Food for Thought

Thanks to everyone for your contributions to this afternoon's meeting. Here are the notes for you to have a think about. We would like you to reflect on the suggestions and develop them in a bit more detail. Please leave your ideas in the form of a comment. Remember, you all have the ability to create new posts to the blog. It's a really good way of continuing to discuss ideas about creative learning between meetings.

Notes from the Creative Tallis Action Research Group Meeting
23rd February 2009
Present: Jon, John, Soren, Danuta, Billy, Christie, Shreya, Matthew, Tom, Tom, Amber and Seb

1. Film of Shine Week 2008 shown to group. Discussion of the aims of Shine Week and the broader context of developing talent and creativity nationally

2. Reviewed discussion from last meeting about “Food for Thought” event. What is the event for?

Suggestions
a. To engage parents in thinking about creative learning – not just information but interaction
b. To encourage parents to think about the value of collaborative learning activities
c. To seek guidance and support from parents about how the school can improve
d. Launch our own version of the Creative Manifesto for Britain
e. Curate an event that inspires and provokes the audience

3. Who should be invited to the event?
• Parents and carers
• Primary school students and staff
• Teachers (from Tallis and beyond)
• School managers
• C P staff

Ideas for the event

• Each attendee receives a gift of a statement/question/answer to a question about creative learning. Chinese whispers, responses to the statement, responses to the responses
• Problem solving, exploring different learning styles – using a variety of skills/learning strategies, get participants to reflect on how people learn
• Ask participants to contribute manifesto points to reflect their interest in creative learning
• Present parents with a story about what we do already at Tallis and why we are interested in creating more opportunities to be creative
• Ask for a creativity wish list – ideas for the future
• Make a massive mind map on the floor about creative learning
• Play a party game – teach parents how to play a computer game reflect on skills, abilities and knowledge of young people, competition, challenge, flow, open source technology, design our own application for the Wii, new learning tools
• Puzzle, problem solving – relate to the manifesto, backwards thinking exercise, begin with something that we want to see happening in school in 2 years, work back from there
• Multi-media presentations - sound and visuals important
• Spread over two days to engage different audiences with a range of activities