Memorandum submitted by Alison Burden, Head Teacher and Paula Turner, Lead Artist for Creative Partnerships North/South Tyneside,

Marine Park Primary School, South Shields, Tyne and Wear

The evidence we are submitting is from teachers, pupils, parents and artists.

We believe that Creative Partnerships has had a positive and enduring effect on our staff, pupils and their parents/carers. It has raised the profile of the school considerably and enabled us to engage with many external partners who are now part of our growing community. The evidence we are presenting is largely anecdotal and subjective. We believe in valuing what people think and feel. The evidence has been submitted by a range people who value Creative Partnerships and the distinctive role it has played in our school and community to date. We want it to continue so that other schools and communities can benefit.

Alison Burden has been Headteacher at Marine Park for three years.

Mrs. Burden fosters an approach that considers the development and well being of the whole child. At Marine Park there is now a democratic style of leadership that encourages all members of staff to work as a team and to take ownership of the curriculum. This shift in management style has been facilitated and supported by the Creative Partnerships programme

Paula Turner is a choreographer director, performer and experienced facilitator of cross art form projects in both professional and community contexts. She has been lead artist at Marine Park School for two years working closely with pupils, staff, families and partners of our whole School Creative Programme.

Facts about our school - the context within which learning occurs.

Type of school Primary

School Category Community

Age range 3- 11 years

Gender Mixed

Number on roll 209

The attainment of most pupils starting school in Foundation Stage is well below what is typical for their age.

The majority of our pupils are of Bangladeshi origin and have English as an additional language. A third of all pupils are at an early stage of acquiring English.

The percentage of pupils taking free school meals is almost three times the national average and twice as many pupils as found nationally have learning difficulties and or disabilities.

A significant number of pupils start school at times other than normal, often as new arrivals from abroad.

The Woodbine Estate is in the bottom 5% of the most deprived wards in the country and in the bottom 5% nationally for standards of health and childhood poverty.

The story of our school is important and the narrating of our journey crucial in understanding the impact Creative Partnerships has had on our community.

We did not set out to overtly improve standards, change behaviours or measure attainments but rather to allow children from a "deprived" estate to have a range of new and often challenging experiences. As a school and community we have continued to respond to these experiences and to expand awareness of the possibilities that exist socially, culturally and economically

" We want and need to be able to tell our story honestly and in words real people understand, not in jargon- a story about what participating in culture means to people"

John Holden Head of Culture- Demos

5. Mrs Burden- headteacher

" As a headteacher CP gave me the opportunity to initiate change. Our whole school programme has centred on changing and developing:

· how children learn

· how we engage with parents and the community

· how we work as a whole staff team

· how we can have shared leadership

· how we recognise what is important to our children and how to personalise learning

· how to enable our young people to grow and develop into adults who can live, work and be happy with who they are and where they are in the world

5.1

Creative Partnerships has given the staff and myself the freedom and time to reflect on these issues and to begin to implement a sustainable creative curriculum.

5.2

Creative dialogue has allowed time for voices to be heard, the voice of the teacher, the child and the parent. We have been able to reflect on our practice and importantly to remember again why we wanted to work with children and what impact we felt we could have on their lives.

5.3

The process of change is in its early stages. We want to continue making progressive considered steps with Creative Partnerships supporting, endorsing and amplifying our journey.

6. Ofsted Report for Marine Park 12^th -13^th June 2007

Mr. Dave Byrne

" Creative Partnerships North and South Tyneside has released the creativity of staff and pupils. As a result learning is fun. The school successfully enriches the curriculum with a wide range of educational visits and extra curricular clubs. Pupils talk with pride about their River Tyne (CP) Project and their partnership with their immediate community through events such as kite flying day and their design of the local park (all CP projects)

6.1

Creative Partnerships make a positive difference to how pupils think and staff teach. As a result subjects are being more imaginatively planned to add excitement for learners. For example in Key stage 2 pupils have worked with a variety of people to deepen their understanding of their locality by looking at the life cycle of the salmon as it moves along the river Tyne. This has extended their literacy, science, geography, history, music and drama skills.

6.2

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. The headteacher provides very good leadership with a very clear vision for the school's development

7. Mrs Gail Maddock Year 6 Teacher

During the academic year 2006/7 my class and I became involved in a project entitled River Tyne- A Sense of Belonging. I was very keen to participate in a Creative Partnership project as I felt unsure about the role and application of creativity in the classroom. My Year 6 class were lacking in confidence and making slow academic progress.

