Let’s talk about text – Accrington Academy
Once a Change School, now a School of Creativity, Accrington Academy is certainly on a mission. As the school professes on its website, the institution prides itself on offering an engaging, inspiring and innovative curriculum which equips its students with the skills and qualifications they need to make a success of their lives.
Aside from focusing on its specialisms - Mathematics and Sports, and Business and Enterprise and ICT, Creative and Media - Accrington Academy is looking at how to develop their pupils’ confidence in literacy by approaching texts in a creative way.
One of the ways they sought to do this was through the Literacy Festival, launched on World Book Day in April 2010. The various components of the festival embraced a wide range of creative outputs, each of them linking specifically to a subject area based around curriculum development. For example, the Modern Foreign Languages Department worked with freelance scenery and costume designer Alison Heffernan to create three puppet shows narrated in French, German and Spanish. The students used traditional texts and created scenery and puppets in the style of European artists. The students then narrated each tale, practising their newly learnt language skills.
Accrington Academy understands that for children to truly engage with reading, families also need to see its value, which is why they used the Festival to take literacy into the local community. The first stage of the festival culminated in a live event where students showcased their talent performing abridged versions of two Shakespeare plays, as well as poetry and rap that they had produced throughout the festival. The premiere also saw the launch of The Academy's 'Talking Chair', a roving piece of furniture designed by textile artist Jane Revitt. Perched on the chair, students recorded stories and messages, which were relayed to other students and the wider community. Then the chair ventured into the community to encourage locals to enjoy reading.
As a fitting conclusion, the students are finalising a book that describes all the learning from the project. The festival has sparked several new projects, transforming the school’s whole literacy curriculum.
It is easy to see that ambition runs through the veins of Accrington Academy. The specialist school strives to be a place of true community learning, a place where young people’s voices are heard and respected. The school has held a number of events with the pupils and the community on 'difficult dialogue', using the arts as a safe way to open up conversations. Young people are being challenged in a variety of ways to discuss difficult topics, linked to the Prevent agenda. One group of children decided to ask their community, "Are you willing to listen to us?" The school was given permission to use an outdoor park space to hold such debates, which allowed for open and frank discussions. These events have been fully attended and have opened up the minds of the community.
As the lead school in the Excellence Cluster (a group of seven outstanding schools), they have spoken at and held a number of conferences, some of which have been delivered by young people alongside practitioners. Furthermore, filled with the desire for all schools to embed creativity into their syllabus, the school have supported the Local Authority in redesigning the Key Stage 3 and 14-19 curriculum.
