All to play for – Hull College Childhood Studies School

Creative Partnerships Hull, Humber & North Yorkshire

Background

The Childhood Studies School at Hull College trains students at foundation stage and beyond to develop their understanding of child development, and prepare them for a possible career in childcare, nursery provision or social work. Students at the initial Foundation Level 1 often have poor experience of being parented themselves, and may have a negative experience of education. Students at Level 1 may go on to further levels of vocational study and either way it is felt that the skills learned at foundation stage are useful in terms of life and future parenting skills. The Childhood Studies School is committed to developing its teaching methods and was keen to work with external practitioners to offer staff innovative strategies to complement and extend current practice.

Aims

The aim of the project was to seek ways of improving student attainment and retention from foundation to further levels of vocational study through a variety of creative practices. The overall enquiry question being 'how can we develop students’ creative approaches to working with children, and equip them with a range of skills to engage children imaginatively and effectively?'

Process/method

Over a 14 week period, creative practitioners Alex Hallowes and Pete Rogers from Xceptional Designs worked with two separate foundation level cohorts of around 20 students aged 16-18. They were chosen by for their experience and practical skills portfolio in relation to early years teaching and learning, theory and practice.

The project work aimed to:

• Develop students' communication and interaction skills in order for them to engage more effectively with children aged 0 to 14
• Develop students' creative approaches to working with children, and equip them with a range of creative skills to engage children imaginatively and effectively
• Offer students a toolkit of creative approaches, games, exercises and strategies
• Develop and broaden staff creative approaches to teaching this module, and as with the students, equip them with a wider range of creative skills that they can apply in their future teaching

The project work involved observations, modelling skill sets and attitudes, and students trying out new skills and approaches in the college nursery setting. The creative practitioners aimed to cover a range of arts and creative activities appropriate to and underpinned by an understanding of child learning development.

The project culminated in a presentation of learning to all staff in the Childhood Studies School as well as an external development day on 25 February 2011. It is hoped this project has inspired staff to take a fresh approach to their teaching, and work more closely with colleagues in the sharing of good practice which will lead to improved team work and communication within the school.

Impacts

At the end of the project the Creative Agent, Rupert Creed, was invited to speak to those who took part to discuss how they felt the Enquiry School project had gone.

Students' thoughts post project

Overall there was a very positive personal response to the impact the project has had on their attitude to learning. They felt it had motivated them to engage more creatively with children, that it had empowered them to employ their own creative potential and resources, and to engage fully with the module's aims and objectives.

Students felt they had gained a greater understanding of what a child needs and how they learn through play, through listening, doing, and play activities; that children will struggle in later life if they don’t start doing this in early years. Project work made students think back to their own childhood and reflect upon the effectiveness or otherwise of their own experience of early years learning.

The hands on experiential learning of the project has informed and complemented their formal learning and it is anticipated that this will help improve their overall attainment levels. Staff offered the view that they noticed a perceptible increase in engagement and, over time, a willingness and desire to offer personal views. Students said the work had improved their confidence and ability to articulate opinions.

There was also a lot of praise for the practitioners. "They never gave up on us" "They were good at telling us and showing while telling", "They let us make mistakes", "They let us come up with our own ideas", and "I now know there isn’t just one way of learning or doing things."

They felt practitioners had a real understanding of young children and would like to work with the practitioners again.

Overall there was an agreement that the project had helped the College by suggesting new ways of working for the staff. All students wanted the new skills practice to be used in future teaching.

Staff thoughts post project

Staff felt the project had significantly helped the students to engage with and express opinions on their learning. Confidence has greatly improved and they are noticeably more focused and motivated in their learning.

Some staff were somewhat sceptical of the value of the project at the start because of concern about students being motivated effectively this proved to be unfounded. As the project progressed both students and staff increasingly valued the benefits of new skills and strategies being offered by the practitioners.

Staff felt that the practitioners rose to the challenge of building relationships with an initially resistant and not very responsive group of students. The practitioners had persevered with a radical approach and showed great dedication in facilitating student understanding of new ideas and approaches.

The project has given staff (both lead staff involved throughout the project and further staff via the full day CPD session) new skills to employ in future teaching of students. Staff feel that they have gained more confidence to try new approaches and have confidence in using the new techniques.

The staff CPD session held on 25 February 2011 resulted in a high level of professional enjoyment and engagement. Staff will be incorporating these activities and cascading them to further staff in the annual staff development day in July.

A senior member of the Childhood Studies Department expressed the view that the project as a whole had re-invigorated and strengthened the department’s view of how essential it was to incorporate new creative thinking and techniques to inform all departmental practice. In particular the Department wanted to incorporate creative thinking strategies for future teaching of its students.

The Childhood Studies Department overall has been re-energised in its on-going commitment to employ creative strategies and techniques for use by staff and students, and will incorporate these in future practice. The project has opened wider the question of how the department as a whole can in future develop creativity at the heart of its practice.

Learning has been embedded in the department via the cascading of skills to a wider cohort of staff through the CPD session, which in turn will be cascaded further in the annual college wide skills development day in July. It is envisaged that further learning development will be facilitated via the department producing an internal report on this project detailing what they have learnt and action they will implement in future curriculum design and delivery. The Department will implement new skills in future practice and will consider broader development objectives in the light of its internal report on the project.

Elspeth Nelson, School Co-ordinator, said, "The addition of Creative Partnerships’ innovative approach to enriching the curriculum this year has enthused and invigorated the approaches to practice of learners, not only that but the infectious creativity of the creative partners has had a positive impact on the whole staff team. This is likely to enrich the childcare curriculum at the college not just this year, but for many years to come."

Practitioners thoughts post project

Practitioners noted how significant the session in the nursery had been for the students, in that it made the learning real, when carried out in direct contact with young children. For many this had changed their level of real engagement and reward and raised positive new possibilities about how the department utilised its nursery resource for teaching in the future.

Practitioners observed a high level of interest in the project from some members of staff who were not participating regularly in the sessions. The practitioners hope that the session work overall will have demonstrated the value of ‘facilitating learning’ rather than simply ‘teaching learning’ and hope that the techniques they employed in the course of the project will be employed in future under that guiding ethos.
The project has demonstrated the value of external practitioners bringing in new skills and approaches to how the department can deliver this course of work.

For the practitioners the project has emphasised the need to focus on facilitating creative approaches amongst students engaging in this area of work rather than them relying on prescriptive templates of learning. The practitioners are pleased that students have become more aware of the power of unlocking their own creative potential rather than just adopting prescribed methods.