Creative Community Trail

Black Country (BCCSIP)

At Park Hall Infant Academy the focus has been to engage parents in supporting creative learning for their children. Parents at the school are highly supportive of and engaged in their children’s learning; however the school wanted to explore how to make learning both at home and at school more exciting and engaging for pupils.

Project objectives

Initial project ideas involved investigating ways of encouraging parents to engage with their children to support speaking and listening. The school wanted to find ways for parents and children to become co-learners. Through consultation, pupils said that they wanted parents to play with them more, so the school looked at ways in which the parents could support homework in a fun way. The aim was to engage parents, staff and children in the project and they would find ways of working more closely together in order to support a wider view of learning.

Pupils and staff developed a ‘Creative Community Trail’ based around the lake area at the back of the school. A small group of children worked with creative practitioners to develop a ‘creative story wheel’ a paper circle with a spinner that would prompt and provoke questions, stories and ideas, based on the 6 different areas to explore around the lake. The learning trail is only accessible by foot, giving families the opportunity to exercise together and to encourage physical activity in the local area.

Who was involved?

Pupils at Park Hall Infant Academy.

Impact

Pupil's homework was to go out and explore the lake with their parents. Further instructions for homework were left open to interpretation and broadly intended to inspire the imagination. Some pupils wrote stories, some produced visual art-work, some researched and some designed posters. One child created an imaginary rabbit and said, "I wish I could jump on the rabbit and fly over the sky". One parent reflected, “It was a great way to explore and to question the area more. We got a lot out of it."

Results

The project increased confidence, encouraging children to take a ‘problem solving’ approach to learning. This work also gave pupils the opportunity to take ownership of their own learning and to follow their own interests.

The project will now be replicated with the new intake of pupils and it has resulted in a successful ‘Awards for All’ bid to sustain the project and develop a second trail.