Search for a hero

Last week has been really exciting as Paganel Primary School decided to take a whole week to explore heroes in every class - Greek, local, vegetable and every other variety.  Everyone loves heroes.  It's a great tool for learning - to think about our heroes and villains, those we know, we imagine, or the ones in all of us.

I was leading two days of workshops on, 'Food heroes and villains'.  First thoughts on 'Food Heroes' was nutritional and healthy food - Initial chat with school suggested children and parents are not necessarily very familiar with fruit and veg (See brown bags vs. mystery meat).  This fitted well with my feelings to try and keep what 'heroes' and 'villains' the children chose (and why) open - partly to see what they already knew, but mainly to see what they thought about fruit and veg.  We choose to only look at fruit and veg, and not muddy the waters with processed or other foods.

Only veg and fruit (no obvious sweets, crisps or other bad boys) meant focus was on veg and fruit, but also on what children thought about the good stuff.  Not surprisingly, the look or the taste seemed more important to children than any health or other considerations.

So what makes a hero, or a villain?

Spiky Cucumber is caught stealing.
 Pumpkin and Sweetcorn save the day.

'Heroes save the world.'

'Heroes always help people.'

'Heroes are kind and think about other people.'

'Villains want to rob and keep it all for themselves.'

'Villains take over the world.   They want to control everything.'

The children understood straight away.   Every child in the school has been encouraged in this week to tell us about their own (personal) hero.  Children as young as four were quite capable to articulate what made a 'hero' and why.  Whether it's a Daddy, an Uncle or a family friend, children understood:

'He is kind because he helps people by taking them to hospital for treatment.'

Pyn Stockman, the creative practitioner working with other classes was making masks of heroes, based largely on the children's personal heroes.  We had vegetables, and not really enough time, staff or proper risk assessment to introduce carving.

So we concentrated on accessorising our vegetables, and creating scenery, lighting, other means of making a story, with the help of our storyboards.  Every child made their own hero or villain, but worked towards developing teamwork - children working together to create their stories.   The stories needed at least one hero and one villain for a story anyway, and this provided a means to make teams and explore why or how a hero does what he or she does.  Teamwork is recognised as important by teaching staff, but:

'We don't often work together like this.  It's not easy to assess individuals.'

The heroes lent a helping hand for the children to reflect:

'Heroes can work together.  Villains aren't very good at it.' (child comment)

The project has been really well supported by all the staff at the school, and both the Head and Deputy visited and talked to the children.  For a moment I worried what response the head teacher would get when he walked into a lively class and ask children, 'Where's the learning?'  Everyone was having fun, but the heroes were working tirelessly on the learning - children were having discussions together about what being a hero is all about, and the challenges of working together to save the world!

Teacher comment:

'Some of them found it quite difficult to work together...[The children said] 'I don't want this to happen, I don't want that to happen'.  They're a very independent bunch that like their own ideas.  They all enjoyed it...it will help teamwork in the class, and tomorrow if they actually put other people's heroes into their [creative writing] stories, that'll be great!'

Child comment:

'It's hard to work together when it is working in a noisy team.  It can be hard.  You need to listen to each other.'

Useful links:

Fruit and veg city


Bad School Lunches uncovered

What is a fair share?

Bright Space ends

Proud moment - receiving award from Barbara Nice
for networking at the Bright Space Oscars July 2011.
Photo thanks Gillian 

Bright Space closes it's doors today, and so ends an era for me.  Personally, it is a great loss, having worked as a creative agent and practitioner with both Bright Space and Creative Partnerships, but I think a far greater a loss for the children and schools who have benefited the most.

Despite it's well measured and documented achievements and the 'value for money' invested into the programme, there are no plans to replace Bright Space or Creative Partnerships.   The work ends, even if the database (and website) lingers on.

There are far fewer creative practitioners working in schools, and we all wait to see what changes are still to happen in the education sector.  There is, however, one legacy recognised by the present administration - the value of collaboration (Big Society), and the importance of our networks.  Now, more than ever, we need to pull together to make the most of every opportunity, and to shape the way education and other policies can most effectively support learning in our schools.

Thanks everyone who has worked at Bright Space, Creative Partnerships, and everyone connected to it. Let's keep in touch.

Valuing News of The World and CP

My work with 'Creative Partnerships', along with all the other creative agents, ended last week.  In looking to our futures Lee Corner invited us to consider our values - consider what it is we really want, and to reflect on our past.  

