A 'virtual gallery' to support art and other things

Last year I was involved in an advisory capacity with a new publication for art and design teachers in Key Stages 1 and 2. I think this is an excellent resource containing programmes of study for each year and covering all the major disciplines including drawing and IT. I would recoemmend it for all art subject co-ordinators as it contains practical carefully sequenced programmes which illuminate skills and good practice in the subject.

The publication includes a CD with really good resources for teachers including a large number of visual images and references that can be used to support the work. But I really like the software to create a virtual gallery that is also included, almost as an afterthought. It allows teachers and children to create a virtual gallery using their own pictures. The programme allows you to walk round the gallery and it also has a feature that enables a catalogue to be printed. This means that children (classes) can curate and share their galleries. It gets even more interesting when you stop thinking of it as an art gallery and start to think how it can be used in other contexts where children can construct a learning environment for themselves or other children.

The publication is called Art Express and details are here www.acblack/artexpress.com. I have been playing about with the gallery and here is an example of what it looks like.

True Stories

A really interesting day.  Most of it was spent with the Latvian Minister for Education. She was in the country for a short visit to explore the work of Creative Partnerships. We visited Chalfont’s Community College and Ashmead School in Aylesbury. Ashmead is a special place it is in the middle of an area social deprivation and provides an island of mystery and imagination for the pupils who go there.

Learning is literally an adventure as children arrive in school to find a car overturned on the field. Later they discover metal objects all over the school: hanging from the ceiling is a drum from a washing machine, for instance. Over the next few days clues are found pieces of paper fall out of the register which when studied can be made into a map. Children begin to discuss and explore these phenomena. They contact the police to report the incident of the car – and the police attend. Gradually the children discover that all this is the work of the Iron Man and they then find and work from the book. I say work but, of course, that is not how the children perceive it. It’s just school and it’s always like this. This term they are discovering junk and rubbish all over the place every morning. They are making dens with it. But I cannot say more because they don’t yet know what is going to happen next.

This is a wonderful example of learning through first hand experience and discovery. These are real investigations for the children and, although  carefully managed by teachers, the children can take the story in the direction they want to. Often the story is supplemented by role play and visits by adults in character. So Tinkerbelle and a couple of 'lost boys' (ex pupis) visited last year when they were exploring the story of Peter Pan.

There was also the time when all the children were 'evacuated' while exploring the 2nd World War. But thats another story made real by the teachers at Ashmead School.

Garden Feature

EYFS (Early Years and Foundation Stage) Guidance specifies the absolute importance of outdoor learning and activity "These activities help children in getting stimulation, well-being and happiness, and is the means through which they grow physically, intellectually and emotionally. Outdoor provision is an essential part of the child’s daily environment and life."

So early yesterday I was really impressed to see this peacock amongst the sand and water trays in Cuddington School. However, my enthusiastic anticipation of childrens' heightened well being and happiness was somewhat deflated after a colleague described the bird as a vicious and peevish creature. So the source of stimulation was, in fact, merely a health risk. Good to learn life's key lessons early I guess.

Artists and Illustrators: a wasted resource?

Spent a couple of days in a primary school last week - based in the school library. Apart from the fact that it was good to be back in a primary classroom (even sitting on the floor with year one) it was interesting to be reminded of all the brilliant children's book illustrators there are. I always used to remind primary teachers of the wealth of resources and examples of artists' work they have available in their libraries. However, too often 'artist' means dead, white, male, 19th century painters usually from Paris apart from Van Gogh the well known victorian.

Childrens' book illustrators are artists with work which is probably more accessable to children than Toulouse Lautrec and working from texts can provide a richness and sense of purpose which will stimulate childrens imagination and creativity. The techniques illustrators use are often rooted in a free use of materials that we would love children to emulate.

Primary Sculpture

I saw a really good sculpture in a primary school recently (Long Crendon).

The design came from children and it was made by a local sculptor welding the shapes cut from assorted pipes. Brilliant rusted orange colours. It is about values and the leaves that hang from the branches contain words by the children.

I've not seen anything like it in schools but it did remind me of the wonderful African 'tree of life' sculpture welded entirely from old guns, pistols and ammunition clips that was in the British Museum a couple of years ago.

Gifted and Talented

Earlier this term I wrote about two 6th form students who were clearly gifted and whose choice of career seemed almost predetermined by their natural ability. They were going to follow degree courses in architecture and stage design.

Today in Turnfurlong Infants School I found a third pupil who displayed extraordinary talent. This time she is six years old. Her ceramic rat is extraordinary. The shape of the muzzle, eye sockets and flattened forehead shows an ability to understand and model form with a maturity and mastery which is way beyond her age. I was able to talk to Leah and to confirm that it was her own work and that she worked from a picture. It is true that her grandmother is a potter and her father an architect but the modelling is her own and she described how she constructed it over a paper and bubble wrap body which burned off in the kiln - six years old.

