Bfi Education Cultural Campus 2011
description
Transcript of Bfi Education Cultural Campus 2011
Cultural Campus:
Introduction ......................................... 2
Activities & Artifacts ............................ 2
Time & Space ..................................... 4
Learning .............................................. 6
Legacies & Future Aspirations ............ 8
Evaluation of a collaborative learning project between Southbank Centre, the BFI, Lambeth CLC and Telferscot Primary School: January - March 2011
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In May 2010 the Assistant Head of Telferscot School, Fran Welch, attended a meeting at Southbank Centre in answer to their invitation for Lambeth Schools to be leading players in a large-‐scale collaborative learning project. Following the success of the pilot residential in summer 2009 another collaboration was planned between Southbank Centre, the BFI, Lambeth City Learning Centre (CLC) and two Lambeth Schools. This report focusses on the involvement of Telferscot Primary School in Balham.
Beverley Keyte and her Year 4 class were selected to participate and spend two days a week in and around Southbank Centre and the BFI for the Qirst 6 weeks of the Spring term 2011. The idea was for the children to experience the entire Southbank environment as their ‘classroom’ for this period. This report is a record of the learning outcomes and the wider, social and cultural beneQits of this partnership between pedagogy and the arts.
Southbank Centre discussed with Fran their events diary for 2011 so that Telferscot might weave their activities within this framework. The 60th anniversary of The Festival of Britain seemed an appropriate and timely event at which to showcase the children’s work and in liaison with Bev, Hannah Quigley at the CLC and Jessica Hemming at Southbank Centre, Fran drew up a 6-‐week programme of activities under the theme ‘Feel the Beat of London Life’. She hoped this would reQlect the diverse footfall of visitors to the Southbank as well as underpin the creative content for the programme which was ultimately to provide a unique and integrated source of inspiration for the children and of ‘possibility thinking’ for the teachers. By way of introduction, the children were invited to the BFI on 10 December 2010 to watch Qilms about London, including William Raban’s “Sundial” (1992); they then produced poetry of their own inspired by the capital.
The programme united a rich mix of technical, creative and pedagogic expertise using a variety of old and new media and artist’s resources, all the while maintaining links with the necessary elements of the national curriculum such as literacy (mainly writing), ICT and its more creative aspects. Numeracy was covered via discreet lessons delivered Qirst thing on the prescribed Southbank/BFI mornings.
This report picks up the group in the 4th week capturing the essence of the experience and recording observations. The following page lists what activities the children remembered looking back over the preceding 3 weeks -‐
this information took 25 minutes to elicit and a video was taken of the process, at the end of which one of the children simply got up and dramatically exclaimed: “I love life!” It was clear that they were impressed with the amount they had achieved, with more besides what is listed, such as continual updating of their journals/sketchbooks, diary blog entries, photoshop work and podcasts. Selecting a few of the activities for further analysis will offer a Qlavour of the intricacies of planning and delivery, the commitment of all players and the quality and integrity of the children’s work.
INTRODUCTION
activities & artefacts
“I didn’t even know what canvasses were”
“It was a bit of an adventure”
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Workflow over 4 of the 6 weeks as recalled by the children
This one busking activity and the preparation that led up to it is an important demonstration of the impact of collaborative work and the pooling of expertise to produce an unforgettable and levelling ‘group moment’ for the children and, for some, a personally transformative moment. Some children
drew on resources they didn’t know they had in a collective ‘can do’ environment, involving parties which might be viewed by some as disconnected professional entities. This and other media-‐related activities, as well as having a strong literacy focus, introduced skills highly pertinent to the contemporary increasingly
mediated world: communicating, performing and participating in a public space, the operation of camera and sound as well as a heightened awareness of new and converging digital technologies to enhance their creations and share them with audiences both real and virtual. It’s hard to put a value on an experience such as this, for both teacher and child, in terms of its potential to increase conQidence, expand perception and explore what is possible: one child commented “I know right now that I want to be a poet when I’m older.”
Drawing on their particular interests and individual strengths, Fran and Bev focussed on poetry and found the RFH’s Poetry Library inspirational in this respect. The children worked with Miriam Valencia from the library and considered existing poems about London; they went on the RFH balcony, asked questions of the river and collected words for their poems. See footage here on the school website.
Later in the programme they were asked to write their own poems entitled: “At the Southbank” featuring ideas they had assimilated from their experiences thus far. They practiced their poems a number of times in different locations, culminating in a busking performance outside the RFH complete with microphones, cameras, a raised platform, speakers and an appreciative public. These moments were captured by a child’s parent and posted onto the school website.