All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999 and spawned Creative Partnerships.  Throughout the document it refers to collaboration supporting learning - collaboration between young people and parents, arts organisations, businesses, LEAs, local communities, Arts Council, museums, libraries, everyone.  It also recognises a need to develop confidence for young people to make the most of their own resources, developing their own creativity.  Our values are as our name suggests - creativity and partnership.

So what's gone wrong with Creative Partnerships?  Have we kept to our core values?  Does the Government share our core values, or are their priorities different?

There's been a lot of talk in the press about values.   The police have not yet completed a criminal investigation into phone hacking, but already a hugely successful paper has been closed down for good.  In a recent Sky news article titled, 'what is the value of the News of the World?', begins: 

With an average weekly circulation of 2.6 million, the News Of The World is Britain's best-selling Sunday paper and a profitable venture.

But if NOTW main value was to make money, they'd be merchant bankers.  The other value they claim is to seek 'truth'.  It might not be Famine in Somalia, because they also value 'fun' and focus on stories about 'human nature'.  However they identify their news values, you definitely know what you are getting with NOTW.  They have stuck to their values, and yet their 'lack of values' has ended it.  But that's not the end of the story. At Sky, the Saturday Sun has already grown in size, and media analysts 'expect a new title launch, but not immediately.'


Creative Partnerships, like NOTW, is gone and it's not coming back, even if our values are sound - 'a profitable venture' recognised by Ofsted and more widely:

PriceWaterhouseCoopers say that for every £1 invested Creative Partnerships delivered £15.30 of benefits to the national economy

A new title launch soon?  I guess that depends on what the Government values.

Dress to Impress

It's Friday night, and I've popped out of my wife's birthday party for twenty minutes and come back with a well dressed mannequin under my arm.  I knew I would get all clever comments, 'found a younger model?'...so on, but couldn't risk leaving her in the pub car park where we leave our car.

Arthur and Jago also want to pose with the dress

The dress is made entirely from reused and recycled materials, mostly plastic bags, and is one of several stunning outfits made by students from Selly Park Technology College for Girls.  It is clearly labelled promoting our fashion show in June - Nikki's fortieth party was an impromptu venue, one of many to come, where the outfit has and will be admired.

I had just picked it up from the University of Birmingham Fair Fashion Show, the last event in a series they have run throughout fairtrade fortnight.  A group from Selly Park Technology College  had taken a backstage tour and interviewed the organisers and models earlier that day, including the maker of the dress.  While we were there, a couple of people visiting the universit show posed with the mannequin and took photos - excellent that among all the dresses and outfits of the university students, our dress had been spotted, and the maker was there to see it!

The dress will next be appearing in the shop window of the People shop on Poplar road, then at several events to celebrate 100 years of the school, and be worn as part of the Fashion Show the college is arranging later this year.  Allison Sadler owns the shop with her partner, Christian, and is working with students at Selly Park to run their own fashion show.

Early draft of fashion show logo

Earlier in the week I accompanied Jude Thomas from CCE (who funds our funders, Creative Partnerships) to visit Selly Park and to talk to some of the staff and students there.  Another mannequin is, of course, waiting in the reception to greet visitors.  We have a conversation with several confident young people, each able to describe the project clearly, its aims, and demonstrate how much the young people are making decisions on our show in collaboration with teaching staff and creative practitioners (as well as making the dresses and hats).

The dress demonstrates the skills and creativity of the young people involved, and the teaching staff and creative practitioner working with them.  More than that, where the mannequins visit are a physical presence, in school and elsewhere, valuing our young people, their work and values (the students have chosen to explore recycling and sustainability in their outfits) both in and outside the school.  Look out for a mannequin near you.

Teachmeet Brum!

Please join TeachMeet Brum!  - THIS IS A FREE EVENT

TeachMeet Brum will be taking place on 14th March at Paganel Primary School, B29 5TG 

Time: 4:30pm - 7:00pm

Learn something new, be amazed, amused and enthused. This is an informal gathering of those curious about teaching and technology. Anyone can share great ideas they've trialled in their classrooms, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations.

Everyone is welcome to join in: teachers from all types of schools, teaching all subjects and age groups. The main part of TeachMeet is hearing stories about learning from teachers.  It is a chance for teachers to hear ideas from each other  and be inspired by colleagues, along with a whole bucket load of networking to boot!

