The value of creative partnerships

Six London schools talked to A New Direction about their experiences of being involved in the Creative Partnerships programme (2002-2011) how it made a difference to their school and why this approach is helpful in driving positive change.

Talking about their progression since, they discuss the value of a creative approach across the curriculum for its benefits to staff, studentsand the wider community, and how they have managed to continue to maintain partnerships with creative professionals and organisations. Highlighting specific projects and approaches, and the change and impact that these had, others chools can use these six pieces as inspiration, and starting points for their own explorations of creative approaches to teaching and learning, and of building effective partnerships with the creative and cultural sector.

The Thomas Tallis School document can be downloaded here.

Pif Paf: creative computer science

PifPafPresentation7min.mov from Al Ma on Vimeo.

 When we decided that the school uniform needed refreshing we could have adopted two different strategies:

1. decide on an off-the-shelf solution from known suppliers and not worry too much about the design or the ethical or environmental impact of the production process
2. establish a student led design group to work with a qualified designer experienced in ethical fashion to create a bespoke solution

Obviously, we decided on the second strategy and we were lucky enough to work with the fabulous Alina Moat, a recent graduate from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion. She came highly recommended by the equally fabulous Professor Helen Storey with whom we have been on a number of creative learning adventures. The entire project is documented on this blog.

Alina recently visited our new building to see the students wearing her designs. It was lovely to see how pleased she was with the end result of the project and we are equally proud of the fact that our students are wearing clothes that are genuinely sustainable and distinct. Alina's real reason for visiting however was to tell us about her latest design project and to ask whether we would be interested in collaborating with her. Entitled Pif Paf, the project aims to teach young people how to use programming software by employing a number of creative learning strategies.The video above describes succinctly how a playful combination of physical, emotional and intellectual enquiry results in students mastering complex processes.

We are hopeful that we can support the next phase of the project, testing the model with a class of Year 7 students over several months as part of our Tallis Lab curriculum. We are very excited about the potential of working alongside Alina again on such an innovative solution to the issue of rebooting computer science education in the UK.

Matthew Shlian's paper engineering

Matthew Shlian is an artist who works with paper. His attitude to creativity is really interesting. He has also managed to create a life for himself which allows him to continue to make art in his studio. He is inspired by the desire to continue experimenting with paper engineering, to test the limits of what is possible. He uses any technology available to him. I love what he says about the process of making something. He failed maths and geometry in school. He relies on imagining forms and testing the possibilities of his material in his hands. If he can see it and feel it he knows he can make it but says that if he knew exactly what the work was going to look like before it was completed he would not bother making it. In other words, the element of risk is all important and the process of solving problems is what motivates him to continue to create.

Progression in Creativity report

The Progression in Creativity: Developing New Forms of Assessment report has been published on the CCE website. Year 9 students at Tallis took part in one of the field trials in collaboration with The Centre for Real World Learning (CRL) led by Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas at The University of Winchester. The aim of the research was to establish the viability of creating an assessment framework for tracking the development of young people’s creativity in schools. Initially an assessment tool was established by the researchers (see above).

This tool comprised of 5 habits and 15 sub-habits of creativity:

1. Inquisitive (wondering and questioning, exploring and investigating, challenging assumptions)
2. Persistent (sticking with difficulty, daring to be different, tolerating uncertainty)
3. Imaginative (playing with possibilities, making connections, using intuition)
4. Collaborative (sharing the product, giving and sharing feedback, cooperating appropriately)
5. Disciplined (developing techniques, reflecting critically, crafting and improving)

Following two field trials the principal findings were that:

1. The concept of an assessment framework for creativity in schools is valid and relevant. There was a strong sense among teachers that our framework encompassed a learnable set of dispositions. There are strong grounds for now seeking to develop a more sophisticated prototype, of use to teachers and learners, to track the development of creativity in schools.
2. The framework should initially focus on the 5-14 age range, although some practitioners may find it useful with younger and older pupils.
3. The evidence suggests that the primary use of any assessment framework will be formative, supporting pupils to harness more of their creativity and helping teachers more effectively to cultivate creative dispositions in the young people they teach.

As the report indicates "measuring creativity, for teachers, would appear to be a fundamentally different task from measuring literacy or even assessing performance in the creative arts."

