Unravelling the Paradoxes of Self-Directed Education

The National Curriculum is not the only way to get an education, and some even think the alternatives are superior. Caitlin Harrison and Brenton Hague explain how Self-Directed Education is allowing their family to pursue an educational path of connection, compassion, creativity and innovation.

We have decided to not use school to educate our child, and instead, we serve as facilitators of Self-Directed Education (SDE).¹ In contrast to curriculum-dependent, teacher-led, evaluation-heavy schooling, SDE is an educational route in which children take charge of their education and the adults are responsible for curating an environment that supports everyone in their learning.² Our decision to pursue SDE as a family is inspired by informal observations, and it is underpinned by theory. It is both personal and political. It is an expression of privilege, and it invites an exploration of paradox.

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      string(5586) "Puppetry – using different forms of theatre with children and young people with learning disabilitiesWhile large parts of the UK think that theatre started around the timeof Shakespeare, people in Coventry know it has a much older history. Theten Coventry Mystery plays cover Biblical stories from Creationto Doomsday, featuring favourites such as Adam and Eve, Jesus in theTemple and Noah’s Flood.They were first performed in 1392 and one of the most dramatic – theSlaughter of the Innocents -lives on in the Coventry Carol, a sad  lullaby sung by mothers of the doomedbabies, which is often performed by Kings College Cambridge or Westminster Cathedralas part of nativity celebrations. Moving forward tothe twentieth centuryPost-war Coventry became synonymous with theatre that was exciting and different.When theatre censorship was abolished in 1968 Coventry Cathedral was thesetting for the first portrayal of Jesus Christ by an actor since the 17thcentury when Puritans banned theatre in 1642.The Belgrade Theatre was the first civic theatre to be built afterthe Second WorldWar in Britain and was namedfor  the present day capital of Serbiathat provided the timber. It kickstarted the careers of some household namesincluding Ian McKellan, Michael Kitchen and Clive Owen. In the 60s it was amajor venue bringing lesser known European playwrights to a wider audience. The Belgrade pioneered Theatre in Education in 1965 as a way to usetheatre and drama to create learning opportunities for young people.Actor-teachers from the Belgrade’s permanent TiE Company tour local schoolswhere they would perform short pieces of theatre and lead workshops thatallowed students to explore issues and ideas in active and creative ways. Itwas part of a movement of taking theatre out to people and involving thecommunity.Since the millennium it has been known for large scale outdoor eventsmerging circus skills, story telling, promenade theatre and collaborations withinternational companies such as the Polish troupe Teatr Biuro Podrozy. 2012 saw one of the most ambitious projects with the six metre highpuppet of Lady Godiva travelling from Coventry to London to celebrate theOlympics. Unlike her naked predecessor, she was dressed in a gown designed byZandra Rhodes. Godiva Awakes brought together engineering, theatre and more than atouch of carnival thanks to its creators Coventry carnival company Imagineer Productionsand special-effects company Artem. It was the perfect STEAM project beforeSTEAM was a thing schools thought about.How much of this rich theatrical tradition will be reflected in theforthcoming City of Culture (CoC) is currently under review but one area hasmade it through, and the man behind it is Richard Hayhow whose company Open Theatre is to play a part inseveral projects.LearningDisability Theatre In 1997 Hayhow founded The Shysters, a theatre company purely for youngpeople and adults with learning disabilities. While there were specialistcompanies for Deaf performers and artists with physical disabilities such asGraeae Theatre Company, DV8 and Candoco, companies working with young people withlearning disabilities had not yet developed a pedagogy that was different from mainstreamways of creating theatre.Unlike the stuff of Hollywood, work with The Shysters was not anovernight success. ‘In fact, in the early days it was crap,’ says Hayhow. ‘Whatwe got were really bad impersonations of EastEnders.’Rather than encouraging them to improve their accents and delivery oflines, he decided to go off at a tangent. He brought in full face masks, told the performers to stop talking andstood back to watch what happened. Once speech and facial expression were ruled out, they were tuning in tocommunication skills they did not know they had – gesture, movement, mime,dance and over several months they began to collaborate with artists,choreographers, musicians, designers. One of the discoveries was that this newway of working led to non-verbal devising methods which encourage the blurringof character and actor. According to Hayhow, performers with learning disabilities areparticularly able to perform in a way that rings true for audiences, owing toan ability to successfully merge actor and role. Training is essential toenable actors to access this authenticity within performance.They progressed from being a local Coventry initiative to being a troupe of professional actors with learning disabilities. Shards directed by  Kathy Joyce  and Fallen Angels directed by Richard were two productions that toured with Arts Council funding and attracted good reviews, ‘Surreal, beautiful, mesmerising… on the borderlines of theatre, dance and mime… visually stunning.’The pedagogyIn her thesis DEFININGMOMENTS: Leadership and Learning Disability Theatres 2017 Susan Caudle setsout to analyse the character and qualities of the best learning disabilitiestheatre:‘Their premise is that good theatre requires authenticity and thatprofessional actors with learning disabilities have a particular capacity forachieving this feature within performances. They characterise an actor with alearning disability as having a particular kind of authenticity, which comesfrom a lack of self-consciousness on the performers’ part; a lack of overttechnique; a sense of being truly in the moment.’ (Palmer and Hayhow, 2008:44). When the Arts Council funding ended, Richard started to focus more closelyon the pedagogy. 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Special Needs

