Creative Teaching & Learning

Find Your Talent programme

Finally, the Government is taking cultural capital seriously with a programme to enhance teachers’ and pupils’ aesthetic appreciation and artistic skills. Joe Hallgarten reports on the ‘Find Your Talent’ programme.

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      string(757) "project is beingsupported by the Real Ideas Organisation (RiO) in theSouth West.Telford is working with a group of primary agedpupils at risk of exclusion who spend a period of eachweek at a Pupil Referral Unit. They will work with twovisual artists and an architect looking at how moods,emotions and feelings can be expressed and articulatedthrough art. The pupils will be visiting the Rothkoexhibition at The Tate Modern and then working withthe artists to create their own large scale abstractworks. They will then develop their own collaborativeskills, organisational skills and independence by workingtogether to plan an exhibition of their work for friends,teachers and carers.Contact details for each pathfinder are available atwww.findyourtalent.org"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Culture change

18 Jun 2009

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      string(346) "were most likely to say that information about cultural activities in their area needed to be improved, along with secondary-age children in Tower Hamlets.Action· Increase participation amongst specific groups, specifically older children, boys, those from ethnic minority backgrounds and SEN/disability, and those from low-income and single ..."
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      string(610) "The Find Your Talent (FYT) programme comprising an entitlement to five hours per week of high-quality cultural experiences. The intention was to help ensure children and young people stay on the path to success by participating in positive activities and experiences which develop their talents. This report by the Department for Education provides an overview of the main findings of the FYT programme evaluation. The aim of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the programme and to construct the evidence for future investment.
Leadership Briefing 5.12 (60)"
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      string(1519) "were most likely to say that information about cultural activities in their area needed to be improved, along with secondary-age children in Tower Hamlets.Action· Increase participation amongst specific groups, specifically older children, boys, those from ethnic minority backgrounds and SEN/disability, and those from low-income and single-parent households; this crucially means that besides increasing provision overall, proactive engagement work is required to narrow the gap between experiences, participation and expectations among the high and low engagers.· Shift attitudes about participating in culture among groups that tend to be less engaged and less vocal about their needs and interests.· Encourage peer recommendation and word of mouth for secondary-age children, who tend to be reluctant to go unless they know other children who are attending, and harness the potentially powerful role that schools can play in this regard.· Strengthen how the offer is communicated to children and young people and their parents, using schools to channel this information.· Engage parents and children in planning and designing the local offer.· Promote progression to careers in the cultural and  creative industries, in order to inform decisions about progression to further learning and employment.· Improve the quality of the cultural offer.NotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Imaginative MindsDate CreatedMay 2011Enquiries to:raspal.chima@yahoo.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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Leadership

