Uncorrected Evidence 27

Memorandum submitted by Jackie Matthews, Mullion, Cornwall

Jackie Matthews - formerly an English teacher based at Mullion School in Cornwall and now a freelance practitioner working mainly at Mullion but also further afield with young people aged between 5 and 18.

Having left teaching in 1988, I moved to Cornwall from London in 2000 and offered my services on a voluntary basis at the local school. After a year of working in a voluntary capacity within the English Department I was employed first as supply teacher and then full time. I first came into contact with Creative Partnerships in February of 2004 and have worked with them closely ever since. So convinced am I of the value of this way of working I gave up job security and salary resigning my teaching post in July 2007 to work freelance co-ordinating and promoting this way of learning within the school and, through working on projects with these students, out into the wider community.

My first experience of working with Creative Partnerships involved a day supervising a class working with the Kneehigh Theatre Company. The following year we wrote a successful bid inviting the Kneehigh to work with us for a week in return for us marketing their shows in the village. Step Forward (our youth marketing group) evolved from this initial project. For our next venture we made a film as part of the Cornwall wide "Landings" project. As a

direct result we were asked to market the Young People's Days of the Film Festival Cornwall and have since been involved in giving presentations of our work around the country to business organisations, representatives from both local and national government and the National Council of the Arts Council whilst building up our expertise in marketing other events. We are currently working with CP on Film Festival Cornwall, Comic Relief, Chewtv and RIO. Working with CP has given us the confidence to begin devising more projects ourselves. Having planned the project and raised the finance, a group of Year Ten students are painting a mural for a primary school's outdoor play area. Meanwhile a larger number of Year Nine pupils are making their own short films, another group of students have formed a film club and are busy making an animation for this year's Film Festival. Others have volunteered for the board of the Youth Opportunities Fund and are responsible for a budget of Ł81,000 this year. We have made successful bids to the Big Lottery Fund and have also raised funding for an Apple Mac laptop plus software and accessories. We are also currently looking at working with Young Enterprise and Young Co-Operatives.

Initially working with small groups of young people, CP projects at Mullion have now reached twenty per cent of our school population across the age and ability range and the numbers are increasing all the time. Students working on Creative Partnerships projects use their work as evidence for the Arts Award, at either Bronze or Silver Level, and CoPE (ASDAN certificate of personal effectiveness), enabling them to gain additional accreditation and recognition for their achievements. The Arts Award has become part of the English Curriculum for some students in Years 8,9,10 & 11 giving breadth, depth and diversity to their work while encouraging them to think and act creatively and independently. We are now also looking at ways to introduce the scheme into Music and Dance at Key Stage Three with subject based and cross curricula projects and at Key Stage Four with all Year 10 and Year 11 students through CoPE and Wider Key Skill in "Working With Others Through An Enterprise Activity".

Introducing "creativity based learning" has been a slow process to some extent because of the nature of the school and staff. We are a small rural school where transport links are poor and many people feel isolated and insular. Many staff have been at the same school for upwards of twenty years and are resistant to change. However, we are getting there, partly because teachers have been able to see for themselves how effective, successful and rewarding 'creative learning' is for both pupil and teacher. Initial reluctance and even hostility from some staff in releasing young people from their subject lessons to take part in CP projects has by and large disappeared as not only have SAT and GCSE results improved but the young people themselves behave sensibly and maturely taking responsibility for their own learning. I am English based but have made a conscious effort to develop our projects in such way as to involve the greatest number of areas of the curriculum (for example - promoting the Film Festival involves Citizenship, Dance, Design, Drama, English, Food Technology, Humanities, IT) and other areas of the school have felt encouraged to take on this way of learning notably in Humanities, Art, Design and Technology.