Disability Theatre Comes Of Age In Coventry's City Of Culture 2021

8 Dec 2020

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      string(5627) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.SOCIAL MOBILITY IN GREAT BRITAIN: FIFTHSTATE OF THE NATION REPORTKeywordsSocial Mobility,Great Britain,postcode lottery,social mobilityindex, hotspots,coldspots,geographicaldivide, deprivedareasSummaryThis report by the Social Mobility Commission shows that a stark social mobility postcodelottery exists in Britain today where the chances of someone from a disadvantagedbackground succeeding in life is bound to where they live.The report assesses the progress that Great Britain has made towards improving social mobility.It puts the social mobility index at the heart of the report and ranks all English local authorities intohotspots and coldspots, using a range of 16 indicators for every life stage from the early yearsthrough to working lives. 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While richer areas tend to outperform deprived areas in the index, a numberof places buck the trend. Some of the most deprived areas in England are hotspots, including mostWeek Commencing 4th December 2017https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662744/State_of_the_Nation_2017_-_Social_Mobility_in_Great_Britain.pdfhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662744/State_of_the_Nation_2017_-_Social_Mobility_in_Great_Britain.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.London boroughs – such as Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham. 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But it also warns that there is a mind-blowing inconsistencyof practice in how to improve social mobility outcomes, with little pooling of experience or evidence-based strategies.Key Finding:■ London accounts for nearly two-thirds of all social mobility hotspots.■ The Midlands is the worst region of the country for social mobility for those from disadvantagedbackgrounds – half of the local authority areas in the East Midlands and more than a third in theWest Midlands are social mobility coldspots■ Some of the worst performing areas such as Weymouth and Portland, and Allerdale, are rural, noturban.■ Coastal and older industrial towns – places such as Scarborough, Hastings, Derby andNottingham – are becoming entrenched social mobility coldspots.■ Some of the richest places in England, such as West Berkshire, Cotswold and Crawley, deliverworse outcomes for their disadvantaged children than places that are much poorer such asSunderland and Tower Hamlets■ Apart from London, English cities are punching below their weight on social mobility outcomes. Noother city makes it into the top 20%■ Early years – disadvantaged children are 14 percentage points less likely to be school ready atage 5 in coldspots than in hotspots: in 94 areas, under half of disadvantaged children reach agood level of development at age 5■ Schools – 51% of London children on free school meals achieve A* to C in English and mathsGCSE compared to an average of 36% of children on free school meals in all other Englishregions: in the best place (Westminster), 63% get good English and maths GCSEs whereas inthe worst (Isle of Wight), only 27% do■ A critical factor"
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Leadership

