were landing on the school from space!

One of our students wanted to specifically animate a scientific explosion with bubbling over

test tubes - Martin and Carla were able to help them do that. Tom looked at the

flowers in the garden and animated how flowers grow, Jack worked

with letters to create words.

FOUNTAINDALE SPECIAL SCHOOLWhat do we mean by writing?

What We DidWe worked with Martin and Carly for ten sessions exploring different forms of new media - animation, photography, video and sound. We kept a video diary throughout the project, which was quite nerve-racking!

Some of the activities were quite challenging, but Martin and Carly would find ways to make it work. They made us laugh a lot and helped us to do things we wouldn’t normally be able to do.

We took photographs of the new swimming pool - the different lights, colours and shapes. We also moved into

the sensory garden and took pictures of the colourful plants and flowers. It was the first time many of us had ever used a camera.

LEARNINGSchool staff felt that their students have become independent learners as a result of this project. This has also had impact on teaching and learning across other areas of the curriculum. The young people involved have become more challenging about their own learning too.

The practitioners were extremely open and became very much part of the school team. In fact, they are now working with the primary school and have recently taken the older students from the project into the younger classes to help deliver sessions on animation.

SEELY JUNIOR SCHOOLHow can we develop our children’s speaking and listening skills through drama?

What We DidWe worked with Nicki Rafferty, a Drama/Storytelling practitioner, to create stories. Nicki worked with Yr 3 and 4 – once a week for a half term.

Together they created stories, involving a journey through a forest, over mountains, featuring a mouse and a dragon, a house full of ghosts...

They planned these ‘journeys’ using big sheets of paper on the floor “so it felt really real when we actually did the journey”.

They also used textures and smells – to include all five senses – e.g. a blindfolded food tasting – cold baked beans, jelly, coffee, raisins; even eating ‘dragon-skin’

(seaweed really).

Among the outcomes: “we learned to use our imaginations”.

Two children who were very quiet and unwilling to contribute in class are now markedly more confident and vocal.

The Teaching Assistant said she had gained confidence to use drama and imagination in her teaching approaches, and to give the children ‘the freedom to be themselves’.

LEARNINGTeaching staff are more confident to use creative approaches in their own teaching practice.

Teaching staff more confident than before to see children’s noise and activity and movement as part of their creative processing, not just being out of control.

by

by

by

DUKERIES COLLEGE

The practitioners on this aspect

of the project were;

presented

Hannah Fox, Mike Wilson and BRICK

ST MARY’S CATHOLIC SCHOOLHow can we develop our use of Maths by thinking outside the box?

What We DidWe worked with Rebecca and Tara, professional dancers from Dance Equation, to explore new ways of learning Maths.

We looked at many aspects of the maths curriculum: number shapes, times tables, decimals, angles, co-ordinates, tables, bar-

charts, symmetry etc.

We did this through movement and repetition, and fluorescent strips on our

clothes, so we could shape ourselves to make the shape of the numbers.

The project ended with a performance – a 70s Night, with street dancing, bhangra dancing with

movements like ‘Waking Up’ and ‘Cutting the Crops’.

LEARNINGThe children have a lasting confidence with, enjoyment of and engagement with Maths, which they continue to refer to and build on The children are generally more confident, and will ‘give anything a go’ in class: ‘put your hand up – you might be right!’

“If I’m struggling with Maths now (a year later), I carry on using it by visualising the dance in my head… I still use my finger to point to the co-ordinates, to remember how the maths works…”

S.T.O.P.!! (SAVE TADPOLES IN OUR POND) KEYWORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL How can science and engineering help young people develop their personal learning and thinking skills?

What We DidThe school’s newly-built pond was losing water rapidly. A Year 5 class interviewed potential practitioners, and chose Mark who had a background in science. We first worked on the problem of why the pond was losing water. We discovered that the water wasn’t leaking or seeping away - it was evaporating!

We used pipes and bottles to make rain gauges. We then analysed how much rain fell that week and how much the water level rose... not enough.

The whole class worked together. We brainstormed the question - How do we get water back into the pond? We tried a bucket chain from the outside tap to the pond - all the Year Ones helped and our line had 42 people in it. We did 360 buckets in an hour and the water level only rose 17mm. We realised this wasn’t going to work as we couldn’t stand in a bucket chain every time the water level went down - we wouldn’t get any school work done!

Then Miguel and Sam had a lightbulb moment - we could use the water from the school roof! But how do we get it over the field to the pond? That was now the new problem.

We then thought up some weird and wacky ideas to present to a Dragon’s Den-type team of judges: a line

down which upside-down umbrellas full of water would slide; a massive robotic arm; a zip wire with buckets; a conveyor belt that would take buckets of water and tip them into the pond…

We decided to do some more investigation.

We looked at the Archimedes screw, centrifugal forces (we all got very wet spinning water around in the playground - great!), siphoning and analysing how different pumps work.

