A Voice for Life!
Glebe Primary School is based in the Fenton area of Stoke on Trent and has approximately 230 students. The children come from a mixture of socio-economic backgrounds, the majority are ethnically White British, the number of children who have a learning difficulty or disability is also above the national average.
Glebe joined the Creative Partnerships programme in 2007 as a Project School. In their initial expression of interest the school highlighted the poor socio-economic background for the students – stating that the majority of them have little or no life experiences. Ofsted highlighted that the ability of the children to write effectively was inhibited by their poor level of experience. The school saw that offering experiences to the children through the Creative Learning Journey would broaden minds, allow creativity to flourish and thus support the areas of individual needs.
In 2008 they successfully applied to become a Change School. This year they are continuing work started from last years Change School programme - their area of enquiry is:
“By immersing children in the imagined worlds of stories, and by supporting them as they create and share their own real life stories, can diverse areas of learning be seamlessly merged in a rich context to motivate and challenge learners?”
The school has committed to delivering a creative curriculum as an evaluative response to meet the needs of their learners. The school realized that children do not learn effectively in compartmentalized boxes, links between areas of learning need to make meaningful connections for all members of their learning community.
Glebe’s stated aim is to grow children who are reflective, thoughtful, determined and who can communicate coherently and successfully. They want to translate this into high levels of attainment and act as a solid foundation for transition between relevant Key Stages within the school and onto their Secondary education.
Speaking and Listening is seen as integral as well developing ‘emotional literacy’, developing verbal, written, physical and multi-media communication skills are also crucial.
They have developed two key strands to explore this:
1: Further development of ‘Never Ending Stories’ as a framework for cross curricular delivery.
2: Further development of Chitter Chatter PR – a pupil led PR company comprising of a group of 7 to 11 year olds.
Through their ‘Never Ending Stories’ strand the school are developing a long term relationship with a Drama in Education specialist, Peter Kennedy. Peter is developing the work started by the previous partner, a professional story teller, Fiona Collins. Together with the pupils and teachers they are examining how they develop a curriculum that immerses the learners in the imagined world of stories. They journey together through a range of curriculum areas, all rooted in a narrative context. Using tools of drama and Dramatic Enquiry (part of the Drama and Philosophy for Children (P4C)), the learners are developing as creative thinkers who can engage in their learning from an ‘in-role’ and ‘out of role’ perspective. Using Drama as a pedagogic tool Peter is helping to co-construct the learning with the teachers and the pupils. Pupil voice has determined and defined the content of the workshop sessions throughout the project.
Chitter Chatter PR have engaged with Pablo Productions (a multi-media company based in Shropshire) to further develop their brand identity as a pupil-led PR company, enabling them to expand their profile within the school and the wider community. Chitter Chatter have evolved strategies to engage parents and carers in school life – successfully communicating the impact of the programme in their school. They have also been proactive in strengthening a relationship with the local press, regularly sending out press releases of positive stories and outcomes surrounding Glebe Primary School and its local community.
Evaluation of the project has drawn out evidence of the pupils taking an active role in constructing their own learning. They are able to work as a group discussing how best to approach activities, particularly in creating press releases. It’s also clear that working with external practitioners has had considerable impact on the children, they see them ‘as friends but also teachers at the same time’. They are more able to take risks and explore ideas confident in the knowledge that ‘it doesn’t matter if it’s a wrong idea or a right idea’.
The school’s next steps will be to further embed the PR company and the work with Peter Kennedy. They intend to tie in the Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools Award, a scheme that helps schools use the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a values framework that enhances school leadership. The school also intends to strengthen and deepen input and involvement from families.
