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Memorandum submitted by Mr Lance Boanas, Creative Partnerships Coordinator, Winifred Holtby School Technology College, Hull
Securing Creativity in the Curriculum
1. Executive Summary Creative Artists have worked with students at Winifred Holtby School Technology College in Hull on a number of projects in the last 3 years. The most influential have been focussed on international links between students in Freetown, Sierra Leone and Students in Hull. Inspiration came from Wilberforce bicentennial celebrations, Cafesociety.org's International work and Citizenship. All 3 programmes below extend opportunities for young people to express and exchange their views and stories through new digital media in creative learning environments, whether they reflect local or international issues. Teaching Staff have learned new IT skills and worked with students in different ways
2. The Submitter Mr L Boanas is the Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) for Citizenship, for Hull, at Winifred Holtby School Technology College.
3. Factual Information
3.1 Many Schools increasingly use Blooms' Taxonomy of Thinking as a Planning Tool. Creativity is the final objective / outcome within Blooms Taxonomy
4. Recommendations for Action
4.1 Schools in future are allocated Creative Practitioner (s) residencies each year to work with identified groups of students, such as under achieving boys, for example 4.2 Schools in future are allocated Creative Practitioner (s) residencies each year to work with staff in planned CPD as part of School Operational Plans to develop Learning and Teaching styles and technologies 4.3 Schools in future appoint "Creative Learning Coordinator" as part of their generic structure / include within roles responsibilities to manage process / coordinate work of artist(s) within school
Programme 1 The "DIGITAL CITIZENS" Programme brought Citizenship and Creative Partnerships (Cafesociety.org) together at school in Spring 2006, inspired by the bicentennial of the abolition of slavery and Hull's connection with William Wilberforce.
1.1 The key issue was "giving students a voice, in the life of their school, their community and in society at large"....from Every Child Matters
1.2 We focus upon Education FOR Citizenship, using the Content as a context within which we develop skills which help our young people become active, informed and responsible citizens....Citizenship has the Curriculum space for this.
1.3 Our creative practitioner team lived and filmed with young people in Freetown, Sierra Leone for 2 weeks, documenting their thoughts and opinions on issues that concerned them. Material ranged from films made by an ex child soldier to groups of young musicians and school children.
1.4 Winifred Holtby students viewed these films, made by their peers, whilst exploring their own hopes and dreams for a better world, both locally, nationally and internationally. The material was filmed and edited by themselves, with limited guidance, and not by a professional organisation like the BBC. This point was crucial. The creative practitioners assisted them in the technical process, nothing more.
1.5 The creative artists worked with our students on simple film making skills and "blogging", which prompted all students, including those with weaker literacy skills to keep learning journals of real quality....."When I see the Africans on TV they just beg, but when Matt and Jon went to Freetown Sierra Leone, Hull's Twinned City they brought back some images and films on how they live and that really made me want to get involved"..."they didn't look like beggars, they were normal happy people, they just havn't got what we've got" People are quick to call them racist names and call them beggars but theyre not, they're just humans like us"........"just because theyre a different colour doesn't mean nothing. They've been held back by greed, greed, greed"
Part of the first ever article that Chelsey Turner (aged 14) wrote for her Digital Citizens blog after seeing the films from Freetown.
1.6 Students were lent digital cameras to take home to record aspects of their lives over a weekend. There was an immediate atmosphere of trust within the group.
1.7 The teacher adopted a "low ego" position throughout and learned new IT skills
1.8 There was a "Can Do" philosophy throughout the whole process
1.9 Teachers and visitors from CP National Offices noted that the students were engaged, achieving, independent thinking, confident, reflecting, taking risks, persisting.....and had higher personal aspirations than at the start of the creative process.
1.10 Many of the students reflected their new confidence in helping to lead a workshop at a National Creative Partnerships Conference in Manchester, Nov 2006
1.11 Further visits to Freetown have led to the school being twinned with the Albert Academy, Freetown.
Programme 2
The "BOYS ALIVE WITH LITERACY and FILM " Programme in Spring and Summer 2007 engaged Creative Artists journalist Matt Stephenson and film-maker Jon Robson of Cafesociety.org, on programmes of activity supported by Creative Partnerships Hull and the English Faculty within the school.
2.1 The particular focus of our work has been in developing strands of the literacy and citizenship curriculum through online media, journalism, photography and film-making.