Evaluation Of Find Your Talent

5 May 2011

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      string(379) "65www.teachingtimes.com n Vol 3.3AcademiesLeadership DilemmasSchool Leadership TodayIt has always struck me as odd that the best teachers arepromoted out of the classroom. Isn’t it counterintuitivethat we nurture teaching talent, find the mostinspirational and creative role models and then promotethem into administrative, management roles?My passion has ..."
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      string(5626) "65www.teachingtimes.com n Vol 3.3AcademiesLeadership DilemmasSchool Leadership TodayIt has always struck me as odd that the best teachers arepromoted out of the classroom. Isn’t it counterintuitivethat we nurture teaching talent, find the mostinspirational and creative role models and then promotethem into administrative, management roles?My passion has always been teaching. Since I joinedDurand as a Newly Qualified Teacher 23 years ago, there hasbeen nothing more rewarding for me than seeing childrencome through the school gates – often at risk of fallingbehind, with English as their second language – and besupported to flourish into ambitious, eager learners. Everyyear we are privileged to teach hundreds of children fromdisadvantaged backgrounds to read, write and achieve overand above national average standards.Yet teaching doesn’t come naturally to everyone and it isa fact that some people just aren’t suited to it. So this is whywe need to ensure that our best teachers – who have the mostimportant job of inspiring and teaching the next generation– are kept in the classroom, doing what they do best.Academy status:It allowed us toteach again!One of the major benefits of becoming an academy is cutting theLA red tape, says Head teacher, Mark McLaughlinReaders will understand why it became frustrating forme when, as Head teacher of a primary school of over 900children, the paperwork, guidance processes and hoopsthat we had to jump through got so extensive that findingtime in the school day to teach became untenable over thelast five years. With statutory requirements, non-statutoryrequirements, consultations, surveys and guidelines inadvance of a million words a year, Head teachers couldn’tsee the classroom for the paper trails.Although Durand is a large organisation, I’m sure thatwe were in no way unique in experiencing this burden ofbureaucracy. We just wanted to get on and teach – and thatis exactly what Academy status has allowed us to do.By putting faith in schools and teachers through theAcademy programme, the Government have removed localauthority safety nets that bred dependency and reducedthe red tape that flooded our timetables. The Governmenteffectively have said, ‘we trust you, be free and flourish’.For us this has been a breath of fresh air. With the focus66 Vol 3.3 n www.teachingtimes.comAcademies Leadership Dilemmasshifted from box ticking to delivery, myself and the seniormanagement team have been able to create space in ourworking week to do what we know is the most importantthing – teach.Teacher LeaderAs Head teacher, I now see myself as our ‘Teacher Leader’,teaching two days a week to ensure that I not only set anexample to the children as a senior role model, but also toset a standard for other members of staff to follow. I operatean open door policy for colleagues to come and observeme teaching, and have willingly signed up to cameras beinginstalled into my classroom, so that we can start to maketraining videos that capture good practice. This time last year,before becoming an Academy, this simply wasn’t feasible.Effective school management, of course, remains acritical part of my role and is assessed just as thoroughlyas it ever was. This is done through a range of measures,including independent assessments that we commissionannually, through Ofsted’s early warning system and mostimportantly, on a daily basis, by the parents at the schoolgate and on our waiting list, who trust us to deliver for theirchildren.It will come as no surprise after my introduction thattaking the decision to convert for us was always a simpleone and was the logical next stage in our journey ofdevelopment. We had already been a Grant Maintainedschool before becoming a Foundation School, soindependent thinking was a part of our DNA. In the past,this meant that we were often isolated and considereddifferent – but this is something that we are proud of. Wehave never believed that a ‘one size fits all’ approach worksin education, but rather, that individual schools shouldhave the independence to identify their own needs anddetermine how best to meet them.Schools are all so different in their set-ups, intakes,surroundings and requirements that a generic approachis both ineffective and inefficient. Giving greaterautonomy to schools not only gives them more freedomto be independent and innovative, but also allows themto allocate resources where they see fit to best benefittheir school, the education it provides and the futureopportunities that it offers.Immeasurable potentialThe potential that this has given us for our future isimmeasurable. 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Leadership

Academy status: It allowed us to teach again!

