Can Interactive Whiteboards be used creatively? A Forest View...

Coordinated by Creative Partnerships Creative Generalist Elise Hurcombe and driven by the needs and ideas of the schools themselves, the project has enabled both schools to push the ways in which this technology is used in a classroom environment, working with creative practitioners. In the planning stage, one Forest View teacher said: 'teaching has lost spontaneity, let's bring it back!' So they did.

Forest View Primary's Years 1 and 2 worked with visual artist Sheila Jowers to explore mark-making using the theme of 'fantasy islands' during their one-week intensive process, combining use of the whiteboards with performance, poetry, painting and photography, and enriching the art activity with this layer of technology.

One Year 1 pupil said 'it's good because you can write what you want and make new pages' while another, when asked if anything happened that surprised them, responded, 'we got up and done stuff'.

Forest View’s Year 6 pupils worked with film maker David Grange during the same week to explore film and digital media on the broader theme of 'creativity', a process in which David said the children had 'lots of freedom to express themselves.' One Year 6 pupil said: 'I want it to go on and on, I feel more confident'.

Teachers' comments also included: 'This project has given me more confidence to have a go at something like this again; it has been brilliant having an artist working in partnership with us;' and 'we have no time to think, you’re bringing that back.' The work has had a larger ripple effect on the pupils too: teachers described one child in particular who 'finds literacy difficult, and during the work he was teaching others.'

Creative Partnerships Co-ordinator Elise Hurcombe says 'The Forest View children have had an amazing time. The year 6 pupils have generated 'media memories' of their school to take with them when they go to secondary school in the Autumn, and the year 1 and 2 children have created some fantastic islands as well as taking time in the process to reflect on their achievements and to build an understanding of their own learning and development.'

More about the Creative Whiteboards work with Heart of the Forest Community Special School in a future news item, meanwhile contact Elise on 01594 837526 for more information on the wider programme of work.