Recommendations for further development include from the team include:

• Maintaining the emphasis on the learnability of creativity;
• Development of training materials and ‘best practice’ resources for teachers;
• Incorporating the tool into schools’ reporting systems;
• Separation of the sub-habits back into three distinct sub-habits;
• Scrutinising language and selecting a clearly legible printed font;
• Developing best practice;
• Developing a more formative tool to point pupils to areas for development;
• Capturing ‘breadth’ more systematically in the tool;
• Developing a more systematic evidence collection process;
• Developing the tool for the virtual environment; and
• Trialling the tool with the ‘unconverted’.

Read the Report

iStopMotion on the iPad

I've just discovered that iStopMotion is available for he iPad with the addition of the free remote camera app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I think this is going to form the backbone of a scheme of work for the equally new GCSE photography course! I just need to give some thought to keeping the iPhone/iPod/iPad steady during image capture. Looks like a bit of research into mini tripods is in order. 

 

Musical bicycle

Check out this demonstration of collaborative creativity:

What if you would be able to generate music by the simple act of riding your bike? This project started with that question. We have build the first prototype and thanks to Jeffry Sol and Vincent Beijersbergen we were able to do so in a month. And yes it was pretty difficult, but loads of fun.... the idea is pretty simple; basically, a wheel and dynamo work the same way as a record player. But it was not as easy as it looks. First, we had to come up with a solution for the wheels; how can we change the records? The forfork was blocking the wheel. That's why we changed a 30 year old bike into a lefty bike; and build a construction that would still support the weight and would be strong enough for people to ride on it. The biggest challenge of all was to make sure that the needles would stick to the record and follow the grooves, without skipping too much. Therefor we bought two vertical record players and took them apart, to see how they worked. Also; we wanted our bike to be as low tech as possible; that's why the only "extra" energy we used was a 9 volt battery to support the amplifier. In order for the records to run smoothly, we also had to change the crank of the bike and the chain. After that, we build our own horn, to have some extra volume, and we sprayed the whole bike black. We had some sponsors like bikestores, handy people and DJ's and that's how our dream in progress turned out to be real... Here's to the crazy ones; thank you guys, you rock. - Merel, Pieter and Liat

www.featsperminute.com

Freelearning

I've just discovered this great little grid by the always interesting John Davitt and couldn't resist posting it here. This is what John has to say about Freelearning (a bit like Free Running but with, you know, more learning):

Remember you are freelearning as soon as you escape the gravitational pull of the “always do” the ennui of the everyday. In addition I wanted to find space for the conviction that the ultimate resource of another, the outdoor world and new technologies of connection all have a significant part to play in building the most delightful learning opportunities. I wanted a model for thinking about learning that lets “creativity in the door and innovation through the window”

John runs Freelearning events for schools. Wouldn't it be great to get him to come to Tallis to show us in person how it works?

A Vision for the Future

Part of the process of consulting members our community about the vision for Thomas Tallis School has involved posting a link to a survey on Facebook asking the 650 members of the Alumni group to respond to 4 key questions:

1. What excites you about the future of Tallis?
2. What is the most important feature of the school that you would hate to see lost?
3. How can we ensure that every child at Tallis grows, develops and excels in the future?
4. In your opinion, how might the school community become even stronger?

There have already been some fascinating responses (I'll wait til a few more appear before attempting to communicate them) but I was particularly gratified to read this response to question 2:

It's personality and ethos. I would hate to see it become a school where only grades come first. As long as creativity continues to be encouraged and the brilliant care for the student's personal AND academic development continues then hopefully Tallis won't go down the same route as many other schools where students a barely considered as individuals.

A New Perspective

SURFACE : A film from underneath from TU+ on Vimeo.

This short film demonstrates that sometimes all it takes is a new perspective to spark your creativity. Enjoy!

The 50 Things Every Graphic Designer Should Know

In the context of our revision of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis, this advice for graphic designers (recommended by Billy) might be really useful. As well as some great advice for anyone hoping to be creative, like No. 34 above about the value of limitations, the addition of fantastic little line drawings really brings the ideas to life.

Thanks for the recommendation Billy.

Michael Wolff discusses visual literacy

What makes a good designer? What is visual literacy? What habits of mind are useful in the world of visual design?

