SCHOOL OF CULTURE AND LEARNING

 

Schools Without Walls. Based upon a model which comes from the Southbank Centre and Lambeth Primary Schools, 30 pupils, teachers and support staff from St Andrews School spent 7 weeks of the summer term learning at the egg instead of at their normal site in Julian Road.

During their residency they discovered the elements of theatrical and professional life that fascinated them – acting, technical work, customer services, café, design. They worked alongside these specialist staff and created learning projects of their own. They used the city centre as a learning resource too, creating maps and routes. At lunch time, they ate and played in Queen’s Square, alongside other members of the public.

The children found the following elements of the project the most interesting: lots of space, they didn’t watch the clock, they felt more free, less ‘stuffy’, they interacted with non-teaching adults and enjoyed this, they felt like individuals and this gave them more self-respect, they started to treat each other with more generosity and kindness. Yet, they still learnt the core subjects: Maths, Literacy and the Humanities.

Because of our partnership with the Southbank Centre, they travelled by train to London to visit the Festival of Britain – celebrating the 60th anniversary of the original festival.

Meanwhile, some of the children’s parents were given the opportunity to play with members of The Natural Theatre Company which culminated in a visit to the School Summer Fair from some rather ‘oversized’ school children!!!

Associate Schools. In addition to our close working relationship with St Andrews School we are developing long-lasting working relationships with the following schools: Twerton Infants, Southdown Juniors, Southdown Infants, Midsomer Norton Primary, Norton Hill and Wellsway. In these schools we have set out to enable children and young people to attend the theatre regularly as well as take part in performances and explore the differences and similarities between these experiences. We aim to get to know the whole school community and work with these schools to support the ongoing delivery of creativity in their curriculum. This will not be to the exclusion of the extensive work that we continue to undertake with other schools.

Trainee Theatre Education Practitioner. A trainee post that offers an alternative, industry-based route to a career in the arts.

Mini-egg in Midsomer Norton We will deliver elements of the egg’s programme for 18 months – 11 year olds in Radstock, based at Midsomer Norton Primary School.

We will work with other organisations. At the moment these include 5x5x5=creativity, Bath Festivals, Bath Spa University, The Southbank Centre in London and The Holburne Museum.

We will set up the Lounge Lizard; drawing on our successful Urban Hype and Egg’s Factor events. This will become a regular Friday night offer, providing a safe yet exciting arts-based hang-out space for young people.

Bath-based internationally recognised evaluators, Annabel Jackson Associates, will undertake a thorough evaluation of the project. Frome-based film company Whitespace are documenting the whole 14 month process to broadcast standard.

The findings of these projects will be disseminated via a Symposium that will take place at the Theatre Royal in the Summer of 2012.

 

Watch the launch presentation