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Memorandum submitted by Thomas Dolly, Assistant Headteacher, New Heys Community School, Allerton, Liverpool
Executive Summary · Creative Partnerships have been instrumental in allowing us to create and develop a more creative curriculum. Our 'Enterprise Challenge Curriculum' at Key Stage 3 would not have been possible without the support of CP in training and supporting staff and in providing 'Advanced Skills Creatives' to support our delivery. · Students have been able to access opportunities that would otherwise have been unavailable to them. Creative Partnership's extensive directory of creative practitioner's has made possible a wide range of enrichment opportunities which have increased student engagement and had a direct impact on their outcomes and the physical environment in which they work. · Students have been empowered by the work that we have undertaken with Creative Partnerships around Student Voice. Creative Partnerships have supported us with the provision of 'creatives' such as designers, they have allowed us to explore ways of collecting the views of our students; not only on issues of school environment and their uniform but crucially on their own learning experiences. · Creative Partnerships have allowed for staff development across all school departments and the creation of bespoke resources.
Context New Heys Community School is a Business and Enterprise College that has been working closely with Creative Partnerships since 2002. The school achieved its Business and Enterprise College status in 2003 and was the first secondary school in Merseyside of its kind. It has made significant progress in raising standards of attainment, recognised by the DfES as a school that is performing at least as well and better than many in similar circumstances nationally.
We have just under 1,000 students on roll. The school draws a high proportion of its students from areas of considerable social and economic deprivation. The proportion of students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is above average. Around one fifth of students are from a variety of minority ethnic backgrounds. Fewer than average are at an early stage of learning English.
As the submitter of this report, I am one of the School's Assistant Headteachers. I am a former Head of History, Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator and Advanced Skills Teacher with a Teaching and Learning specialism. Currently, I have strategic responsibility for staff professional development, teaching and learning at Key Stage 4 and the school's BSF programme.
Evidence for Consideration Enterprise Challenge Curriculum New Heys Comprehensive School has placed enterprise learning at the heart of its approach to engaging young people in their formal education and raises the aspirations of its students to become young entrepreneurs for the 21st Century. The school has instigated changes to its Key Stage 3 curriculum to provide an innovative and creative experience for students, based on the school's vision of a personalised learning community. The Year 7 Enterprise Curriculum Challenge has introduced substantial changes to the planning, delivery and evaluation of the curriculum. Over the coming five years this will move the whole school towards a skills-based approach and increased personalization / bespoke learning. Creative Partnerships have not only supported this vision but have helped us to shape it. They have facilitated two staff residentials at which we designed our ECC and trained the delivery team. They provided the expertise which has enabled us to develop an approach to our pedagogy which places creativity for learning at the centre and they provided the Advanced Skills Creatives to support our curriculum where we needed specialists.
CP Projects Creative Partnership's extensive directory of creative practitioner's has made possible a wide range of enrichment opportunities which have increased student engagement and had a direct impact on their outcomes and the physical environment in which they work. Projects have included: 'Fire and Ice' - Geography students went on a field trip to Icelnad accompanied by the media company 'River Media'. The outcome was an interactive DVD on Volcanoes and Glaciation which is used within the school and in Geography departments nationally. Religion in the Modern World - Students worked with an artist and developed their ideas around the theme using cartoons and references to popular culture such as 'The Simpsons'. The French Fashion Show - French lessons were transformed into corset-making and costume design workshops. Students unravelled the history of Couture and examined French culture through films, for example Moulin Rouge. The work was showcased in a French Fashion Show in November 2003.
CP Projects and the Physical Environment Students have been actively engaged with the design of the school and their learning environment. Through CP involvement students have consulted stakeholders, designed and refurbished several areas of the school . For example, a group of Year 9 students set about producing a tender to redevelop an area of their school into a 'business and enterprise centre'. They worked to an eight-week deadline with an interior designer and competed against two other professional design companies. This involvement has led to increased student engagement, improved behaviour and significantly better outcomes. Ofsted rated the school's Business and Enterprise specialism as 'Outstanding' in 2006; Creative Partnerships contribution to this was fundamental to our success. CP facilitated the time of an interior designer and co-planned the delivery of each of these projects. In the last academic year (2005/6), students were asked to consult with their peers and design a new uniform. The resulting New Hey's 'business suit' is the first uniform of its kind in the country and our students were the only ones who attended the National Uniform Show at the NEC.
Student Voice In 2006, Working in collaboration with CP schools across Merseyside, we have worked to develop student voice as a key gateway to personalising our student's experience. This was undertaken by initially devising a method for recording student voice, piloting it and processing the evidence. The project has allowed young people to be given the opportunity to have their say about how they learn and led teachers and creative practitioners to recognise the value of student voice. This year, the programme has put more emphasis on children's ownership of creative teaching and learning and feeding back at regular intervals on how their ideas and opinions are being acted upon, as well as focusing on disseminating practice to other schools.
July 2007
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