Michael Wolff is a designer who values his creative muscles - curiosity, appreciation and imagination. As the man says, "Seeing is a muscular exercise".

Steve Jobs connects the dots

Steve Jobs misquotes Robert Frost in this well-watched film about the lessons of his life: "Follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference." Inspiring stuff.

Dream Big

Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this story today on Tumblr (my favourite, if slightly infuriating, blogging platform). It's pretty self-explanatory but I like what the film has to say about a lot of things: publishing books in the 21st century, dreams and aspirations, the importance of community (even when it's not on your doorstep) and creativity.

Check it out!

Learning to be creative

Sir Ken Robinson has been in town again and this is a compilation of the best bits from his speech to the Learning Without Frontiers audience. He speaks eloquently about the value of the arts, about the problem with the EBacc, about the challenges faced by aging Western populations, about really "getting back to basics" in education and about the central purposes of education.

Several members of staff at Tallis have now taken part in the 500 words challenge that forms part of the Purpose/Ed campaign. A couple of the posts have appeared on this blog. Click here to check out the archive. It's clear from recent debates that there is no consensus about what this purpose is. There has been quite fierce disagreement amongst contributors about what education is for.

Our challenge as a group this year is to re-write the aims of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis. We have already discussed the need to make the manifesto a little more accessible, a little harder hitting, a little more provocative and a lot more interactive.

We have a meeting on Wednesday morning. I'd like everyone in the group to bring two statements to the meeting. These should:

1. be brief
2. be challenging and/or provocative
3. be memorable
   
4. say how an individual or the whole of Thomas Tallis School could be more creative
5. articulate something you believe and are happy to support

We will try, in the time we have together, to draft about 10 statements for our revised manifesto.

Gargantua

I've just returned from seeing the amazing production of 'Gargantua' at Tallis. It's part of the National Theatre Connections Festival and is being performed both in school and at The Soho Theatre next week. Fingers crossed we get selected to perform at the national Theatre itself! The show demonstrates the amazing talents not only of our young students (nearly everyone in the play is from KS3) but also the collaborative creativity of our staff. The play is fantastically entertaining and has everything from a live band to huge animations in addition to the wonderful performances.

Well done to everyone involved for another groundbreaking event at Tallis.

Re-creating America

Check out this film about creative learning in Oklahoma:

For much of its history, the word "America" has stood for the brightest ideas, the most resourceful solutions and the most provocative insights. Is this still true today, and if not, what can we do? The film explores the importance of creativity in education by highlighting four schools in Oklahoma and assessing how the state's teachers are attempting to teach and promote creativity: Educare Preschool in Tulsa, OK: serving a low-income, at-risk community; Flower Mound Elementary School in Lawton, OK: integrating the arts into the entire curriculum with the A+ Schools initiative; Odyssey of the Mind, a creative problem-solving competition at Piedmont Middle School; Santa Fe South Charter High School in Oklahoma City: helping students overcome the challenges of poverty and the high drop-out rate in America's urban high schools. The program asks teachers, parents and national experts: what appear to be the most effective ways to promote creativity, while still teaching the three Rs, and even improving test scores?

Phobias

It's always great to see staff and students collaborating on rich, inter-disciplinary projects that have real audiences. But when the quality of the work is as high as it was during the two nights of 'Phobias', you realise that this kind of learning creates fantastic outcomes for all involved. The students of different ages get to behave like real arts practitioners, producing original and exciting work to a very high standard. The staff work as a team and learn skills from one another and the students, extending notions of what is possible. The audience leave with a sense of what can be achieved by young people and their teachers when they are prepared to take a few risks and trust in each other's skills.

Last year's 'Restaurant' project was the first time we had attempted an inter-disciplinary arts event quite so ambitious. I am delighted to say that 'Phobias' has raised the bar again. The audience was stimulated by a massive variety of multi-sensory experiences in a wide variety of art forms that wouldn't have been out of place in a contemporary art gallery or cutting edge theatrical space.

