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Memorandum submitted by St Alban's CE School
St Alban's CE School has been involved with Creative Partnerships for three years. During that time the school has endeavoured to embed creativity, and working with creative professionals, into its curriculum at both key stages.
With the school about to become Birmingham's only Specialist Engineering College it was felt that the time was right for a bold new curriculum for KS3 that would help learners understand and experience the connections between subject areas through regular cross-curricular projects that would address important themes and issues and require pupils to respond in a range of ways, including the use of ICT, for a range of audiences. Our involvement with Creative Partnerships has gone a long way towards making this vision a reality.
QCA's Futures debate has suggested that a 21st century curriculum should be concerned with the 'how' of learning as well as the 'what', and that there should be more of a focus on skills. The aim of our curriculum is to promote an approach to learning that is personalised, independent and sustainable, that places learning within the dimension of the school as part of a local, national and global community, and addresses enterprise and creativity in a collegiate and cross-curricular way.
Specific highlights of the collaborative work that has taken place during the partnership are outlined below, but it is worth noting the following two points. Firstly, that each of the projects we have been involved with has had 'legacy' as a primary driver; in other words we have been concerned that teachers learn alongside pupils, and enhance their own creative skills so that future classes will benefit from the projects. Secondly it is clear that none of the learning that has taken place during these projects could have happened without the skill, imagination, brokerage and financial assistance of Creative Partnerships in Birmingham, and due thanks and tribute must go to Rob Elkington and his team.
Summer 2005: Year Nine Photographic Project and Exhibition
Pupils used 35mm film and digital cameras to capture the area the school serves. They were taught how to frame an image and how to manipulate the exposure to achieve certain effects. They went to a darkroom at Bourneville FE College where they learnt how to process the films, and how to make photographic prints. Back in school, pupils used Adobe Photoshop to alter the digital images and set them up for printing. The large-format prints were mounted and displayed as part of a Creative Partnerships exhibition of work at Birmingham's Mailbox shopping mall. Children from a large number of Birmingham schools visited the exhibition as well as members of the public, and the whole enterprise was well reviewed.
Summer 2006: Science Garden Project
A group of year ten pupils worked in their Science lessons with a botanist to create a garden, which features plants with medicinal uses. They researched the plants, helped design the garden and then worked to prepare the ground and install the plants. They then had the ongoing task of maintaining the garden.
Summer 2006: Year Seven Multi-media Environment Project - 'A Delicate Balance'
A large group of pupils worked on an intensive week-long project investigating the impact their school makes on the environment in terms of materials, energy, economics and society under the guidance of creative professionals from Stan's Café. The resulting website, http://www.stanscafe.co.uk/stalbans/index-2.html has been critically appraised, and images from it are under consideration by MADE (Midlands Architecture and Designed Environment agency), CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) to form part of a public touring exhibition.
During the week pupils:
ˇ considered how the school spends its budget and made suggestions as to where savings might be made; ˇ designed a new school (the school is scheduled for rebuilding under the Academies programme) and considered its curriculum; ˇ examined how energy is currently used and made a film about boiling a mug of water using an exercise bicycle (an unexpected outcome of this was that the boys who had pedalled the bicycle for forty minutes went around switching lights off for the rest of the year); ˇ made an animated film about litter and recycling and composed a minimalist soundtrack; ˇ made photographic images of alternative landscapes; ˇ wrote fiction and non-fiction.
Pupils formally evaluated the project, all finding it engrossing and challenging. Many still talk about the impact it has had on them in terms of caring for the environment and climate change.
Spring 2007: Dance Inclusion Project
Year seven pupils worked with professional dancers to create a performance watched by parents and teachers. The pupils worked with primary pupils and children from Calthorpe Special School to create a magical and exciting show with original music. The performance was captured on DVD. The experience has kindled an enthusiasm for dance as part of the curriculum, and the school's new Key Stage Three curriculum will include dance as part of the planned learning experience as a direct result of this project.
Summer 2007: Architecture Week
Through Creative Partnerships the school has built a relationship with MADE, CABE and Ove Arup plc (who have gone on to become an official school partner). A consequence of this has been that an enthusiasm for modern architecture has arisen and pupils have visited Selfridges in Birmingham with Amanda Levette, who designed it, and spent a day in London visiting a range of iconic buildings and structure such as St Mary Axe and the London Eye. When a local primary school held an Architecture Week with Creative Partnerships a group of year nine pupils went to the school to help the professionals and the children, and to enhance their own understanding of how buildings work.
Summer 2007: Arts Award
Working alongside staff from Creative Partnerships a number of pupils have successfully taken Bronze and Silver Arts Awards.
Summer 2007: Animation Project
A group of pupils are working for a week with creative professionals making an animated film of the history of Birmingham, and composing music for it. At the time of writing, this project has only just started.
These examples show some of the range of work that has enhanced and enriched learning across the school during the past three years. In addition there have been staff workshops and a 'Challenge Day' in which the entire staff participated. Teachers have had their skills enhanced and sharpened, and interests awakened, pupils have been challenged and stretched for a range of audiences, and the school community as a whole has benefited from Creative Partnerships.
July 2007 |