Please contact to anyone working in schools who may be interested in attending.  Any queries contact Steve Philp directly at Paganel Primary School - frogphilp@gmail.com

Public Transport:

Train to Birmingham New Street, then either:

• Bus (numbers 22, 23 or 29) getting off at Stonehouse Hill; or
• Local Train to Birmingham University then Number 21 Bus, getting off at Castle Road

Here's a Google Map to add more detail.

Car

• Junction 3 of M5, then head along the A456 into Birmingham, turn right at the A4123, continue on to the B4121, then right at California Way. Then right onto Stonehouse Hill, following the map. Left onto Swinford Road and right into the main gates.
• Junction 4 of M5, Junctions 1 or 2 of M42, head for A38 into Birmingham. Turn left at Northfield along the B4121, then right at Barnes Hill along California Way. Then go right onto Stonehouse Hill, following the map. Left onto Swinford Road and right into the main gates.
• Junction 6 of M6 (Spaghetti Junction), then head into Birmingham on the A38M Aston expressway. Continue through all the tunnels on the A38. Turn right at Selly Oak along the A4040. Turn left along Reservoir Road. Continue along Reservoir Road until it becomes Swinford Road, then turn left into the main gates.

Helicopter

• Land on the field at 52.44492,-1.969686. Avoid the trees.
• Land on the playground at 52.444737,-1.968999. Avoid the trees. And the netball posts. 

Don't worry, keep busy

It's been a tough time, and really hard to see organisations and friends grappling with changes.  Personally, I don't know what I'll be doing in seven months.  'The long term' has been something I have spent too much time worrying over, and I feel like I have lost sight of Nike wisdom, just do it!

Storytime with my four year old was coming to an end, but luckily Jago knows exactly how to play his old man.  'Can we have your favourite?' and what's that?  Jago told me it's, 'The Lion who wanted to Love'.  Always brings a tear to my eye when reading the last couple of pages when his Mum speaks in her humblest tone 'I was wrong, now I see love can bring us together...'

OK, very soppy, and Leo is a bit of a role model for loving and all that, following his instinct, which wasn't the same as most lions.  But for this blog, and for me right now, what is more important was that he just got on and did what he thought was best.

When everything seems so bleak, it's easy to fall into trap of  'self-preservation', following what you think will earn money, or please those around you.  Maybe in six months I'll be regretting lack of fore-thought.  Is it more important to do what you think is right?  Or am I just going to drift into poverty?  Who knows.  I deal with that tomorrow.

The (not so) secret life of a creative agent

• 

  Creative Agent or Captain Adorable?

Adapted from handout from Anna Craft from Exeter Uni, from Heard (1990, p.25)

In the workshop we were asked to read a script and ask  - What evidence is there of possibility thinking?





What did you do at school?

This is a new school for me.  The first thing I did was to listen to the priorities of senior teaching staff.

Yes, but then what did you do?

I found out about the creative work already happening in the school, and what partners they already work with.  We thought about an area of focus for work over the coming year, who should participate and how.  We began thinking about what kind of people could support and develop work in their school.  Also how best to tender for creative practitioners.  We framed an enquiry question that could be understood by all.

Yes, but what else have you done?

We set up initial workshop(s) to explore what the students/pupils thought.  The workshops could include an opportunity for young people to show me priorities in their school and record them in an appropriate way - perhaps some kind of tour, or Voxpop, recorded with Flip camcorders can be good for this.  We introduced the enquiry question.  We invited a short list of creative practitioners, representatives of organisations, or additional teaching staff/community agencies to meet and discuss the enquiry with students.

We set up a series of activities to develop conversations around the enquiry question, consider a framework for the project.

And then did you do anything?

By taking part in activities, or sometimes leading activities to discuss our enquiry, I had some kind of meaningful conversation with all the students/pupils taking part.

But did you do anything today?

I ate lunch in the staff room, or maybe in the main canteen.  By being in the school people are starting to recognise me and I feel more at home here.

And then what did you do?

I made sure I had recorded comments from all the people I had spoken to, and made sure there was time at the end of the day for all to reflect with our team.  I arranged another meeting for creative practitioners we have chosen to work with and teaching staff to timetable the project, budget it, and provide more detail for our project plan, based on previous discussion and the initial workshops.

So did you do anything?

When I got home I made sure I emailed photos/film footage, notes, from the day, trying to keep them brief (and usually failing).  I made sure I thanked everyone and identified key achievements of the day.

