Memorandum submitted by Mrs Pauline Warren, Head teacher, Sacriston Junior School, Durham

 

Main points made in submission

· Creative partnership funding and support allows the school to develop levels of motivation among children and staff.

· Creative Partnership work allows the school to develop staff confidence which impacts on the whole curriculum.

· Creative partnership work gives children a wealth of opportunity they would not otherwise have experience of.

· Creative Partnership allows us to tap into the expertise of individuals to enhance teaching and learning provision.

 

1. Context of school and work with creative Partnership

 

Sacriston Junior School is a school based 3 miles from Durham city. Sacriston is a former mining village and many areas of the village have high levels of social deprivation. Many of our children come from homes where language and cultural development is not a high priority. The school often provides the only cultural experiences the children receive. Many of the children have under developed writing skills as they lack the experiences necessary to develop ideas and vocabulary. We work hard as a school to develop the self esteem of the children we work with. The role of PHSCE in our curriculum is enormous and as part of this we try to bring in as many people from the outside community as possible.

 

We also wanted to develop the creative aspect of our curriculum to motivate staff and children and give us confidence to try out different ideas.

 

We were an associate school with Creative Partnership in the school year 2006- 2007 and are a Change school for the school year 2007 - 2008.

 

2. Our creative vision

 

To develop a regular programme of enrichment activities which would add to the existing curriculum. This involves enrichment days and weeks where the curriculum is collapsed for a time to allow more creative projects to be undertaken.

The aims of this are are:

· To bring a sense of fun back into the curriculum.

· To give the children opportunity to develop self confidence in different situations.

· To create situations where children are faced with new people and situations which will help to develop thinking skills.

· To develop staff confidence by working with creative professionals.

· To develop long term links with other schools and professional organisations.

· To develop a more creative approach to teaching and learning

 

 

 

 

 

3. Projects we have and are involved with:

 

· 2006 we had regular enrichment days and a Healthy week leading up to a month of African activities. The funding we received from creative partnership contributed to having writers in residence for three weeks and then a week of cultural activities involving music, art and drama.

· 2007 - Again we have had regular enrichment days which have made a major contribution to the curriculum. We are planning a film project as our major project for this year which will involve the whole school.

 

4. IMPACT ON PUPIL LEARNING AND TEACHER LEARNING.

 

The African project had a huge impact on the children and staff. Levels of motivation were greatly increased. Children developed a much greater level of enthusiasm towards many subjects in the curriculum. Speaking and Listening skills were enhanced, as was writing abilities because the children had experiences they could talk about.

 

There was a great impact on staff. Their confidence in trying out something very different from the standard curriculum has increased so that this year we have seen many more risks taken in the way lessons are taught. This has led us to looking at the whole curriculum so that next year we will be linking subjects and themes to give a much more creative curriculum. One of my staff has recently organised a music festival for 250 primary and secondary children from 7 schools which was a huge success. She would not have had the confidence to do this before we became a Creative Partnership school.

 

This main project this year is linked to film making - an area none of my staff have any real experience of. Again, our work with Creative Partnership has given us the confidence to try something new which will benefit both staff and children in the school.

 

5. Conclusion:

The funding and support given to us by Creative Partnership is enabling us to develop creative links within our curriculum as well as developing staff confidence which is impacting on the whole curriculum.

 

July 2007