LEARNINGThis gives us the reason and evidence to break the mould.

The project changed the way we teach as we are able to see how children can lead their own learning.

Mark helped us loads with this because even though he knew all about these things - he let us find them out for ourselves.

We realised that we could set up pipes from the school roof and bury them in the field. If we got the measurements right, the water would naturally siphon into the pond!

Mark set us the task of measuring the distances, so we could order the right amount of pipes and connections. We measured the whole school building

and even used google earth to measure the size of the roof. The pipes were delivered and our school caretaker Nigel and Mark installed them all really carefully, following our plans.

After two months of work we waited to see if it was a success... when the water came out of the end of the pipe it

was the most amazing feeling ever! We did it!

Future Planning:Our whole KS2 is working on setting up alternative power stations - the children have taken on lots of different roles and we’re all getting really into it. We would have struggled to have the confidence to do this without working on the project with Mark and Creative Partnerships.

LEARNING Teaching staff learned to work collaboratively with the unorthodox approaches of practitioners

Teaching staff learning to ‘trust’ older children to take responsibility for their own learning – and for children in younger year-groups

Young people learning the value of patience and team-working, from an “Industry-insider”

Young people learning there’s no correlation between levels of money spent and levels of fun experienced.

DUKERIES COLLEGEHow can gaming be used to share knowledge and what impact can this have on their literacy?

What We DidYoung people from Year 10 devised and developed video games for introducing new Yr 7s to the school – Induction Games for the School Open Day.

Five different games were developed, including Orientation: where different places are, different lessons are taught and the College One-Way System.

They worked with Ian Simons – a ‘gamer’ from Game City – someone with “different skills” from teachers…

They thought they’d answered a question but Ian just passed

it back and asked it again, so they had to think more, and more deeply – then he asked them go deeper still – at first they got irritated but realised they were thinking more deeply about the subject than they had thought possible. The unusual teaching style that paid off!

The project included lots of research about games – investigating them, playing them and addressing questions like – what makes a good game? What IS a game? How can a game be fun AND educational?

LEARNINGTeaching staff learned to work collaboratively with the unorthodox approaches of practitioners, from a basis of mutual respect.

Teaching staff learned to incorporate a wide range of curriculum areas into the project, from a relatively simple and straightforward starting point.

OUR LADY ST EDWARD’S ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLHow can we bring excellence and enjoyment from the classroom into our outdoor spaces to improve outcomes for children?

What We DidWe worked with two artists, Claire and Becky, to design, plan and plant a willow

structure on a grassy area in the school grounds. Year 6 children worked with Year 2

children, and practised a range of skills: planting, bending and tying the willow.

We found that the children who are not traditionally skilled at some tasks were fastest to learn these new skills.

Children then used the space for play and quiet reflection. Teachers used the space

for assembly, and collective worship; storytelling; a gallery/display area; and as an extension to the classroom, for diverse subjects: geography, maths, science, horticulture, art.

There has been further follow-up songs and related stories in school since then: The Wind in the Willows,

The Talking Tree…

Children from other year-groups were curious and wanted to be part of the project. They use the willow structure at playtimes, when the weather permits.

Parents, too, who have to cross the grass into school, got involved.

What are your initial reactions to the

final publication?(Ben) I think it looks really good, it’s

even better than I thought it would be. You can see how effective it is to work bigger

than the final piece as I thought it would still look quite sketchy but it doesn’t.

(George) I’m shocked! I didn’t think it would look that good when we first started. I didn’t think it would

be a real, finished piece of work. I’m surprised that we did this.

Was this project hard work?(Matt) It didn’t feel like it because it was fun.

What were the most enjoyable aspects of the project? (Matt) Seeing the finished thing!

(Amy) It’s loads more professional than I thought we could ever do.

What was different about working with the creative practitioners?(Matt) We didn’t get told off a lot.

(George) I found it easier to do this project than normal school work.

Why is that? Were the practitioners too easy on you?(Matt and George) Yes!(Ben) It was a lot easier to do this though because we all talked to each other and gave each other ideas. Working in a group was good because we could share what we were doing.

But how different is it working than working simply with your school staff?(George) It feels like they actually know because they’ve got experience rather than just telling us about it.

Does that make you react differently to the practitioners rather than teachers? (Amy) It was a more laid back and flexible way of working, though we still had to achieve something otherwise we wouldn’t finish it.

Did you learn any new skills from this?(George) Looking at Brick drawing and actually seeing him doing it made me want to try it too. I didn’t really think I could draw before.(Amy) Me too.(Matt) I think if any of us thought we couldn’t draw before, we know we can now!

How does looking at the finished work make you feel?(Matt) Good, I’m more confident in my own abilities. (George) Proud.

Is this type of project something you would like to do again?(All) Yes.

Why?(George) I would, because it was fun and we’ve finished

something really good.

Do you want some copies?(All) Yes!

www.themightycreatives.com