Click here for link to school website
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Other activities over the weeks:
• photography & photoshopped collaged image & ‘surreal’ story
• interviewing visitors to the Southbank Centre with Easyspeak microphones
• an instructional session on the Gamelan -‐ a room of musical instruments gifted by the Indonesian government
• landscape sketching outside with pencils and inks
• large-‐scale installation of canvasses involving the tracing & subsequent acrylic painting of a projected image of children’s drawings of a Southbank landscape onto an assemblage of A4 canvasses -‐ one for each child (see Appendix 1)
• performing their poetry in front a time-‐lasped Qilm using green screen technology
• visiting the BFI Mediathèque and watching Qilms
• writing, illustrating and producing their own Southbank promotional leaQlet
• visiting the real locations that featured in the book they were reading: “The London Eye Adventures”
• visiting the site of the original Festival of Britain
• learning to produce podcasts and blogs
• sound collecting (trains, voices, coffee machines, footsteps) & recording for later use in musical composition/sound editing
• map work and Qloor plans re. how/where to display their work
time & space
It was clear from observations and interviews that Fran Welch, Hannah Quigley, Jessica Hemming and Bev Keyte, the Year 4 teacher responsible for delivering the results, were skilled communicators and worked well together as organisers of time and space.
For Bev the project represented a signiQicant learning opportunity but also a massive shift away from the norms and conveniences of class-‐based activities. Despite considerable teaching experience she felt some apprehension about being taken out of her comfort zone and put in a situation seemingly over which she had little control. Indeed being so close to everyday logistics and the detail of each activity, it was only at the halfway point that she was able to take a step back and appreciate the scope and overall vision for the project. Bev also commented: “this half term has Qlown by because we’ve done this project”, indicating her focus and level of absorption.
Painting the canvasses
ʻLondon Eye Mysteriesʼ - site exploration
Southbank promotional brochure
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The substantial time and energy that was spent travelling to and from the Southbank was a major consideration for Bev as was stafQing and the transporting of resources. The children also were tired by the morning commute, however, it did not dominate their overall appreciation of the project.
Bev noted how much the children grew into the space afforded by the Southbank Centre: “Their conQidence at using the Southbank is amazing, they believe it to be theirs”; a fact corroborated by Fran who received a particular email from some parents whose child, on the strength of this project, had taken them to the Centre and given them “a guided tour”. There was an overwhelming sense that the children had claimed this space as their own: this was seen in the way they would settle into a particular ‘lunch space’ and interact with the area (photo1); the way they went from space to space and up and down stairs in an orderly, conQident, chatty fashion (photo2); also in the way they would settle down to work in groups (sometimes lying on the Qloor) in whatever space was allocated to them within the building (photos 3 & 4) without recourse to asking for permission -‐ “Am I allowed to...?” which had notably been the case at the start of the project.
One child seemed particularly in awe of the RFH and whispered a secret into my voice recorder that was only subsequently discovered : “We went upstairs for lunch and it was really beautiful”.
If one of the barometers for the success of the project was how at ease most of the children felt in their surroundings, one child’s comment is worth mentioning. Prompted by photo 1, she was asked how it made her feel: “I feel at home!”. This begins to suggest that she has unselfconsciously internalised an alternative learning style in an alternative learning environment; the fact that it was an environment rooted in the busy, peopled, ‘real world’, with no shortage of potential distractions is even more impressive.
The sustained nature of the project, spanning several weeks, was one of its strengths as highlighted by Hannah Quigley of the CLC. For her, the 2-‐day a week model worked for everyone as a solid framework which allowed time both for critical reQlection and logistical adjustments as the project developed. She also noted that Telferscot, where possible, were supporting and extending their new learning during the rest of the week at school. This continuity in turn maximised their time at the Southbank and made for a “richer, more meaningful experience”.
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learning
If one was to take as a starting point the familiar visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles and accept that we can all beneQit from these approaches, the project covered most of them most of the time. There was also a great deal of writing -‐ what might be termed energised writing -‐ inspired by audiovisual stimulation and motivated by the knowledge that it was to be shown, shared or publicly performed or more simply to be a component in the children’s “precious” sketchbooks: their physical, tactile, portable, lasting and personal record of achievement. Learning by making, doing and sharing was an important factor in the project’s appeal.