Social Mobility In Great Britain: Fifth State Of The Nation Report

29 Nov 2017

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      string(5652) "68creative support   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005Charlotte Yonge explainsher use of art and drama tohelp the education of a childwith Asperger’s SyndromeCartoons,computersand silly walksFrom 1998 to 2002 I supported Sam, a child withAsperger’s Syndrome. Sam attended a primary schoolwhere I worked with him using non-directive playwith soft toys and puppets.Sam’s parents felt that he wasn’t flourishing at school.He hated going to school so his parents arranged toeducate him at home for two years. In this more adaptableenvironment, he was able to use his artistic skills and followhis love of drama. The education was provided by his family,myself, and two other artistic support workers.Sam and I constructed together little dramatisations ofcharacters, which were filmed by Sam on a home video. Imirrored and reflected his thoughts and feelings, becamecharacters as instructed and consistently asked him to tellstories, framing questions such as: ‘What is Bob feeling andwhat is he saying?’ or ‘What will happen next I wonder?’As he was also very keen on TV cartoons and comedy, wewould have conversations about programmes like TheSimpsons. I would ask him which was his favourite episode,and he gradually became curious about which were myfavourites. Then we would enquire about children’s filmssuch as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Shrek or Nightmare BeforeChristmas, which often had fascinating themes. Sam hadtaught me much, I discovered, and so we developed a realsense of companionship.Our main line of enquiry was into comedy – thedifferences between children’s humour and that of adults.Why were there differences? I introduced him to BasilFawlty and, before long, he wanted me to imitate JohnCleese’s Minister of Funny Walks. From this, we developedadult characters who were dysfunctional – with badtempers and juvenile habits. What a wonderful time wehad, saturated with drama and conversation.A BIT OF DRAMA: Me, playing out events for Sam to draw later69Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005www.teachthinking.com   creative supportAfter some months of home education, Sam’s parentsdecided to help him learn to edit digital films. They boughtsoftware and elicited the help of a friend who was doing anMA on animation. A new era dawned for Sam. In two years,he learned to edit digital films, create DVDs with menusand clips, produce photo galleries and select out-takes. Healso used the animation programme to produce his ownfilm. In 2005 he entered key stage three and started at aspecial school. Now he had proved, at home, that he couldinitiate his own projects, the school allowed him to take inhis own work to do. This was much more satisfying for himthan the situation at his previous primary school. He nowhappily fits in, drawing caricature portraits of his teachersand peers. His latest video dramas also portray the classictensions between teachers and pupils.After starting at the special school, Sam became very keenon a music-making project with the computer, as he hadto find out how to develop his creativity on his own. Fromtime to time I came to listen to his excellent compositionsuntil one day he asked me to improvise a song with himabout school. I asked him what the words were, and hegave me them: ‘I hate school…’ a whole verse of deeply feltresponses to school life. Together, we put a theme tune toit and later he added sound effects, percussion and tempo.I was delighted we had done something together like this.The result was, to me, a truly inspired bit of collaborativecomposition that also conveyed Sam’s authentic feelingsand thinking about the inequalities of life.The home-education programme evolved organically,from self directed play, mirroring and questioning, tomore intricate language use and conversation. It centredon Sam’s creative interests and included two other artisticadult support workers as well as members of his family. Iconsidered Sam to have learned some emotional skills suchas collaborative talk and a willingness to accommodatesomeone else’s feelings and dispositions. These importantsteps were achieved more effectively than would havebeen possible in a more formal, didactic educationframework.  The interactions we shared were complexand used multi-media. They relied on visual, dramatic andauditory skills as well as forms of collaborative creativity.The results of our home-education programme were thesubject of a case study I wrote for the School of EmotionalLiteracy Diploma course.The dataThe table below shows lists of visual arts and conversationalactivities covered by the data. I drew on Gardner’s workabout multiple intelligences. With conversational support,Sam has been able to verbalise his visual thinking to thepoint where he now provides storyboards with clearly-written speech and a logical storyline composed in avisual format. His written work develops on the back of hisvisual narratives, which address actual emotional issues inhis life and are rich and meaningful. These become videodramas and, subsequently, DVD compilations. As a result,a spatial-visual skill becomes progressively integrated withhis immediate socio-emotional concerns – his involvementwith others in collaborative projects. I have therefore listedthese two modes of communication in terms of theirrepresentative activities below, together with an indicationof the creative and cognitive skills involved.70creative support   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005Visual and mediaAesthetic and dramatic enquiryl"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Cartoons, Computers and silly walks

