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Photo: Fiona Goodwin
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This month, a simple shout-out for a small but sweet project which we've had the privilege of coordinating again over the past few months, for the fourth consecutive year. And if it adds weight to Bob & Roberta Smith's election campaign in Surrey Heath, so much the better.
You can read all about the Change project in Batley here, so there's no need to repeat the detail. But what is worth flagging up is the success with which a brand new dimension has been incorporated for the 2015 round - the aim of using artist-led workshops in schools to support Science teaching and learning. In its first two years, Change set out with no greater ambition than to take high-quality, hands-on visual arts learning experiences into schools that were keen to supplement what they could offer themselves, and bring the resulting artworks together in a public exhibition, using the very versatile and multi-faceted theme of 'change' as the inspiration for all the work. In year three, recognising that schools increasingly need to be able to show cross-curricular benefits in order to justify their investment in arts projects, the artists were tasked with devising creative activities that would explicitly support Literacy and Numeracy skills. With the introduction of the Science angle this year the project took another leap forward - so effectively that we're going to retain it for at least another year.
A browse around the three types of projects - Mark-making, Printmaking and Mixed Media - will give a flavour of how the artists, collaboratively with staff at their allotted schools, planned twelve individual change-themed projects with clear Science-related learning objectives in mind. Light, States of Matter, Forces, Evolution, Animal Habitats, the organs of the human body... A really rich mix of project focuses emerged (promising an equally rich and vibrant exhibition when it opens at Batley Art Gallery in June), and the individual project pages tell great tales of children's engagement, enjoyment and learning. What isn't in evidence yet (because it's still being collated) is the fantastic feedback that testifies to the power of artist-led work in school settings when it's planned and executed with care, flair, expertise and imagination. Teachers tell us that:
- children's understanding of and engagement with the chosen Science topic has been enhanced, and their Science vocabulary has expanded
- children have been motivated - to do extra work outside of class, to do homework, to carry on using the skills and techniques they have learnt in other contexts
- children have gained a more positive attitude towards their artistic skills and now think positively rather than negatively about the skills they have
- children who have difficulties academically have been able to thrive and excel in a different way
- children's cooperation and group/teamwork skills have improved
- children experienced awe and wonder
- staff have learnt new creative skills, gained confidence with arts techniques, and picked up ideas for their own art teaching
- staff have been inspired by seeing Science taught in a different way and are thinking about how to apply this in other areas of the Science curriculum, and more broadly
Not bad in three short sessions, eh? and, we hope, a small but useful addition to all the amassing evidence in support of the value of arts engagement for children's learning, attainment, progression and future flourishing (a helpful overview of which can be found here, courtesy of Engage).
If you're reading in Surrey Heath, don't forget - vote Bob!