7.1

Our partners had created an initial outline plan and on committing to it I realised how much time and energy I would need to contribute on a regular basis. As a Year 6 class teacher with the prospect of SATS looming, time and value were important to me.

7.2

As the weeks past I became more involved with the planning process and began to feel part of the creative process. I found ways of managing and maximising the curriculum to gain full advantage of the project. I felt my pupils were getting wonderful life enhancing experiences which otherwise they would never get.

7.3

The key to the success of the project has been the rapport established between all of the partners as well as the continuity and regularity of contact with our partners.

The project has allowed us to enhance literacy skills, geography, science, art, DT and SEALS. Particular success has been achieved in creative writing and increased confidence in speaking and listening.

We have all benefited from the project. My pupils have made significant progress both socially and academically and this is supported with good SAT results.

8 Brittony Wilson aged 11- pupil

Creative partnerships is good to have in school, it helps you be able to do more things. It's made me more confident, I am better at writing now and at listening to what people say. I've learned to focus and how to notice things.

8.1

When Creative Partnerships comes into school you can really look forward to it, every week you can get ready for it and then organise something for next time. I can't wait to do the stuff we plan for, it's really exciting. Before C.P I used to be a little terror, now I've got older having something to look forward to in school has calmed me down for the rest of the time in school.

8.2

Brittony has measurably improved her standard of writing as a direct consequence of engaging with the Creative Partnership programme. Close collaboration between teachers and artists has meant that children have engaged in experiential learning in the outdoors. These real and lived experiences are then transferred into their writing and their speaking and listening skills effortlessly.

8.3

Brittony has shown her ability to reflect on her experience over the last year and has the confidence and maturity to note her behaviour and importantly what has changed and why. Ownership of knowledge and the ability to direct projects has meant that she has actively engaged in all areas of school life and has for the first time aspirations for the future. Brittony is keen to work as a conservationist or park ranger. Most importantly Brittony has enjoyed herself she has had a positive emotional response to her learning and this has led to positive change

8.4

Emotional Intelligence is recognised increasingly as an essential dimension of personal development and social ability. Success needs originality but it needs more than this. It depends on personal qualities, being able to get on with people, being able to express yourself and to respond to a changing environment."

Ken Robinson- Out of Our Minds

9 Mrs Carol Wilson - Member of parents art team and Brittony's mum

Brittony is always talking about the River Tyne project and now she wants to work in the outdoors as a career. She really loves being outside right from when she was little. Creative Partnerships has allowed her to do this as part of her learning in school. It gives her a chance to be more herself and so she's mixing in more.

9.1 Her interests have meant that her writing has improved. She was always very quiet but Creative Partnerships has helped her to blossom out, she's going from strength to strength. In this last year she has really developed, she will lead things, she will always volunteer for things now. It has had a really positive effect on her and I would like to see it continue as my other younger child could benefit from this work too.

9.2

Mrs. Wilson has become an increasingly involved member of our parent's art team. She works alongside artists to support the children in various activities.

With a team of parents and their children she recently constructed a huge swan structure (the school emblem) which led the local annual parade through South Shields. One parent commented

" This is the proudest day of my life"

9.3 A specific arts programme for parents and carers is proving extremely successful in generating a positive sense of community in what is an extremely insular and often volatile estate. The focus on arts activities is bringing together all sectors of the community and is centred firmly around the school

"It is wonderful to be involved, I'm proud to be here with these children, I could do this every day"

Norma an elder from Friends of the Park group

10. Brian Lindsay Aged 11- pupil

Creative partnerships is kind to you, it helps you with a lot of things. If you are having trouble with something then the artist will say well you don't have to do it but you can if you want.

10.1

Creative Partnerships don't always make the decision that's what's good about it; it's the children's decision. That's a really good thing. We have secret ballots to make our big decisions. Normally in school you get taught the hard way, you get told about stuff but in our project we had the actual experience of feeling what it is like outdoors and what nature is like. We are learning a lot through sharing knowledge and trying things out. Artists in school are good my school is very lucky.

10 .2

Like Brittony, Brian has identified a sense of ownership as key to his learning process. He has also identified what has been a key part of our programme, an invitation to learn together and to share this learning. Brian's description of being told what to learn is to his young mind the "hard way" of learning.