So did you do anything today?

By about midnight I had just about managed to sort out the paperwork, sent off a draft copy to school coordinator, 'cos I knew you'd say...

WHAT DID YOU DO AT SCHOOL TODAY?

Net works or networks in Frankley

In 2007, we had just completed training as the first cohort of Creative Agents at Bright Space.  Holly Hill Church School had funding to prepare for their Change application and for us to trial our new creative agent roles - I took more the role of the creative agent at Reaside, and Juliet Raynsford was more the creative agent at Holly Hill, although both of us shared roles.

Juliet’s specialism matched Reaside’s drama interest, becoming an enquiry on ‘How can drama change the world?’. At Holly Hill they were interested in developing and supporting the wider school community with no fixed media. This became ‘What makes School?’

At Holly Hill, we started working with the school council. Previous council minutes were dominated by school dinners, which seemed like a natural starting point. Inspired partly by the work of Stan’s Cafe in a local primary, we started to ‘make school’ out of school dinner. We explored archives, made our own bricks from clay in the playground, experimented with cakes and other materials before creating an art installation made entirely from bits and pieces brought in or found in the school.

There were difficulties, and although a number of creative partnership projects had run at Holly Hill previously, this appeared to be the first attempt at a ‘whole school’ creative project. The groundwork had been done for our ‘Change Programme’ and although over the next year we worked mainly outdoors, our area of focus did not change. We were interested in promoting creativity across the whole school, to support and develop more general social skills, and look to the wider school, Frankley and Birmingham communities.

In those early tendering, real paper database days, I contacted a few people we thought would be good, and introduced them to the staff on a staff training day. Everyone liked each other, and itching to get going with the work, we arranged a visit to the wonderful Bishops Wood Forest School Centre with staff, parents and children, in what was to be a fabulous start to avery productive year, working with Sarah Jenkinson, Gillian Twaite, Marcella Erskine & Nick Williams. The real find of the year turned out to be on the doorstep - 100 yds away was the ancient Balaam Wood, previously unknown to most of the staff, and apparently never before ventured into with children.

The end of the year came suddenly, and so ended the funding from Creative Partnerships.  There was no opportunity to continue with CP. The project had been a wonderful creative adventure for all involved, but where was the embedding of practice? How could we continue? Caroline Proctor found additional funding to carry on. Initially the nursery and music specialist teacher employed Marcella to continue weekly music workshops and related CPD. Then in Spring funding and time was found to work on ‘Our Community’ - a project I had suggested, and was invited to come back as creative practitioner to deliver.

For ‘Our Community’ I had grand plans of involving parents, community leaders, local organisations, everyone in school in a project working mainly outside school, supported by digital media. I don’t think I’d properly considered we would be working with a tenth of a change school budget, or indeed that although I felt digital and social media would really help, I don’t think anyone else did.

For initial research I googled Frankley, and found ‘Frankley Travelodge’ top of the list, followed by houses for sale, more ‘Travelodge’ references, ‘Frankleytalk’ - a local schools podcasting site set up with previous CP funding, the parish council site, a local businesses site claiming ‘Frankley is much more than just a motorway service station’, and Frankley Library site.

Initially I contacted Podnosh, responsible for Frankleytalk, thinking this could be the start of
something interesting. Over the course of the month or so I was inputting to the site, I watch it steadily move from tenth to first on the ‘Frankley Birmingham’ google-o-meter. Looking back I
should have taken more notice that Frankleytalk had ceased to be used for nearly two years,
and that the low number of visits to any Frankley websites meant that my usage of ‘Frankleytalk’
was probably the sole reason for its rise in popularity. This, my first experiment in blogging, was useful to me, but probably not to anyone else in Frankley.

I had, however, made contact with a number of different community partners, and the
workshops included visits to Frankley Library, Frankley City Learning Centre, and several visits
back to Balaam Wood supported by the Park Ranger service, Adam Bates from OPAL, Nick
Williams and the wonderful Friends of Balaam Wood. For me it was great to see connections
made in the previous year being developed. Teaching staff regularly use Balaam Wood
creatively for a range of different curricula areas and year groups. The Library were renewing
links with teaching staff and children, and the City Of Learning Centre developed further
work with Holly Hill after our visit. We had, of course, other outcomes, including the creation
of ‘Steve the Colourmaker’ - a giant collaborative chalk silhouette artwork outside the school
(see chalk images above), and created a lovely home for Steve and cutouts of all the chalk monsters made from silhouettes in Balaam Wood. We also had a lot of fun and achieved a number of learning objectives too.