To conclude this post it is interesting to note this other small ceramic sculture. This time from a sixth form student at the Royal Grammar School. He had made a set of small nudes all developed from an extruded clay tube. It makes a nice counterpoint.

Cross Fertilisation.

I saw this work in Haddenham Junior School a couple of weeks ago. Its based on Clarice Cliffe and pupils had to design the shape and the decoration.

It was interesting to note the cross-over of practice from secondary to primary phase, because I first saw this exercise in Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School five years earlier. Here it was by 6th form students. It is not uncommon to see ideas for work being passed around secondary schools but it is quite unusual to see ideas cross phases in this way.

At last some interesting work with 'Paint Magic'

For those who don't know, Paint Magic is a primary level bit-map paint programme. I cannot remember ever seeing much that was interesting being produced with this software - until today. At Haddenham Junior School there was a really dramatic large (2 meter high) panel. The image has been developed from small tiles based on a master picture. I really liked it - the colour, normally a weakness in the software, works in this exercise and every pupil has had to work with care to draw the image. It was just good to see the large bright complex panel rather than small scale, crude, mouse drawings.

Every Child is begining to Matter

It has been a curious week working across the whole educational spectrum from infant schools to university courses. I am an external examiner for art on the BA Hons Primary Education offered by Birmingham University and today I attended a briefing meeting for external examiners across the brand new Faculty of Education, Law and Social Sciences. We were told of the synergy between these recently introduced bedfellows on the Perry Bar campus - so look out for courses in criminology and early years.

It was interesting to hear of recent innovations in the university to improve the learning experience for students by listening to students in seminars and consultations to review the experience from the student's perspective. Curious that the previous evening I had been with a primary school's governing body looking at the process of appointing a new headteacher and we noted how many adverts included quotes from infant children saying what they wanted in their new headteacher. Is ECM genuinely changing from an ernest slogan into an all embracing new mind set in which the children's (student's) voice is actually begining to change practice in all phases of education?

Another intriguing, and new idea for the university, was the notion that if students fail a module, rather than engage in a sequence of resits, they should be invited to agree and sign a 'learning contract'. This would define expectations of what they should do like; attend lectures, write essays, read books and also what the university would do like provide guidance etc. The curious thing for me was that they were going to do it after the student had failed. In schools we are now doing this before students fail in ordwer to prevent them from failing. But there are again very clear parallels with the developing culture in schools. A few days earlier I had been working with a group of secondary schools dicussing how interventions, coaching, mentoring and picking students up from home to get them into the exam on time is making a difference. These schools no longer acknowledged student failure and provided CPD to do better next year but they took personal and responsibility for intervening with every student at risk of failing and took action this week and next week and every other week if necessary. Again every child is really begining to matter.

Animation in Yr2

This afternoon I visited an infant school to celebrate the work they had done for arts week. We noted that a few years ago the idea of just doing art for a week was inconceivable, but how good it is that this is now, not only possible, but desirable. The head teacher and I recognised the cyclical nature of innovation and looked back with nostalgia at the 1967 Plowden Report which informed our early teaching. Those under 50 who don't know what I am talking about can get the text of this report online and get ahead of the game.

I was particularly interested to see some animation work by Yr 2. Talking to the teacher I learned a lot about how they had done this. It was a simple animation with dialogue rehearsed in a drama lesson. The animation was made with an ordinary digital camera and the images were imported into Windows Movie Maker. Talking to the children confirmed that they had quickly taken over all the processes including editing.

It is obvious when you know, but it had not occurred to me before, that it is so much easier if the sound track is put in before the images. It is a lot simpler to adjust the length of time images are on the screen than it is to edit sound. In this animation the first thing that went into the movie was the dialogue - recorded directly into Movie Maker.

The second thing that became apparent, was the role of the interactive whiteboard. Movie Maker may be simple entry level software, but these were Yr 2 children and the underlying concepts are complicated. However, the teacher was amazed at how quickly and easily they took to using Movie Maker on the whiteboard. We recognised that it must be the fact that the process of dragging and dropping clips into the time line and then stretching, or squeezing, them to fit was a physical activity, done using their hands, was what made it seem so straight forward to the children.

We also noted that it would be possible, and perhaps easier, to use simple and cheap animation software rather than Movie Maker for stop frame animation. This might include 2Simple2Animate or Revelation Sight & Sound .

So I am grateful to the teachers of Iver Heath Infant school who reminded me of Plowden, gave me some good tips about animation, and showed how very young children can be quite comfortable with ideas and software that we think will be far too complicated for them.