1 Jan 2005

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      string(5652) "68creative support   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005Charlotte Yonge explainsher use of art and drama tohelp the education of a childwith Asperger’s SyndromeCartoons,computersand silly walksFrom 1998 to 2002 I supported Sam, a child withAsperger’s Syndrome. Sam attended a primary schoolwhere I worked with him using non-directive playwith soft toys and puppets.Sam’s parents felt that he wasn’t flourishing at school.He hated going to school so his parents arranged toeducate him at home for two years. In this more adaptableenvironment, he was able to use his artistic skills and followhis love of drama. The education was provided by his family,myself, and two other artistic support workers.Sam and I constructed together little dramatisations ofcharacters, which were filmed by Sam on a home video. Imirrored and reflected his thoughts and feelings, becamecharacters as instructed and consistently asked him to tellstories, framing questions such as: ‘What is Bob feeling andwhat is he saying?’ or ‘What will happen next I wonder?’As he was also very keen on TV cartoons and comedy, wewould have conversations about programmes like TheSimpsons. I would ask him which was his favourite episode,and he gradually became curious about which were myfavourites. Then we would enquire about children’s filmssuch as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Shrek or Nightmare BeforeChristmas, which often had fascinating themes. Sam hadtaught me much, I discovered, and so we developed a realsense of companionship.Our main line of enquiry was into comedy – thedifferences between children’s humour and that of adults.Why were there differences? I introduced him to BasilFawlty and, before long, he wanted me to imitate JohnCleese’s Minister of Funny Walks. From this, we developedadult characters who were dysfunctional – with badtempers and juvenile habits. What a wonderful time wehad, saturated with drama and conversation.A BIT OF DRAMA: Me, playing out events for Sam to draw later69Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005www.teachthinking.com   creative supportAfter some months of home education, Sam’s parentsdecided to help him learn to edit digital films. They boughtsoftware and elicited the help of a friend who was doing anMA on animation. A new era dawned for Sam. In two years,he learned to edit digital films, create DVDs with menusand clips, produce photo galleries and select out-takes. Healso used the animation programme to produce his ownfilm. In 2005 he entered key stage three and started at aspecial school. Now he had proved, at home, that he couldinitiate his own projects, the school allowed him to take inhis own work to do. This was much more satisfying for himthan the situation at his previous primary school. He nowhappily fits in, drawing caricature portraits of his teachersand peers. His latest video dramas also portray the classictensions between teachers and pupils.After starting at the special school, Sam became very keenon a music-making project with the computer, as he hadto find out how to develop his creativity on his own. Fromtime to time I came to listen to his excellent compositionsuntil one day he asked me to improvise a song with himabout school. I asked him what the words were, and hegave me them: ‘I hate school…’ a whole verse of deeply feltresponses to school life. Together, we put a theme tune toit and later he added sound effects, percussion and tempo.I was delighted we had done something together like this.The result was, to me, a truly inspired bit of collaborativecomposition that also conveyed Sam’s authentic feelingsand thinking about the inequalities of life.The home-education programme evolved organically,from self directed play, mirroring and questioning, tomore intricate language use and conversation. It centredon Sam’s creative interests and included two other artisticadult support workers as well as members of his family. Iconsidered Sam to have learned some emotional skills suchas collaborative talk and a willingness to accommodatesomeone else’s feelings and dispositions. These importantsteps were achieved more effectively than would havebeen possible in a more formal, didactic educationframework.  The interactions we shared were complexand used multi-media. They relied on visual, dramatic andauditory skills as well as forms of collaborative creativity.The results of our home-education programme were thesubject of a case study I wrote for the School of EmotionalLiteracy Diploma course.The dataThe table below shows lists of visual arts and conversationalactivities covered by the data. I drew on Gardner’s workabout multiple intelligences. With conversational support,Sam has been able to verbalise his visual thinking to thepoint where he now provides storyboards with clearly-written speech and a logical storyline composed in avisual format. His written work develops on the back of hisvisual narratives, which address actual emotional issues inhis life and are rich and meaningful. These become videodramas and, subsequently, DVD compilations. As a result,a spatial-visual skill becomes progressively integrated withhis immediate socio-emotional concerns – his involvementwith others in collaborative projects. I have therefore listedthese two modes of communication in terms of theirrepresentative activities below, together with an indicationof the creative and cognitive skills involved.70creative support   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005Visual and mediaAesthetic and dramatic enquiryl"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Cartoons Computers and Silly Walks

1 Nov 2006

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