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Memorandum submitted by St. Bernard's Catholic Grammar School, Slough
1.Creativity has always played an important part at St. Bernard's and Slough Creative Partnerships has fostered, extended and developed its role and impact in the school.
2.One important development has been its explicit inclusion in the School Development Plan. At one time, there was an implicit understanding that creativity would play an important part in each student's personal growth. Opportunities to take part in extra-curricular music and drama have always been on offer as well as chances to write creatively in a number of subjects, to use artistic skills across a range of subject areas and increasingly to use drama as an aid to learning. This was recognised in our Gold Artsmark Award in 2001and again in 2004. However, at this stage, there was very little dance offered and many subjects would offer little or no opportunities for students to develop creatively.
3.By adding the development of creativity into the School Development Plan and by bringing the work of Creative Partnerships to the attention of all HODS, many more opportunities have been offered to the students and a much broader awareness of the importance of developing this aspect of the students' personal development has been seen among the staff.
4.One of the main impacts of Creative Partnerships has been in dance. A number of dance specialists have been into school such as Alan Cunningham. Alan worked initially with Year 12 and then started a street dance club which has run very successfully after school and worked with the students. Using creative partners in this way has meant the PE department has developed skills in this area which they now feel confident to pass on to students. In 2005, the school held it first Dance Evening and this was repeated in 2006 and 2007. This was run entirely by the PE department and was very successful. A consequence of this was our being awarded Artsmark Gold again in 2004, with much more stringent criteria in place than last time.
5.The use of photography has also been seen in a number of different curriculum areas, thanks to the work of Katherine Belcher in the school. She was initially introduced to us through the Creative Careers event and has since worked with Art, History and English.
6.Another welcome change has been the increase in active partnerships with other local schools. We have welcomed the chance to work alongside our partner school Wexham School on a photography project run by Katherine Belcher- and with St. Joseph's School on a number of projects. One very successful partnership was with Slough Museum and Our Lady of Peace school in History. All these were wholly or partly funded by Creative Partnerships.
7.The list of creative partners who have worked with us is too long to include here, but there are now very few subjects in the school who have not used a creative partnership at some stage since 2002. Some departments have increased their own skills to a point where they can independently use creative methods of teaching and learning, though others have not reached this stage and would welcome the opportunity for our connection with Creative Partnerships to continue.
8.Being designated a research school in 2006 by Slough Creative Partnerships has offered exciting new opportunities to develop student voice in the school and to try to link subjects in new and innovative ways. Our current project is linking Science and Dance and the impact of this is being investigated by a group of research students who have interviewed students, the Dance partner and teachers and who are reporting their findings to the staff on July 2nd 2007. The findings seem to suggest a very positive response from all concerned and an increased motivation among boys in dance lessons as seen in the following response: (before the lesson)This is going to be so boring. I'd much rather do normal PE than dancing. (after the lesson) That was so much fun. I guess I was wrong.
We very much hope that the chance to work alongside Creative Partnerships will continue in the future.
June 2007 |