Memorandum submitted by Liz Hill, Director, Devon Arts in Schools Initiative (DAISI), Exeter, Devon

Executive Summary

DAISI has a 10 year history and track record of practical partnership arts and cultural projects with young people, their teachers and the wider learning community in Devon and Torbay. Testimonial, anecdotal and statistical data has been collected and collated throughout this period, along with photographic and film documentation. In the Factual Information section below I have summarised findings from some of our key projects which I feel can contribute to illuminating some of the questions posed by the Education and Skill's Committee's New Inquiry into Creative Partnerships and the Curriculum.

In the information provided below I have tried to summarise findings that pertain to your questions around:

o The effect existing creative initiatives have had on teachers' skills and ability to work with creative professionals in the classroom

o Persuading parents and education care providers to encourage creativity in the home.

o The special contribution the arts have to make on creative education.

o Evidence that a creative curriculum assists achievement in other areas.

o The impact of the creative curriculum on pupil confidence, motivation, behaviour, teamwork and on literacy, numeracy, ICT and communication skills.

o Acknowledging creative achievement among young people.

o Embedding creativity across the curriculum and within the philosophy of schools.

o Linking creativity in schools to the real world of work and leisure.

Brief Introduction

1) DAISI is the arts education partnership organisation for Devon and Torbay. DAISI aims to develop the creativity of young people by enriching their experience of the arts and works closely with teachers, governors and artists to strengthen the relationship between the arts and education sectors.

2) DAISI has a Memorandum of Association, is a Registered Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee, incorporated on 12^th May 1998.

3) During the financial year 2006/07 DAISI worked with 122 schools in Devon organising 526 artist sessions (1 session is a morning, an afternoon or an evening), including activity in and out of school hours. 69 artists, almost all of whom are local, delivered these days, which involved the participation of approximately 16,982 young people in Devon between the ages of 2 and 19.

4) Current projects include an action research project in the early years sector (Art to Start) looking at child centred approaches to creative opportunity, and an arts, education and cultural sector project (Inspiration Aspiration Partnership) looking at how we can work together to respond to and engage with the government's Change for Children: Every Child Matters agenda. Previous projects include: looking at how music making activity impacts on young people's transition phase from primary to secondary school (Youth Music, Transitions) and a multi art form, action research pilot project to explore the potential of the arts to increase self-esteem and confidence in young people in Devon who are excluded from school and attending Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), or who are in the young offender's unit (Secure Unit) (Treadz).

5) DAISI evaluates all our work. Longer project evaluations are produced as a hard copy publication or DVD. Data from shorter projects and events are gathered and recorded in our evaluation strategy which has been developed for the network of 9 South West Arts Education Partnership organisations using the Inspiring Learning for All framework devised by MLA.

6) In addition the DAISI service offers training, support and information. DAISI is the license holder for Devon for the new Arts Award for Young People.

Factual Information

Inspiration Aspiration Partnership (2006 to present) is a project in support of the Devon Children's Trust, and is about arts, cultural organisations and schools working together to inspire creative literacy and to increase aspiration by developing young people's pride in their local surroundings, community and resources. The process involves bringing the young people into contact with inspirational professional writers, artists and local cultural amenities - and of course vice versa.

"I liked it when the writer came in as it inspired me to write. I liked to write before but stopped and then she came in and helped me to like it again."

Year 7 boy, Tiverton High School, Sept 2006

"The youngsters from our four schools have met some amazing people, who very often young people don't come across and who have such a wealth of resources to offer."

Mark Juby, Head teacher, Pilton Community College

"I didn't think the facilities would be so good [at Barnstaple Museum]. I didn't think my child would like it here. I could come here again."

Parent of Year 1 pupil at Barnstaple Museum, Sept 2006

A publication, measuring the outcomes of the pilot project against the Every Child Matters agenda and using the MLA's Inspiring Learning for All framework, is available from DAISI. This summarises the kaleidoscope of evidence collected during the project which is overwhelmingly in favour of the project's positive impact across the five ECM outcome areas.

This publication has been commended widely by local and regional DAISI stakeholders and has also been distributed to key personnel nationally through ACE SW. DAISI has just given a presentation to the Devon Children's Trust Board who are most interested in this documentation of positive impact across a wide range of young people's learning and social needs as well as the gains for the partner organisations, the wider learning community (including families) and the transferable project model.

If you would like to view the above document on line, or the full evaluation report, please go to www.daisi.org.uk or contact DAISI for a hard copy.

The project is now live in 4 Devon Learning Communities. But what we have also found is that the pilot project partnerships themselves are flourishing and related work is happening in those 2 locations anyway, over and above the second phase of the project. This is great news and points towards some success in terms of sustainability, embedding of the project's creative ethos and local ownership of the work.

DAISI's early years project, Art to Start, begins a new, developmental phase in autumn 2007. The project will provide longer term, supported opportunities for 8 local artists to explore their practice with the 0-5 age group, working in close partnership with staff in 8 Devon settings to encourage confidence in facilitating creative experiences and valuing creative play. There will, like the 2005/06 pilot project, be many opportunities for a wider group of settings and artists to gain from the project's training and dissemination activities.