The company of costumed performers was enhanced by an army of backstage technical wizards with banks of laptops, speakers, cameras and other props. Visitors could begin their exploration of various irrational fears in the bar in two complimentary installations by feeling what it might be like to be be buried alive. Then it was time to be whisked into an operating theatre where they witnessed a patient close to death, live brain surgery via a video projection and the overpowering smell of chemicals and animal flesh. They then journeyed down a dark tunnel, where disfigured toys brushed against their faces, strangers screamed and hands reached out to grab their legs. Making their way through a hot, burning room and a door of flames, the audience then entered a large space which was quickly transformed into a mixture of therapy room, living nightmare and punishment chamber. Wall to wall video projections and a synchronised team of performers assaulted them with horrifying tales of death by fire, water and earth, before they were finally and unceremoniously ordered to leave.

The entire event was a real tribute to the energy, creativity and faith displayed by a dedicated team of staff at Tallis and the immense trust they have in the talents of our students. Thanks to everyone involved!

Oklahoma!

We have just returned from a really exciting trip to Oklahoma to present our thoughts about creative learning and the future of schools at the Creativity World Forum. Representatives from Thomas Tallis and 2 other London schools (Stormont House and Gallions) took part in a 3 month long collaboration with partner schools in Oklahoma that culminated in our presentation to 1500 delegates at the conference and the establishment of a Pop Up School.

The idea resulted from our investigation of the Pop Up phenomenon in London and beyond - dance, architecture, shops, galleries, all had appeared and disappeared as quickly during the summer of 2010. At Tallis, we had commissioned a Pop Up Gallery/Classroom for the school concourse in which we had installed The Measurement Shop in collaboration with Tangled Feet Theatre Company during our arts festival.

We were interested in the idea that school might become more of an event than a building in the future. Our Tallis Lab curriculum is concerned with exploring the benefits of Web 2.0 tools and a more project based approach to learning and we have begun to make really effective use of blogging, web design and social media. We admired the work of visionaries like Sugata Mitra and the research of Charlie Leadbeater on education innovation.

Our experience at the conference was fascinating. We established a school (of sorts) in an unofficial corner of the conference hall (Booth 100.5) and engaged delegates with a variety of tasks hosted on our #popupschool website. We used Twitcam to broadcast live from the stage during our presentation. We made films, did research, created podcasts - mostly from our new iPod Touch devices equipped with the relevant apps - iMovie, Audioboo, Tumblr etc. The younger students sang songs in the foyer (rather like a Flashmob event) or asked a series of challenging, open-ended questions. We aimed to give our students an opportunity to engage with adults as equals, co-learners and to publish their thoughts and reflections to a real audience online.

The response was very positive:

#popupschool was by far my favourite thing at the #CWF2010 RT @shannoninottawa the future is unwritten http://bit.ly/dzpt4d

One blogger even suggested that the concept of a Pop Up School could apply to music lessons.

The most valuable lesson we learned was just how easy and powerful it is to connect with other learners and learning professionals (we're not very fond of the word teacher) in far off places. Tammy Parks at Howe High School was our partner in the project and has proved to be an inspirational colleague and a leading figure in our PLNs (Personal Learning Networks). We conducted several Skype conversations with her and her students in the lead up to the conference and we were inspired by her story. Howe is literally in the middle of nowhere. It is 3 hours from the nearest town. The school is smaller than one of our year groups at Tallis and, apart from the school building, the only other significant architectural features in Howe are the convenience store and the lumber yard. Despite this, Tammy and her husband Scott (the superintendent of the school district) have created an ICT rich learning environment using state of the art equipment. The school uses a satellite truck to conduct virtual field trips. They have high quality video conferencing equipment and lead learning experiments across the United States. Their physical isolation has been a spur to innovation. In order to give their students access to 21st century learning they have harnessed the power of the internet and the skills of broadcast journalism to connect them with the rest of the world.

Oh, and we met Sir Ken Robinson too. What a trip!

KaosPilots

I had a fascinating chat today (via Skype) with Simon Kavanagh from the Danish organisation KaosPilots. I can't remember where I heard about them but Grethe, one of our colleagues Denmark who visits Tallis each year in January on her way to the BETT show, happened to know the folks there and made a connection on out behalf.