Two projects give a clear idea of the impact working with Creative Partnerships has had on our school. Late in 2004 we were invited to join a Cornwall wide project commemorating the 60^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and chose to make a short film (something we had never done before and had no experience of whatsoever). By the time our film was shown in Trebah Gardens the following summer about 50 pupils (10% of the school roll) from across the age and ability range were involved and the rest of the school knew about it and attended showings of the film alongside Major Hibbert, an Arnhem veteran and the owner of Trebah, and local members of the British Legion. The filming and public screenings generated a huge amount of interest from locals and tourists, with a Dutch couple requesting e-mail information about the processes involved. Stills from the film appear on the website of the 29th US Infantry Division, the regiment of the soldiers commemorated on the film and the school received a particularly moving message from the public affairs officer of the unit saying "thank you so much for remembering and honouring the heroes of the 29th and their sacrifices".

This was an exciting cross-curricular project - a short film telling the story of an imagined meeting between a GI and an evacuee on a Cornish beach the evening before the Normandy Landings. Local filmmaker Stuart Lansdowne kick-started the project with an intensive one-day course in the art of filmmaking, culminating in the pupils recording, editing and screening a short film sequence. Next, historian and actor Steve Manning spent a day with the group discussing the Second World War with particular reference to the role of American GIs based in Cornwall. The historical research was completed with a visit to the Cornwall Studies Library, where students discovered information about the area in wartime to incorporate into the film. All this material was collated and handed over to the team of scriptwriters, who had only a week to produce rough drafts. A day with writer Denzil Monk helped them turn their drafts into a professional working film script. While students with acting roles learned lines and rehearsed (assisted by professional actor John MacNeill), others worked on costumes, hairstyles, make-up, props and locations, all of which had to be as authentic as possible. The film was then shot at various local sites over the next few weeks. One of the most successful elements was the village hall dance sequence, recorded in the evening of the first day of filming; this was great fun and got the whole production off to an excellent start. Professional dancers involved through 'The Works: Dance and Theatre Company' had taught a group of pupils the `lindy-hop` - and, of course, for authenticity, our 'GIs' had to have haircuts! Further dance routines preceded the first showing of the film at Trebah. Students edited film and sound, added the Pathe news section at the beginning and created the 'glorious Technicolor' wash to give a more authentic 1940s feel. Then they prepared for the first public screening in the 'cinema' (summer house) at Trebah Gardens where a team acted as "usherettes" and performed a period dance. Pupils also designed and produced a DVD which includes over 50 still images from the making of the film. A Y9 English group opted to market the film, designing posters and leaflets, writing press releases and creating a promotional campaign for 'Far From Home', which was entered for the Cornish Film Festival. Other students then took on the responsibility for marketing the Young People's Day at the Festival. Another group of students went on to help at a presentation ceremony for 'land girls' where they entertained the ladies with songs and dances from wartime.

On all levels the project was a great success. Many orders for DVDs have been received, and the film certainly raised awareness of the Second World War and its impact on this part of Cornwall, not only in the students involved, but also in the school as a whole and in the wider community. Model aircraft enthusiasts from nearby RNAS Culdrose helped film a sequence involving replica WWII aircraft and Bodmin Railway assisted in the filming of the evacuees' arrival. Other people lent costumes and music of the period, gas masks and other memorabilia, and even an American jeep! Students from Camborne College taught Mullion pupils how to style hair and make-up for the 1940s, and, of course, staff at Trebah Gardens helped a great deal

On a school level, a broad cross-section of staff and TAs were involved, while the PTA and other parents also gave support. Most of the work was done in curriculum time, although some film sequences were shot during evenings or weekends. The project was cross-curricular involving English, History, Geography, Dance, Drama, Music, IT, Design and Technology, Food Technology and Media.

The level of knowledge of, and interest in, the Second World War instilled in the pupils as a result is impressive. They learned much about everyday life in the period, as well as having the chance to experience all the skills involved in the complete process of planning, making, editing and marketing a film. Additionally, they learned to work in an adult way - in teams, sometimes supported by staff or professional adults, but often with no outside support, instead having to rely on their own ideas and judgement. They developed the ability to work independently or in teams, sometimes in areas in which they felt confidant but more often in areas entirely new, across subject boundaries and age/friendship groups. Most importantly, the young people learned to think creatively in a variety of situations, gaining the confidence to take on new challenges, as well as gaining new skills.