One child with below average literacy skills and whose motivation and attendance is generally poor, called me over to have me look at his sketchbook and read me the story associated with his photoshopped collage; his sense of pride and ownership was striking. Fran relates that this child’s attendance and time-‐keeping during the project was 100%. Another child, asked to comment generally about the project said: “It’s better than being stuck at school writing...”, even though they were doing a considerable amount of that very thing but with a higher degree of motivation. Furthermore, Bev spoke of a child with signiQicant cognitive & physical challenges from
whom she had never seen a page of writing, a situation which was triumphantly reversed during several weeks of sustained and collective focus.
When shown an image of them in their conventional maths lesson, one child remarked: “That was when we were working”, implying that the rest of the time, for him, wasn’t conceived as work. Perhaps this has to do with the overall privileging of individual work in traditional school settings, over the creative collaborative work stamping much of the children’s activities in this new setting: one that fosters a sense of experimentation, exploration, risk-‐taking and indulging of the imagination. Having said that, a higher achieving child very much interpreted the activities as work, when asked if she felt like they had been doing lots of playing, she replied emphatically, “No, I felt like I was doing lots of working”. Another child countered with: “It feels like work, but fun ... it was fun work” So it seems that children of all abilities were either stretched or stimulated by this more Qluid, thematically organised curriculum, with no right or wrong answers. On a social level, Bev observed that the project had improved class cohesion, teamwork, tolerance and reciprocal support, especially in relation to some of the children with special needs.
In terms of adult learning, Bev now appreciates that she “can be more ambitious ... Now that we’ve done this project, anything is possible!”. She also pointed out Fran’s consistent administrative and moral support, without which she would not have been able to deliver the results.
Fran herself reported improved personal communication skills and a wholesale conQidence boost. She now knows she can plan a large-‐scale project in creative partnership with local and major national institutions, a fact which in the initial stages
“They’ve come together as a whole class” - Bev
“I didn’t know elevators could sing”
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felt daunting and overwhelming. In partnership with Hannah and Jessica she felt nothing but positive encouragement to explore the creative possibilities, go with her intuition and continually raise her aspirations: “At no point did they say no”. Hannah, in her role as intermediary between the school and Southbank Centre, was able to exploit her experience of and sensitivity towards the spheres of education and the arts, articulating their respective needs and outlining possible constraints. Fran, coming from the more regulated context of a school, was particularly grateful for the help she received in mapping the realms of the possible.
Interestingly, Fran herself was educated at a school with an ethos of integrated, topic-‐based learning as opposed to subject-‐based and it would seem that the residency has beneQitted from this early experience. Perhaps it offers a glimpse of how the Telferscot children might beneQit in their turn if given further opportunities to express their creativity in an enabling environment with expert back up. This latter fact didn’t go unnoticed by some children who recognised they were in the company of adults who were “kind of like experts”. Bev too mentioned having “a lot more insight into creativity in the curriculum” and how it was possible to “link it all into one subject”.
When asked what they thought the teachers had learned from the project, the children said “that we’re very artistic”, “that we’re mature enough to go on trips”, and “they’re impressed with us” indicating their overall satisfaction and sense of empowerment. Their responses were unanimously about the favourable impression the teachers must now have of them: perhaps the project has sparked an awareness of the beneQits of making a good impression, which could be one of its more subtle outcomes.
Sarah Horrocks, Director of the CLC, observed that one of the main functions of the project was to make
known that “learning can happen anywhere” not just within the conQines of the classroom and that “real partnerships and proper dialogue” between institutions can realise deeper mutual understandings.
On a more granular level, the children took a retrospective look at photos taken during the project (see Appendix 2) and picking up on some of their more subtle spoken and written observations, on what was said and unsaid, it is interesting to reQlect on the social and cultural learning implications, on how they will assimilate these layers of experience and take them forward into adolescence and beyond:
-‐ to sit in a classroom with ‘windows’ in the ceiling and be walked over-‐ to be immersed in a network of collaborating adults-‐ to engage with being a designer of artifacts with artistic and social value-‐ to actively deploy the senses to interpret your immediate environment-‐ to have a man talking business loudly on the phone during your poetry recital rehearsal-‐ to work in an environment where traditional hierarchies are unsettled
“At no point did they say no” - Fran
“The sky’s the limit” - Fran
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-‐ to be ignored by the public as well as applauded for your performance-‐ to be outside learning, thinking, drawing, sketching and making connections-‐ to be making co-‐design choices in the vicinity of toddlers with grandparents and a bar with chatting adults-‐ to be bored in a context other than what you’re used to-‐ to really feel the commute ‘to work’-‐ to emulate the busking Elvis-‐ to have lunch overlooking the Houses of Parliament-‐ to perform to camera-‐ to go in a glass lift that sings-‐ to sit & imagine yourself an Indonesian instrumentalist-‐ to study the contours of a Victorian lamp post-‐ to wonder at the thoughts of a seagull or a river-‐ to have one’s curiosity and sense of wonder regularly and irregularly stimulated
“There was a man talking over us all the time”
“It was weird having people walking over us”
Redrafting of poems
legacies & future aspirations
There have been some interesting ideas as to how each participating group feel the residency could develop and as with any learning curve some of these were born out of its more challenging aspects and others simply as a result of imaginative leaps.
