Teesdale Journey
In an increasingly risk-averse world, how do staff inspire students to become creative, innovative, reflective and evaluative young people?
Based in the picturesque market town of Barnard Castle, Teesdale School serves a wide geographical catchment area and the individual needs of its students - wherever they live - have always been at the forefront of the changes and strategies that the school implements.
Since becoming a Change School in September 2008, the Creative Partnerships programme has firmly sat alongside a range of policies and actions that the school is using to improve its provision and the students’ achievements e.g. vertical tutoring, new pathways for learning. This is a school which really believes students’ education, and their welfare, to be paramount.
In it's first year as a Change School, Sarah Jackson (Creative Agent) met with a group of students, staff and governors to look at the issue of creativity and how it could be developed further in the school. Based on the discussions, Tim Bailey from Newcastle based firm Xsite Architecture was invited into the school and helped the group to think through how internal and external spaces influenced their learning.
The students loved having the chance to engage with a ‘real live’ architect who fired up their enthusiasm and imagination and opened up their minds to a range of possibilities.
Once the group had decided on the parameters of the project, Creative Practitioners were interviewed, following which Sam McGeever and Helen Law from Infinite Edge were successfully appointed. They began to work with the group to develop there ideas. During the first week of project delivery, classes of students from across the school met with the project team to map out their school, particularly focusing on how areas of the school made them feel.
Based on the mapping exercise the project team then went on to build temporary structures outdoors, such as willow spheres, to research the responses of their peers to different spaces and objects. Towards the end of the project, all staff were invited to see an outdoor lesson in action: using a 'Mantle of the Expert' approach, the practitioners created a desert island and students responded to different situations by building a fire, writing postcards home etc. The results of the project - particularly students’ comments on their designated entrance to the school and how its dilapidated appearance made them feel - was taken firmly on board by the Senior Learning Team (SLT) and has led to changes around the school. Student comments included:
'I didn’t think school would give us the chance [to do this sort of project]. It made you think differently about the school building. I didn’t think we could change it as much as we were allowed.'
'I liked the fact that what we said was accepted as valid.'
The Governing Body also committed funding to the group to make physical changes and to lead on the use of outdoor spaces in their learning.
During Year 1, meetings with the SLT identified a very strong need to both support and challenge staff in their understanding, development and application of creative thinking, risk-taking and reflection throughout their time in the school.
So Ben Walden from company Contender Charlie was commissioned to lead a motivational day for all staff in the extended leadership team, helping them to identify their strengths and to see where each of them ‘fitted’ within the team. Building on that day, two Practitioners were appointed to take the project forward: Mark Labrow from Perfect Fools and Gordon Poad from Cap-A-Pie Associates. Taking a two-pronged approach, Mark and Gordon are working with a group of 9 new teachers and, separately, the extended leadership team; the latter have been challenged both intellectually and physically to work together and reflect on their relationships and learned ways of behaving, leading to a much greater awareness of how they deal with pressure and management demands and how this can stifle creative thinking. Staff have reflected that they need to 'be bolder and more creative' and some have felt that they are learning new things:
"before the sessions I might have thought ‘no, I’m not doing that’. They gave me ideas for solutions to things."
For other staff, the project is proving to be a big challenge. As part of the project staff are also considering how they can create a ‘learning offer’ that requires a concrete response from students so that, together, they can agree to make lessons more stimulating and to include risk-taking activities. Towards the end of the project this year, staff and students will have a residential weekend during which they will come to agreements on how this ‘offer’ can be taken forward into the next academic year.
A very significant project for the school starting this year, is seeking to creatively support students who are exhibiting stress and trauma in school. Working with Mike White and Mary Robson at the Centre for Medical Humanities at the University of Durham, Practitioners Jeremy Warr and Lisa Corken will lead the project to enable a greater awareness of mental health needs and how to support them, raising the issue amongst staff and students as well as the local community. This project will continue into the third year of the Creative Partnerships programme.
The end of the second year as a Change School is the start of something new at Teesdale School with an already invigorated staff who are keen to push themselves and their students further to reach their full potential and to keep testing out new possibilities in their time at school.
Teesdale School Barnard Castle
