|
I am a full time secondary drama teacher on UPS1 at an inner city arts specialist school in Sheffield. I hold a BFA Hons. in Dramatic Writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a PGCE in Drama with English and Media from Bretton Hall College. In addition to my full time teaching career, I have initiated and supported many projects at my school outside of school time, and liaised informally and formally with contacts at the Crucible Theatre, the Pomegranate Theatre and the Lantern Theatre. I have delivered workshops to Longley Park 6th Form College in sketch comedy and writing for television. Over the years I have also initiated several cross-curricular projects with French and PSHE, I have written plays for initiatives dealing with preventing teenage pregnancy, an anti-bullying campaign and, most recently, the smoking ban. Outside of school, I write and perform my own work in my spare time, and feel that if I want to pursue this further, I would have to leave teaching to allow myself enough time to do so.
My comments address the following questions from the Inquiry: · How can creativity be embedded across the curriculum and within the philosophy of schools? · How can creativity in schools best be linked to the real work of work and leisure?
Summary of my evidence: · Creative Partnerships has supported Artists linking with schools; now there needs to be support for teacher-artists · Working artists interested in the education sector are drawn to Arts Status Schools · Qualified Teachers who are or were working artists need support to combine the two vocations · In-house arts provision which extends beyond QTS job descriptions needs recognition and fostering · Working artists are excellent role models · Working artists who are employed by schools to teach or support pastoral care and inclusion use their passion for the arts to encourage creativity in and out of the classroom
As I have stated above, I am a teacher-artist. I do not wish to leave the profession but feel there are many constraints on my working time. I work full time in school teaching a full timetable. In addition I often take on projects that would often be 'bought in' or commissioned from visiting artists. I do not receive extra pay to pursue these projects but feel passionate about my art and wish to engender the same enjoyment and value among my students. I also do not receive time off to deliver other educational projects at other schools or in the community. I have several friends and colleagues in this and other schools who are also teacher-artists or artists working in another capacity in schools.
While Creative Partnerships supports schools liaising with freelance artists, there is no provision for what I feel is a valuable resource that is being overlooked. Teacher-artists are role models who can both embed creativity across the curriculum and within the philosophy of schools, and also serve as role models and liaisons as links to the world of work and leisure through example and through the many professional contacts we all maintain. Some of us are qualified teachers who are also artists. Some of us are artists who were drawn to the stable income of full time educational instruction.
There needs to be a culture shift in schools recognizing artists who 'lurk' among the staff, quietly taking on free freelance work and working hours that do not allow for the pursuit of an artistic career. I offer suggestions below for ways to make this possible.
Recommendations for action · Flexi-time in the form of flexible timetabling - allow in-house artists access to blocks of time, students and resources to produce educational materials in house. · Literally put performance into performance-related pay - commission school-based teacher-artists and allow teacher-artists to accept bids at a fair rate of pay per commission · Allow staff to work part time on artist-secondments or artist-sabbaticals while ensuring job security · Share/pool teacher-artists as local authority resources - allow staff to answer secondment/workshop requests from other schools while retaining pay/earning bonus pay · Engender a culture shift affording in-house work equal respect with visiting artists
July 2007
|