2.2 Most recently, Jon and Matt have worked individually and collaboratively with classes from years 8, 9 and 10, and also with a group of year 9 boys who were identified as being potentially above average achievers in literacy but who were disengaged or needing a fresh challenge.
2.3 Matt and Jon have also been helping Winifred Holtby to develop links with a school in Hull's twin city of Freetown in Sierra Leone as part of a broader programme of their work with Creative Partnerships.The pupils in this new partner school - the Albert Academy - have been identified as the audience for the work with Matt and Jon, and pupils are also learning about life in Sierra Leone as a catalyst for them to reflect on their own lives on the Bransholme Estate.
2.4 Jon and Matt's work with the year 9 literacy boys began using photographs of the local estate as a catalyst for discussion . The boys were encouraged to express themselves, to talk about the estate, explain the significance of places, get out of the classroom mentally, speak in their own language as experts in their own specialist field of knowledge - their lives.
2.5 The concept of an audience was then introduced - the pupils of Albert Academy. Matt visited Freetown shortly after the work started and was able to return from his journey with recent photographs and fresh stories of his visit.
2.6 Other classroom work included writing exercises and discussion based on the internationally renowned photographers such as Martin Parr and Henri Cartier Bresson, looking at differences in reporting styles, how words and pictures can change perceptions, how themes can be developed through photography, the uses of motifs.
2.7 The group were then given a number of options regarding the development of the work. Options included blogging and developing content relating to life on Bransholme through myspace.com, making a photography book focusing on the character of Bransholme, making a tourism brochure for Bransholme or making a film about Bransholme.
2.8 A trip into the estate armed with digital cameras was eagerly anticipated by the whole group. The afternoon was a great success - a chance to show adults (Matt and teacher Mary Broadhead) around the estate, to look at their own streets through fresh eyes, a bonding process for the group, and a fine sunny day.
2.9 In the following sessions the group worked collaboratively to edit around 400 photographs down to a more manageable selection of around 180. They worked well together, speaking and listening to each other, making value judgements based on factors such as lighting, composition, subject matter, thematic value, editorial balance.
2.10 The pictures were then grouped and captioned, pupils were encouraged to talk about mood and atmosphere or to use humour in the captions, rather than simply describing or explaining the image.
The pupils then used a commercial online photography resource (YoPhoto.com) to design a book of photographs, which was then professionally printed and each student given a copy thanks to the school's Boys Literacy Development fund.
2.11 The next part of the process was to make a short film 'an A to Z of Bransholme'.
Through discussion a list of words were generated by the group, relating to the boys experience of life on Bransholme, were alphabetically listed. The group decided on a defining image for each letter of the alphabet and a whole day was spent around Bransholme filming the images - the boys all given loose roles (producer, assistant producer, producer in-charge of route, etc etc) as a part of the production crew.
The day finished with the group sound-recording each other speaking words from the list of words.
The programme will be complete soon when the 'a to z of Bransholme' film is uploaded to youtube and showcased in and around the school
Programme 3
3.1 The work on Mondays with teacher Sue Moore's year 8 and 10 English groups has focussed on developing short photography-based film documentaries about the lives and interests of the pupils.
3.2 Again, Jon and Matt's experiences and knowledge of Freetown, together with the films they produced in the city with young Sierra Leoneans, provided an exciting catalyst for the work.
3.3 Pupils were also excited to meet a young rapper and music producer from Freetown Barmmy Boy (Lansana Mansaray), who has been sponsored by the British Council to work with Jon and Matt in Hull.
3.4 Discussion work established the themes of the films, pupils were encouraged to consider their audience in Sierra Leone, and to keep in mind what would interest and inform them.
3.5 Over 100 disposable cameras were distributed to the group for use during the half-term holidays.
3.6 The cameras were returned and around 2000 pictures developed. Amid much excitement the groups then selected their best shots making editorial and critical judgements.
3.7 Once the photographs had been digitised and put into a timeline using a simple, free Microsoft program (Photostory 3), pupils collaboratively developed narrative scripts for their films, based on one sentence per picture.
3.8 The films focus on themes such as fashion, sport, music and general commentary on life around Bransholme, providing fascinating glimpses of children's lives in and out of school, their thoughts, humour and attitudes.
3.9 The films will all be posted on youtube.com as well as being shown around school and being shown to pupils at Albert Academy in Freetown by Barmmy Boy when he returns the city.
July 2007
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