Shine Competitions

Check out the Shine website for chances to enter exciting competitions with great prizes. It would also be great if you could have a look at the stuff we've uploaded from Tallis. We are currently the featured user (look in the bottom right hand corner of the homepage). The more people look at the Tallis content, the more it will be featured at the front end. Finally, you can register to upload your own content (music, photographs, video, words...anything really) and share your work with other folks around the world.

Tangled Feet Rehearsals

I just wanted to say how impressed I have been with the way in which you have manged the publicity and arrangements for the "Tangled Feet" residency. I'm also immensely appreciative for all the contributions you have made to the blog, meetings, developing The Manifesto and countless other contributions. Look forward to seeing the film and working with you on the next steps.

Thanks again,

Soren

Thank You

Just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the members of the ARG for helping to present the Manifesto to (almost) the whole staff body this afternoon. I hope you found the experience interesting. I'm especially grateful to the students who stayed much longer than normal and having managed the difficult process of interviewing candidates for the Tangled Feet residency prior to the meeting. It would be good to get an update on how this went and what your plans are for the week of the 29th. I'd like to suggest that you are all involved in the project with Tangled Feet so that you can benefit from their ideas, get involved in some of the activities and, most importantly, help to document what happens. Those of you planning to enter yourselves for the Arts Award will be able to get some great evidence for your portfolios. Anyroadup, you were great this afternoon and a credit to the school. Cheers team!

Arts Award

This is just a quick post to ask about progress on achieving the Arts Award for those of you involved in the Tangled Feet residency and the work of the Action Research Group. I missed out on the initial training and I know there are some key things that must feature in each of your portfolios in order to gain the accreditation. It might be worth reviewing what those things are now so that we can make sure that we all record what needs to be demonstrated either on the blog or elsewhere. I think we worked out that it was OK to demonstrate achievements online but I just wondered if there was a need for an additional portfolio of some kind.

Launching 'Project Noodle' and 'The Creative Manifesto'

Hi everyone,

I thought it might be a good idea to go over the running order for Tuesday's meeting. I have asked for us to be second on the running order so we would probably start our bit at around 4.30 - 4.45. I have asked for the tables to arranged in year groups so that there will be a mix of subjects in each group. There will be two tables per year group so when we ask for people to work on the task the year groups will split in half - probably about seven or eight people per group. It would be great for there to be a representative from Creative Tallis in as many groups as possible. I know Tom will be preparing himself for an 'A' level the following day (good luck mate!) So we should have:

Myself, Tom T, Matt, Seb, Billy, Raihan, Amber, Miss Piwko, Miss Hawkins and Mr. Nicholls

So to the running order:

5 mins - Mr Nicholls will start by giving some history for what has happened in the school and the ARG up until this point and also make some links to the national context

5 mins - Mr Hawes will introduce 'Project Noodle' (There will be noodle salad and chopsticks on the table) and show the wondeful website Mr Nicholls has made. Then Mr. H will explain and introduce the three year planning task that we did last time with the Leadership Team. Mr Challenger and Mr. Murray, we hope, will be noodling on their guitar whilst this happens.

20 mins - Groups work on three year task and then we invite feedback

5 mins - Introduce the Creative Manifesto and explain how it came about. I was wondering whether our group's very own Student Governor could take this on - Tom, I know you'd be brilliant at it, as would any member of the group who was willing to take it on.

20 mins - Groups identify one Manifesto point that they think is crucial and come up with some action points that will enable that objective to be worked towards/achieved. They can also identify one manifesto point that they feel needs more work and explain how it might be improved. Groups feedback on these two points.

That takes us up to the hour mark - what do we think?

I'd also like to allocate some jobs:

1. I will make the noodles and have them in authentic takeaway pots to put on the tables. I was wondering if I could dash to the Nicholls kitchen to do that Tuesday period six, but I can also ask Ms Khan to let me use her room. One volunteer to help would be greatly appreciated.

2. We will need enough copies of the three year plans and Creative Manifestos for the meeting. We need at least 14 of the 3 yr plans and I think it might be nice to have at least 28 manifestos. Could you print these off Mr. Nicholls?