2 Nov 2011

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      string(305) "Empathy is inherent in all of us, but for children who experienced a violent or poverty-stricken upbringing, their ability to feel compassion and empathise with others can be seriously stunted. Louise Kinnaird explores the role of schools and practitioners in giving such children the opportunity to care."
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      string(348) "or talent recognition. Find ways to value it.■ Identify shared values and differences in the classroom.Empathic activities to try in your classroom:■ A situation, a current event, a book or a TV programme can be good discussionpoints for talking about emotions. Stories challenge our preconceptions, enablingus to ..."
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      string(5144) "or talent recognition. Find ways to value it.■ Identify shared values and differences in the classroom.Empathic activities to try in your classroom:■ A situation, a current event, a book or a TV programme can be good discussionpoints for talking about emotions. Stories challenge our preconceptions, enablingus to wear the shoes of those whose experiences are different from our own. Theyshow us how to have feelings and give us others’ experiences of empathy andperspective.■ Use resources that show different expressions and how the expressions help us toidentify emotion. Ask about how the expressions help children feel.■ Look at photos of children in developing countries, and ask pupils to imagine thelives of those in the photos. Ask them to write a story in the first person about theexperience of living as those in the photo.■ Visit a Mosque or homeless shelter, making empathic understanding the focus of83Vol 7.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileWellbeingthe visit. As children grow older, they may have the opportunity to travel abroad,building on language exchange programmes and allowing complete immersion inanother culture.For more activities and resources, visit: empathyed.org.Time for a more overt approachEmpathy has, for some time now, been identified as a key component of an all-encompassing school education at a national level, and locally, we can begin to seehow it has had a positive impact on pupil attitudes and behaviour through projectssuch as Roots of Empathy and SEAL. Thanks to these programmes, we now know thatall children, no matter their home environment, can flourish given the opportunity andthe support at school to nurture their empathic skills.In creating the kind of environment that nurtures empathy in its pupils, schoolshave the power to drastically alter a child’s perception of others and of himself, andcan have a profound impact on every other measure of school success. A classroomenvironment where children demonstrate daily a capacity to work collaboratively, listento others’ perspectives and resolve conflicts is an effective one. If students are giventhe opportunity to engage in real conversations and experiences, that will shift not onlyhow they look at others, but how they look at themselves. They will benefit both thewider community and economy.Empathy has long been an intrinsic part of the classroom, but changing times callfor a more explicit place for empathy in education. It needs a broader social vision.By taking empathy outside the classroom, students develop understanding acrossboundaries of people whose thoughts, emotions, values and beliefs might otherwisenever be understood. Until a school grasps the concept of empathic education, then itsinternal environment will remain weak despite academic success, its children lackingthe more subtle tools that are needed to succeed in the 21st century economy.Louise Kinnaird is a freelance writer, specialising in child development andpsychology.Knowledge trails1. The value of emotional intelligence – Schools should not be exam factories but instead, mustfocus on developing the whole person, says Paul Trainor.library.teachingtimes.com/articles/thevalueofemotionalintelligence2. Rethinking the school as a community – Children thrive in a positive, caring community.What impact should that have on the way we structure the school environment? John West-Burnham explains.library.teachingtimes.com/articles/rethinking-the-school-as-a-community3. What’s your story? Teaching for diversity – Loic Menzies engages children with ‘pupilbiographies’ to promote diversity, tolerance and respect.library.teachingtimes.com/articles/slt_2-5_whats-your-storyReferences1. Perry, B. And Szalavitz, M. (2011) Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential – and Endangered. New York: William MorrowPaperbacks.2. Ó’hÉochaidh, R. (2013) Schooling Teachers on Social-Emotional Learning. Greater Good, [online] 9 July. Available at: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/news_events/announcement/schooling_teachers_on_social_emotional_learning [Accessed 16November 2015].3. Pink, D.H. (2006) A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. New York: Riverhead Books.4. Zeldin, T. (1999) The Future of Work. [online] Available at: www.oxfordmuse.com/?q=the-future-of-work [Accessed 16November 2015].5. Krznaric, R. (n.d.) Empathy Education: Why it Matters and How to Do it. Oxfam [online]. Download available from webpage:www.oxfam.org.uk/education/teacher-support/thinkpieces [Accessed 16 November 2015].http://empathyed.org/http://library.teachingtimes.com/articles/thevalueofemotionalintelligencehttp://library.teachingtimes.com/articles/rethinking-the-school-as-a-communityhttp://library.teachingtimes.com/articles/slt_2-5_whats-your-storyhttp://greatergood.berkeley.edu/news_events/announcement/schooling_teachers_on_social_emotional_learninghttp://greatergood.berkeley.edu/news_events/announcement/schooling_teachers_on_social_emotional_learninghttp://www.oxfordmuse.com/?q=the-future-of-workhttp://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/teacher-support/thinkpieces"
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Leadership

Teaching children to care

18 Dec 2015