The following are summaries of some of the responses from settings during the pilot project in 4 settings:

The teachers involved from the four settings were overwhelmingly positive about the experience. All had found the project exciting and rewarding, both in terms of its impact on their own practice and on their children's learning. The level of sustained engagement achieved when children were able to pursue their own individual interests was a surprise to some teachers and support staff.

All teachers recognised the immense value in being able to spend time meticulously documenting individuals in their classroom, but the extra workload this involved and the time it took out of an already busy schedule was a major challenge.

The teachers enjoyed the new ideas, approaches and materials provided by the artists and for some it was a very liberating experience, for example to be able to offer children a massive lump of clay rather than a small individual portion.

All settings experienced a moment where the project seemed to have lost its way and a session seemed to be descending from creativity into chaos. The opportunity to spend time reflecting with the artist was vital at this moment as it allowed a chance to consider a different provocation or a 're-framing' of the space away from the demands of the children. Happily all settings emerged from this moment of uncertainty and reached a place where they felt the project had provided a valuable experience for them, their setting and the children involved.

DAISI's 'Treadz' project in PRUs and a Secure Unit recorded that there was a positive impact on motivation and behaviour for the duration of the sessions and willingness to participate. There was positive anticipation and some students wanted to carry on beyond the sessions. Staff feedback suggested that the project has real potential to impact on performance in other disciplines. There was a marked contribution to learning both in terms of the kinds of skills fostered by the activities, and the contribution to specific modules and progress files.

The students seemed particularly interested in the V J artists as people who did this as a living. Students were also able to recognise their own work as being of a quality which they could compare to the consumer world. It looked sufficiently good, it looked professional.

DAISI's 'Transitions' (2004/05) music project worked in 2 locations with 2 secondary schools and their cluster of feeder primary schools. The project was developed in the context of concerns, expressed by Ofsted and other independent researchers, about the issue of continuity and progression of pupils from primary to secondary school. It was designed to provide opportunities for learning to make music as part of a group activity, in an out-of-school-hours club. It was hoped that the young people involved would not only develop some knowledge and skills but also learn to make music with others and in the process develop their self esteem and confidence.

In both Clubs the music tutors had to work for every small success and to their credit they maintained an extraordinary focus, optimism and drive to ensure that the Clubs stayed active. End of term informal concerts to parents; taking the 'roadshows' to the primary schools; the production of cds; and the more public events at the end of each year were enormously important as goals for the young people (some wanted more of these).

It was clear from observing the musician's work that they consciously worked with a learner centred, negotiated approach: they both believe that a calm, supportive, respectful and positive atmosphere will communicate an ethos to the young people which they will gradually adopt. Two things made this difficult: 1) attendance fluctuated and very few individuals stayed the course, and 2) the relative isolation of the Club from the other experiences participants were having in school may have contributed to their difficulty in adjusting their behaviour and relationships from one context to the other. It is worth noting that the very small number who stayed the course showed increased ability to concentrate, listen to each other, take directions, and cooperate. They themselves attributed changes in their attitude and behaviour to making music and attending the Club. It is difficult to untangle the impact of music making and that of belonging to a social group with a common purpose. This music project brought together a disparate group, many of whom lacked self esteem and the ability to sustain their attention, and who found it difficult to commit and adapt to the needs of the group. The constant appeal to young peoples' social selves through the demands of group music making and the unflagging, positive encouragement provided by the musicians made an important contribution to their emotional and social well being.

When planning projects spanning primary and secondary the differences in primary school environments and their ethos, and those of secondary schools should not be underestimated. One might suggest that transition is not so much a problem of children adapting, as a need for schools to develop a more active and responsive dialogue with each other. Out of school hours projects designed to further aims of access and inclusion need to incorporate a robust structure in which partners contribute to those aspects which they are best placed to support. The process of choosing partners for such projects should, therefore, be given a great deal of time and attention, and involve agreements about ongoing roles and responsibilities.

5)

DAISI's report 'The Impact of Artists in Schools', written by Nick Jones (June 2000), contains succinct arguments for why artists should come into schools. It identifies different patterns of activity and outlines a number of different patterns of experience for students. The 'experiences' Nick identifies are: a change of ethos; the challenge of the real; the pleasure of collaboration; gains in knowledge and acquisition of art-form skills; inspiration and the experience of creativity. These are useful headings for categorising much of the anecdotal evidence and feedback from the participants of DAISI's first project, Groundswell, which was a programme made up of 10 separate arts projects involving 60 artists, 10 arts companies and 160 Devon schools.

DAISI's report 'Strengthening School Communities', written by Nick Jones (2003), observes the impact of artist partnerships in schools on the wider school community and school ethos. One of the significant things about this project, in 13 schools over 3 years, is that its focus was not upon the curriculum, nor indeed upon the development of 'skills' in any standard sense, but on the broader contexts of school life, and in particular the interrelationships through which both schools and classrooms operate, and the kind of school-community ethos which this serves to generate.

"One of the things teachers have tended to emphasise about artists' way of thinking is that as the week goes on they prove notably flexible improvisers, lateral-thinkers, even risk-takers. And teachers recognise that they themselves generally aren't like that."

The evaluation process also found evidence that the project activity was promoting young people's ability to: think and act effectively, engage in speculative and open-ended discussion, adapt and present unexpectedly imaginative or unorthodox ideas, develop a strong sense of self discipline and group responsibility.

July 2007