3. I know it might not be practical to use Tallis Talk to feedback on the day' but would it be a good idea to open a topic for people to contribute to after the meeting. Could you do this Mr Nicholls?

4. Shall we all meet up in room 208 after school (Monday 15th 3.20 -3.40) so that we can over plans for Tangled Feet rehearsals and anything we need to discuss for the staff meeting?

Apologies for the monster post, and hope to see you after school tomorrow,

Soren

Tangled Feet

Kat Joyce emailed today to suggest that we create a long list of ideas for the Tangled Feet residency. I said I'd put a post up here to get the ball rolling. So, what would you like to see happening between our volunteers and the Tangled Feet crew. Remember, the main theme is "Home", how we define it and what it means to us. The school is moving home within the next couple of years and folk at Tallis have a variety of feelings about the current home. Students will soon be moving to Tallis from their primary schools and Year 13 students have just left their Tallis home for university and world of work.

Also, it will be possible for groups of students and artists/performers to work on a range of projects simultaneously. For example, one group could devise a short site specific performance to be shown at lunchtime whilst another group could be preparing a soundscape and yet another might be designing an installation.

Please respond to this post with your suggestions for possible activities so that the folks at Tangled Feet can prepare themselves and we can all get hold of the necessary resources.

Finally, I think it's important to send a letter home to the parents of the selected 20 to inform them about the residency. Has this already happened or do we need to write something for Tuesday? Are we going to have reserves in case some people drop out before the 29th? Are you expecting to be part of the team who works with Tangled Feet? All this and more can be revealed in your comments.

Finally, finally, how do we plan to document the residency and evaluate whether or not it has been a success? Any thoughts?

Tom Tom Magazine

I have just created a Tom Tom Magazine Facebook group. We decided to do this in one of our meetings.

I'm trying to get all Facebook users that go to Tallis to join, so if you're on Facebook and you haven't yet joined the Tom Tom Group then visit the group page and join.

Thanks,

Sebastian

Project Noodle

We've been working on the new website for Project Noodle. Can you all take a look and tell us what you think?

Manifesto

This is the 5th draft of our Manifesto for a Creative Tallis and the one we will be presenting to staff on Tuesday 16th. Try to familiarise yourself with the statements before then. I think it's important that staff understand the process we have been through to create the manifesto and that it represents the essence of our research this year as a group. There will be an opportunity in the meeting to talk to staff groups about the manifesto and respond to questions about the content. This is a great opportunity for all of us to have an impact on whole school change and a great way to demonstrate just how intelligent and ambitious young people are when given real responsibility. We will have about an hour to explain the journey we have been on, ask staff to complete the three year backwards planning document and respond to the content of the manifesto. If you have any good ideas about the best way of doing this, post your suggestions as comments. have a great weekend!

Web 2.0 joins the English language

Hey All!

Thought I would just show you all this it is a news papper article from a well known uk paper (I wont name it :P)

It basically says that the 1,000,000 word to join the language is "WEB 2.0: The next generation of web products, coming soon to a browser near you."

Tom

"What's in a name?"

Thomas Tallis have decided to set up a new course for Year 8 and 9 next year. It might sound slightly unusual in that, at the moment, it doesn't have teachers, a curriculum, rooms or even a name! What we do have is a set of guiding principles that we will use to help us get things underway:

"To make students take more responsibility for the content, processes and outcomes of their learning"

The plan is for students to develop their problem solving and enquiry skills and then maybe think about developing new media skills to make, share and reflect upon work that has its foundation in their own interests. This is all very well, but I'm really struggling to come up with a name. The wordle above contains some of the important ideas that I associate with the plans, but I can't quite get a combination to work for me. All ideas much appreciated.

Soren

The Tannoy Announcement

Hey all,

Me and Matthew are going to do a tannoy announcement tomorrow at both registrations and maybe thursday to,

we were wondering what we should say over the tannoy and if we should make it funny,

what do you guy's think?

Thanks,

Sebastian