As it was a one-off initiative working to a specified time-scale (the week of screenings), students did miss some curriculum time. However, what they brought back significantly enriched their learning experience, and, through conversation in and out of lessons, that of their peers. Overall, it was a very positive and exciting venture and was a hugely enjoyable experience for the students involved!

A very different project has been our involvement with Comic Relief, a partnership brought about by Creative Partnerships. Last summer, June 2006, we were asked to provide a team of pupils to advise Comic Relief on their marketing ideas and strategies with regard to young people. Large numbers of students across the school were questioned about their ideas on celebrities, entertainment and merchandising which they felt appealed to them in promoting Comic Relief's work and which they would like to see associated with Red Nose Day 2007. The material was collated and Laura Martin from CP worked with the team producing 'dream boards' of ideas which they took to London as part of their presentation to senior staff at Comic Relief. Their efforts received positive feedback and we have been asked to work with Comic Relief again, this time in a more in-depth and, hopefully, ongoing manner as young consultants looking at the merchandising, piloting fundraising ideas and potentially being filmed and included in DVDs for national circulation to all schools for broadcast on the day of Sport Relief next year. Project visits, work on blogging their experiences at UK Comic Relief and Sport Relief projects are also planned.

Although only four students travelled to London the effect has been huge ultimately affecting every child in the school and now reaching out to the surrounding area. Mullion is a rural school in an area of high unemployment, few opportunities, low wages and low aspirations. Many of our young people are disaffected, feeling cut off from the rest of the country. Involvement with Comic Relief (courtesy of CP) is helping to change that. As a Comic Relief Challenge Teachers TV, working in collaboration with RNAS Culdrose, kidnapped three of our staff filming their training as part of an air/sea rescue team while our students raised the ransom money. In the current climate of celebrity culture a partnership with Comic Relief has a positive effect on the young people while raising their awareness of charity work and giving them the opportunity to be part of a 'real' project.

Groups of young people worked independently and in teams promoting the work of Comic Relief both within school and within the wider area. This involved a variety of marketing skills - design, press releases, and public speaking - and reached across the curriculum involving most subjects. The success of the project was dependent on the young people working effectively as teams, taking difficult decisions, working to very tight deadlines, using their own initiative with next to no adult help. Two years ago we raised nearly Ł700 on Red Nose Day, this year we trebled that. And we benefited in that young people at Mullion now feel their views and ideas count and this time they're being heard nationally.

In conclusion working with Creative Partnerships has begun to bring 'creative learning' into Mullion School. And the young people want more! Through this relationship they've acquired a wide array of practical skills they'll take with them into adult life. They've also taken on board the demands of the real world - working to deadlines, to budgets, team work, decision making, thinking out of the box, taking responsibility, raising finance and many more. Working this way is helping them develop into confident, aware and mature young people more in tune with the real world and with others.

And it is not only the young people who benefit. "Creative learning" shakes us all out of our comfort zones - introducing new ideas, people, scenarios and ways of learning to teachers as well as pupils.

In my role as an Arts Award moderator I visit schools and youth groups across the country. All have embraced to a greater or lesser degree "creative learning" and the feedback is overwhelming that this is a powerful and effective way of reaching young people. At a summer school last year for young offenders one student felt his GCSE results were "irrelevant" but he was overwhelmed at achieving a Bronze Level Arts Award having amongst other things composed the lyrics and music for an "anti-gun crime" song and led the whole group in performing and making a DVD of his piece. Last week a young man in St Ives who finds school work a real struggle said- "I've never worked so hard but I didn't mind because I enjoyed it." And, finally, one of my students, a thirteen year old boy frequently excluded from lessons, completed a project for Cornwall Arts Marketing in a quarter of the time they'd set aside - his comment "This is the first time I've ever been proud of anything I've done in school - when can I do more".

Creative Partnerships have set us on our route now and there can be no turning back. I hope many more people will have these opportunities and are willing to take the risk of working in this way so they can realise the impact it has on young people's self-esteem and learning.

July 2007