It was suggested that the children might be given the opportunity to develop competence in performing poetry skills with a professional before performing publicly. The teachers themselves might also be afforded this opportunity the better to inspire their class -‐ in relation to software knowledge eg. photoshop as well as performing skills. However, such decisions would have to be carefully considered so as not to ‘crowd out’ or lose focus on the main objectives for each activity.
Similarly, Southbank departments could be invited to speciQic sessions to encourage a dialogue, an exchange of information, ideas and expertise. In the spirit of promoting an interactive, open-‐door policy between two worlds which are traditionally perceived as separate, the marketing department for example could provide input into any promotional work the children might be engaged in.
Busking Elvis
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A further related extension activity could be a gallery visit featuring an art installation typifying the one they are working towards; such a sensory and concrete orientation might reinforce the spoken word. The Qinal RFH exhibition seemed to be a difQicult concept for some of the children to grasp and the overall aim may have been unclear to some.
It may also be beneQicial to build in speciQic times for reQlection during the residential; to hold for example a mid-‐project feedback session as a means of stepping back and evaluating its progress. A further valuable legacy was quite simply a greater understanding of how long certain activities take to complete. There is a newfound reciprocal appreciation of the nuts and bolts of timing and logistics, for example of the more technical aspects of Qilming to the Qiner details of accommodating 25 disparate personalities with signiQicantly diverse needs and backgrounds.
In comparison with the previous residency, Sarah Horrocks conQidently asserts that “We got it right this time” and that the considerable amount of input and time spent planning and managing both projects will grow less in future. It is conceived that there will be ongoing Southbank residencies and that newly acquired knowledge and expertise will be passed on via the teachers, to build an autonomous, peer-‐to-‐peer creative network.
One of the driving forces of the project was the knowledge that the work was to be publicly displayed. The school website was instrumental in this sharing process being regularly updated by the children, as well as photos and movies being posted by one of the attending parents. One of the school staff was emotionally overwhelmed by footage of the poetry recitals by the river and claimed to be on the website for an hour looking through the entries.
There was an exhibition at the school one evening in March where all the children’s work, both material and digital, was imaginatively displayed. It was an opportunity for the school to show parents and the wider public that this had been a whole school initiative: each year group had embraced the opportunity to visit certain areas and arts venues around the Southbank and along the river, producing quality wall displays and digital work, all with the theme of ‘Feel the beat of London
Life’ woven into their respective core curriculum topics.
Collective effort and commitment on such a scale can only raise aspirations, creating positive memories that will resonate long after displays are dismantled. Sarah Horrocks believes that in terms of long term beneQits, the project may have “changed the way the school works and celebrates”.
Fran looks forward to seeing the work publicly shown in the Royal Festival Hall exhibition space as part of the Festival of Britain in April 2011. Not only is this the climax of many months of preparation but it also represents a chance to gain useful tips on display
techniques from a team of professionals. She knows that the impact of the work can be greatly enhanced if it is innovatively displayed. The effect of this particular artistry may well ripple down and affect the children’s perceptions who are likely to be even more impressed to see their work displayed in yet another context: beyond their bedroom, the
“It’s like my home”
School Exhibition - March 2011
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kitchen wall, their classroom, their school, their computer and into the public domain, a domain from which their work, input and ideas are often excluded.
On the strength of the relationships that have now been formed between the school and the agencies, Telferscot children were also involved in Southbank Centre’s “Imagine” festival in the February half term. Some of the children took on adult staff roles during the week’s activities, showing people round and manning certain desks, while others from the school choir performed on stage. This is an indication of close ties and deeper understandings that are starting to develop between the stakeholders.
It is hoped that most children will have an organic appreciation of how all the dots along the journey have been joined up to produce a beautiful, vibrant and meaningful art installation with longterm legacies. Furthermore, and with pleasing circularity, it will be one located within a national arts venue that for some had felt like a home from home.
“I love learning!”
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appendix 1 - the canvass landscape process
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appendix 2 - examples from photo elicitation
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