10.3

Creative learning is co created and not consumed, it is at best a reciprocal transaction and depends not on what you are told but what you can bring to it. At Marine Park we have an invested in an approach that validates the offerings of pupils, staff, artists and parents.

Julie Heron- Foundation Stage Coordinator

The impact of Creative Partnerships on the Early Years can be measured in two ways.

Firstly the impact from the childrens' perspective.

Secondly the impact on staff.

Our children have been involved in experiences that have allowed them to develop ideas and thinking strategies in a unique way.

11.1

The engagement with the Creative Partnership programme has increased our childrens' motivation and given them the opportunity to explore and find solutions to everyday occurrences with a critical appreciation of the world around them. Working with new and interested adults from Creative Partnerships has helped the children to become more confident in their ideas, to take risks and experience a great deal of pride in their own achievements

11.2

Involvement with Creative Partnerships has meant a commitment from staff to a curriculum that encourages the children to express themselves in all areas of learning. The importance of childhood has been reinstated and staff and artists are being allowed to share with the children a creative and responsive curriculum that has child centred learning at its heart.

11.3

Regular and relevant training opportunities provided by Creative Partnerships have heightened staff awareness of the crucial role that creativity plays in childrens' learning. The sustained engagement with Creative Partnerships has allowed us the opportunity to access Early Years networks locally, nationally and Internationally. In doing so we have raised the profile of our Early Years unit considerably and seen a corresponding growth of confidence in staff. We regularly host and attend meetings where we share and disseminate good practice in the Early Years.

12. Lead Artist Paula Turner

I have delivered hundreds of workshops in schools as a self-employed artist. Working with Creative Partnerships and staff from Marine Park has allowed me to develop my practice in a much more fulfilling and organic way. The invitation to participate in an experience is a key element rather than telling or directing a prescribed way with known answers or results. Importantly this invitation includes me and has allowed me to develop my work in surprising ways.

12.1

Regular and sustained contact with the school has allowed me to experience the school environment in a real way. From Breakfast Club to out of school activities, I have been able to experience the rhythm of Marine Park and the incredible range of social, emotional and physical needs that the school tries to meet each day. It has radically changed my view about my role as artist. I have been much more comfortable becoming part of the fabric of the school and not as a privileged person set apart from it by my role as an artist.

12.2

I have gained valuable insights watching teachers at work, the endless demands that they manage daily from delivering the curriculum to looking for a lost packed lunch, comforting a distressed child, organising social opportunities for the children and constantly being told how to do their jobs from external official bodies. The work that I have undertaken at the school has I hope tried to take this into account and I have sought to give children and staff that vital commodity they all need and that is often denied them.

Time.

12.3

Listening to children and to staff is central to working successfully in school. Creative Partnerships have made this constructive listening possible by valuing process based work and by understanding that true partnership needs time and skilful, sensitive brokering. Often the path forward isn't straight and it is in the waiting or simply being phase of the work that directions become obvious. I see Marine Park's journey as an on going circle. Over the past two years I have worked closely with the Head teacher and key staff to put together a whole school programme which is embedded into the curriculum and reflects and respects staff and pupil's aspirations and motivation

"The imagination in its loyalty to possibility often takes the curved path rather than the linear way"

John O'Donohue

13 Recommendations For Action

We are concerned that Creative Partnerships may not continue and that other schools may not have the opportunity to benefit from its unique contribution to education.

13.1

We want Creative Partnerships to continue and for the programme to be rolled out to other schools so that good creative practice can be shared, embedded and sustained.

13.2

We want to continue working with artists and other partners to raise the profile of our school and to work toward a curriculum that has creativity at its heart.

We want to build on what we have achieved so far and to share our journey with others.

13.3

"Creativity thrives where:

It is embedded in the ethos of the school and a range of creative

experiences within and beyond the national curriculum, is a normal expectation of teachers and young people:

Successful partnerships are established with creative professionals to enrich the experiences of young people, to nurture their talents and interests and to challenge established thinking and ways of working"

Government response to Paul Robert's Report on nurturing creativity in Young People- DCMS.

13.4

Creative Partnerships works, we want it to continue for our children, our parents our staff and our community. We warmly invite you to come and visit our school and community to see for yourselves.

Actions speak louder than words!

July 2007