Primary Network Meetings

We held two (twilight) network meetings for primary art co-ordinators last week. These meetings are open ended and provide an opportunity to share ideas and information. They are free. One was held at Sir William Ramsay School, the other at Waddesdon C of E School. Both of these schools are Specialist Arts Colleges and the high quality of the work on display was an inspiration to all who attended.
The two meetings covered many issues, too many to record here, and many of those present will have found ideas to take forward in their own school, or perhaps in partnership with colleagues they met at the meeting.
Key features of the meeting at Sir William Ramsay School included:

1. Opportunities to see and hear about the work of Annie Hearn. Annie is an AST for art, and manages the outreach work of Sir William Ramsay School. She shared some of the excellent work she has done with primary schools on drawing and sketchbooks . This was informative and inspirational and primary colleagues were pleased to discuss ideas about how Annie might work in their schools. Annie explained that she currently has many commitments but will be willing to discuss ways in which she might be able to support schools. It was noted that Annie is one of several AST's and that information about them and their work can be found on the Bucks Grid for Learning (Arts Team). It was also noted that the Bucksgfl included further information and resources about drawing.
2. We talked alot about the QCA units of work. These were being followed by many but without enthusiasm. I made these points:

• The QCA units of work are not statutory, they were written before they were taught and almost certainly contain too much material for the time specified. Once plans for Christmas, Easter and Mothers Day art activities are added to the mix the timing becomes really difficult and nothing is done well.
• However, as an example of a purposeful planned sequence of work in which children are given opportunities to generate and research ideas, experiment with materials and apply what they have learned - and talk about art, they are quite good. And certainly better than what tended to happen before the national curriculum which often included an ecclectic mix of one-off craft activities.
• There is now clear evidence that, at every level, schools are being encouraged to take ownership of their curriculum. QCA is supporting this process through its 'Futures' debate. This means that teachers should feel able and competent to amend and change their art programme of study to match their own interests, expertise and resources. This would include the recognition that a 'unit' of work does not have to last a term. Ofsted no longer reports on the curriculum and the fear that QCA units will be expected by Ofsted is no longer the case - in fact it never was.
• However, schools will have invested considerable time and resources in creating a programme of study using the QCA units and it is indeed true that this investment will sustain their use for some time to come - and there is nothing wrong with that.
• Art co-ordinators who wish to make changes are tending to develop their ideas in partnership with their colleagues by amending and adapting existing units. It is anticipated that as they gain in confidence momentum, ownership and enthusiasm will grow.
• Another way to develop the programme of study is to recognise that there is more to it than three termly units. Christmas could become a planned unit as could Eid and Mother's Day.
  
• It was noted that drawing has suffered through the termly unit structure because there is not an opportunity to draw regularly. It was noted that the best way to raise standards was to create a 'drawing unit' or entitlement. This is simply an agreement that children should draw regularly and to build into planning an opportunity for children to draw seriously once a fortnight (or whatever). This may be in the context of art but could be related to work in other subjects. Incidentally seriously does not mean realistically see the campaign for drawing.
  

Key features of the meeting at Waddesdon school included:

1. An opportunity to talk to Clare who is the artist in residence at the school. Clare has a small studio space in the classroom. Disussion noted that a key feature of using an artist is to look over their shoulder at their creative process - to recognise that it involves, play, risk and lots of cups of coffee. This is perhaps more important than a simplistic quick workshop in which the artists teaches a single skill to a group of children who she has never seen before.
   
2. An opportunity to hear from Marc Berrett (Curriculum Leader) about the work of the art department as a specialist arts college - and an opportunity to look at and be inspired by the work on display.
3. An opportunity to hear from Katie Bowness about the work she does as an AST for art. Katie is part of the Arts Team and has some time when she is able to work with schools.
   
4. Ideas were shared about arts weeks and drawing (again). You can see more of Katie's work by watching this online presentation.
   
5. There was relatively little concern about QCA Units at this session as co-ordinators were already making changes and amending the programme of study. Others recognised the investment of time and the fact that this sustained standards and confident teaching.
6. I spent time showing the resources available on the art pages of the Bucks Grid for Learning. In particular:

• ideas, directories and funding possibilities for working with artists
• examples of basic advice available for inexperienced art co-ordinators such as how to manage painting
• resources for drawing
• examples of different schools' policy documents

Both meetings were well attended and all involved valued the opportunity to meet and share ideas. It was felt that a meeting each term would be helpful. dates for future meetings will be published in the schools bulletin, on the Bucksgfl and probably as a comment on this blog.
Our thanks were given to Annie and Marc for hosting the meeting and for the hospitality and support of the two specialist arts colleges in Bucks.