Here's a brief introduction to the School:

The KaosPilot program is a 3-year education divided into four disciplines:

Creative Business Design
Creative Leadership Design
Creative Project Design
Creative Process Design

The students learn how to build a viable business according to their and clients visions and values, they learn how to be leaders, and how to initiate and execute creative and sustainable projects, as well as design and conduct change processes for different clients.
The KaosPilot program is a three-year, fulltime program, divided into six semesters. Each year corresponds to 60 points in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and each semester last 19 – 21 weeks.

The program is integrative and multidisciplinary in the sense that it draws upon different, traditional sciences and combines aspects of these with new approaches in the core disciplines and their components. The traditional disciplines are Social Studies, Psychology, Anthropology, Pedagogy, Leadership and Organization, Complexity Theory, Creativity, Design, Communication, Project Management and Business.

My chat with Simon consisted of us exchanging some news about what each of our schools was up to. I mentioned our specialist status (Arts, Leading Edge and School of Creativity), the trip to Oklahoma and our interest in new models for creative learning. I'm particularly interested in the idea that schools could become real agents of change in emerging communities, like the one on our doorstep. Simon spoke about a new collaboration with the community of Paddington in West London where a huge new social enterprise scheme is being established with their support and that of The Hub.

I've arranged to continue this chat tomorrow and will attempt to find out more about the Paddington project. Sounds fascinating. I'll report back in due course.

iPad blogging

This is my first post using the BlogPress app for the iPad. The large screen size and built in keyboard make the iPad perfect for blogging and this app makes the best use of its features. It's easy to set up, integrates well with various blogging platforms (although not Tumblr) and allows you to lay out images as you'd like it to appear online.


I've been reflecting on the recent successes of our specialist status today. A couple of weeks ago we held a private view of art & design work by post 16 students. Unlike previous years we decided this year to combine the work of students from four different courses - A level fine art, photography and product design and BTEC art & design. We also handed over the responsibility of curating the show to our artist in residence. The resulting show was a real testament to the diversity of talent amongst our students and the acceptance that there is no hierarchy of esteem for these courses.

Last week we staged two evening events entitled 'Past, Present & Future'. They were designed to provide a platform for the creativity evident in all areas of the arts at Tallis but also to encourage the audience to reflect on the relationship between creative learning and physical space. Much of the activity was centred on our concourse, a street that runs through the centre of the school. We aimed to create a festival of events and to engage the audience with competing delights. We had healthy audiences on both nights and the student performers often appeared to be running the show, ushering audience members to various places and making the most of the various impromptu stages. We showcased work resulting from two performing arts residencies (Tangled Feet theatre company and Dance Spinner) and screened the world premiere of a film written, directed by and starring our students. We have received lots of really positive feedback from the audiences on both nights, complimenting the school on its innovative approach and ability to surprise and delight.

On Friday we discovered that we had been re-designated as a specialist arts college for a further three years. This is great news and means that we can continue to use the arts to impact on the whole school curriculum using a mixture of teachers, assistants, technicians and visiting practitioners. It also means the support that we give our family of schools and various community organizations will continue. This confirmation comes shortly after we received the Ofsted report confirming that Thomas Tallis is a good school and one in which specialist status has had a demonstrably positive impact on learning.

Much of the innovative work we have done this term has been funded from our School of Creativity budget. We don't yet know how long this funding will last but we have consolidated our commitment to promoting creative learning by appointing a new Assistant Headteacher with this as his central responsibility. We have new heads of music and art & design starting in September, both of whom have expressed their support for our collective vision for the school as a creative hub for the local community. This summer we are hosting Felix's School of Rock at Tallis and co-ordinating a creativity summer school in partnership with Kidbrooke School and Emergency Exit Arts. We will be appearing in the Thames Festival parade and, in October, hosting a visit from an entire company of Kathakali artists from Southern India as part of our Black History Month celebrations.

I was fortunate enough to visit the site of the new school last week. Having been involved in the design of the building in the early stages, it was a real pleasure to see the building under construction and to appreciate the scale of the structure. It's a huge building with fantastic facilities. The arts are co-located, unlike the present building, and we have massively increased our capacity to host large scale events in state-of-the-art surroundings. It's been an incredible year in which so much has changed. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with such an inspiring, hard-working and creative team of professionals. I also feel very sure that the specialist arts subjects will continue to make a hugely positive impact on the success of the whole school next year and beyond.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad