Working together – George Pindar Community College
The ‘working together’ project is targeted at pupils with low attendance due to issues such as lack of confidence, poor motivation, and no engagement in the learning process. The main area of enquiry is for year 9 pupils to be able to develop positive approaches to learning, their own confidence and the ability to work in a group, through a creative cross curricular project that encourages them to think about different subjects and make a link on how they can relate each subject to their own environment of their local community.
Through this project, staff will be able to consider their own teaching and learning practices and embed creative strategies that are proven to be effective into their own classrooms. Pupils will be able to develop their interpersonal skills and gain confidence and the motivation to stay within the school environment and improve their own attendance.
The project will give pupils the opportunity to enjoy and achieve by allowing engagement in creative practice as well as being involved in the planning of their own learning. The project aims to encourage motivation and attendance by showing how learning can be fun. It will also look at how to increase attainment levels and encourage pupils to make a positive contribution to their own local community.
Enquiry Question:
How can a creative cross-curricular 'project' approach to teaching and learning engage GPCSC year 9 students and encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning?
A group of 18 pupils within Year 9 will work with creative practitioner, Clare Ford focusing on a range of subject areas. Staff members from departmental areas including English, maths, science, creative arts and technology will also work with the pupils. Clare was chosen as she demonstrated a broad range of skills at interview including video/film-making as well as use of textiles/design that really appealed to the pupils.
The group will have the opportunity to consider and share their thoughts on what the community means to them and what they can bring to their community.
In English, pupils will consider the use of language in expressing ideas about community (e.g. poetry and persuasive writing). In Maths and Science, pupils will look at how numeracy plays a part in our everyday lives and at the potential for what it might do to help the community. Creative Arts will also look at making improvements to the community and in Technology, pupils will look at ways of recording and presenting the pupils' ideas such as creating a short film using mobile phones on what the community means to them.
The project will run over 10 full days allowing the creative practitioner to work with different staff members on different days. To better enable pupils to immerse themselves in the project and develop stronger relationships with staff and the practitioner, it was decided that pupils would take part over a full day, outside of the regular timetable.
The creative practitioner will also deliver two development sessions for all staff to share their experiences and collectively develop strategies for continuing this 'project-based' approach to teaching and learning beyond the life of the project.
It is hoped that the project will culminate in the pupils presenting their creative work in an exhibition, inviting local community members, businesses, families, staff of the school and other pupils to Scarborough Woodend Arts Gallery.
Impact
What will be the key impacts on young people's creative skill development?
- Increased overall motivation;
- Developing, refining and communicating new ideas;
- Problem solving;
- Working as co-constructors of learning – taking ownership of their project;
- Reflecting on learning.
What evidence will be collected?
- Pupil project log books;
- Informal film and photography documentation;
- Pupils work as the project develops - showing plans, ideas generation, evaluation of ideas;
- Notes from interviews/discussions with the creative agent;
- Teacher and practitioner observation and feedback sheets.
What will be the key impacts on the learning of teachers and other school staff?
- Staff will have extended their teaching practice and be able to deliver a range of different subject areas that can stimulate and engage students through the use of creative methods;
- They will have new ideas about generating cross curricular topic planning;
- They will have further experience of pupil led delivery - having had the opportunity to participate as equals with (and learn from) pupils, and had the opportunity to have moments to step back and observe pupils without having to be fully responsible for delivery;
- They will be more engaged in staff development as well as peer to peer learning/practice sharing.