Maybe digital networking hasn’t worked here, but the contacts and networks made through Holly
Hill’s Change Year have made a big difference and continue. Although Creative Partnership's funding ceased over a year ago now, a creative philosophy and practice continues at Holly Hill. The hard work of staff, parents and children at Holly Hill, together with their community will maintain outstanding creative practice.

CA networking day

As promised, below is how we grouped our schools.  We were not all there, many schools and conversations not started and complexities of grouping schools, it is an incomplete picture - more of snapshot.

Great to see you all and catch up a bit, and here's hoping you had good summer holidays.  Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Re-inventing the wheel or the nuclear option?

Illustration - Cienciart

Reflection following CCE sharing event, 'developing a framework for peer and self review'.

Both models presented today featured heirarchical approach to evaluation and reflection measuring against key competencies (red, amber or green, depending on assessment as all dandy, warning bells or requiring immediate intervention). Yvette and Mandy's Pods included continuous peer moderation through CA pod meetings, Jess and Alison was simpler and visually wheel-like. Both provide a structure to reflection and evaluation, both provide a framework which appears to fit into the database model.

We must apply our CP core values of ownership, and personalised learning to our reflection as we promote with young people, schools and everyone we work with. Our systems must reflect that. Likewise they should be transparent and honest, providing a safe place to experiment and challenge our own thinking, looking inward, and out, beyond our CP practice.

That's why for reflection I advocate a nuclear option - that is, a loose connection of conversations and reflections personal to each one of us, and articulated in a form useful personally to us and the people we share our reflections with. I have a number of people whose opinion I respect who I reflect with on a range of issues, including Creative Agents and Bright Space staff.

Like a wonderful chemical concoction, we need to be free to form covalent bonds with either similar or different people, our own networks, to produce new and wonderful compounds. In this analogy, the Administrative Organisations (ADOs) are the reactive agents or catalysts supporting and promoting the development of new networks, much as we creative agents do in our schools. We creative agents, for our part, are responsible to share our reflections and evaluate our work in a form the ADOs can effectively make sense of.

My reflections are best articulated by me in 'a form' of my choosing. Any form designed by others, or for evaluation, by necessity restrict my responses, which may be required for evaluation, but completely at odds with the purpose of reflection.

We are creative agents employed because we have a unique skills set, experiences and networks. To use and develop our talents best we should consistently apply our CP core principles - continuous reflection owned by us, useful beyond CP to all parts of our practice and our lives. Let's go nuclear!

Language of a Professional

Jago was getting bored in the car. We told him, no, we're not nearly there. He said, 'It's alright for you. We're stuck back here like dogs!' He was spot on, in language everyone understood, and got me thinking about the language we use. We had a Bright Space Creative Agent meeting yesterday - the conversation came up again about training, creative agent as a profession and as a qualification. Wiki tells me a professional is 'is a member of a vocation founded upon specialised educational training'.

Our profession is developing its training, but the language of a creative agent is already very much in place. We categorise creativity into nine different, distinct sub-headings. We talk about 'triangulation' in order to ensure '360 degrees evaluation'. Much of the language is created or reinvented to describe our key areas of interest - creativity, reflection, ownership and is borrowed from the lexicon and pedagogies already in our schools, although little understood by anyone outside of education. We have a very big folder with an extensive 'toolbox' of paperwork.

Our language is, as more widely in education, beginning to be used to differentiate us, professionalise us, assure quality. The purpose of creating a profession might be 'quality assurance', but even if we promote creativity in all, our language already promotes a lack of understanding. Any qualification risks creating an elite in critical friendliness, a division from the other creative professionals (and amateurs) we hope to create partnership with, and a move away from our core beliefs of creative learning we evangelise in our schools.

Easy for me to say, being well qualified and in work (for the time being), but I would rather focus on the issues of 'quality assurance', developing new and confident Creative Agents, supporting existing creative agents, without an expensive and questionable qualification.

Are we creative agents really so frightened, so misunderstood, we need to create a qualification? We need to support each other to ensure quality, rely on our strengths as very different, individual creative agents, and reach out to everyone using language easily understood. We need to stand side by side with communities, schools, children and creative practitioners. No special language, no magic tricks, no qualification needed.