The aim of this project was to see how drama could be used to contextualise understanding across a range of subjects. Dorothy Heathcote MBE created ‘Mantle of the Expert’ (2008) to develop teaching and learning through dramatic-inquiry-based approaches. This approach has been used successfully at primary level for many years, but I wanted to see […]
DIALLS (DIalogue and Argumentation for cultural Literacy Learning in Schools) is a three-year research project involving nine countries in and around Europe. In DIALLS, cultural literacy is reconceptualised as a dialogic social practice underpinned by tolerant, inclusive and empathetic interaction with others, moving beyond previous narrow understandings of it as knowledge about culture. In the […]
In 2017, the Cultural Learning Alliance published an updated version of their ‘Key research findings’, which explores large-scale research into the impact of arts and cultural education. The report cites research conducted that demonstrates the staggering impact that the arts can have, stating that ‘children from low income families who take part in arts activities […]
Schools are important in helping children to successfully engage with culture and cultural institutions, and the Henley Review of Cultural Education in English Primary Schools (DCMS, 2012) and the Cultural White Paper (DCMS, 2012) recognised this. However, research findings from around the world flag up challenges in building effective relationships between schools and cultural institutions […]
Designed with teachers, the Royal Opera House’s Create and Dance programme seeks to develop students’ understanding of dance, unlocking their imagination and creativity to promote learning across the curriculum. Creativity can be understood as having original ideas that have value, and imagination is the root of this process (Robinson and Aronica, 2015). Research suggests that structured arts […]
Some years ago now, my primary school dance club chose Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Mushrooms’ (1962) to perform in a Medway town arts festival at Chatham dockyard. We read and discussed the text, improvised our interpretation of mushrooms ‘overnight, very whitely, discreetly’ and of girls (and boys) taking ‘hold on the loam’ to ‘acquire the air’. […]
We believe that great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Arts Council England website Literacy training needs to be a focus for all schools because a solid foundation in reading and writing can provide a springboard for […]
Tower Hamlets did not have a single student entered for A-level music in 2017–18 (Whittaker et al., 2019). It’s shocking statistics like this that reassure us that we are taking the correct journey with our primary curriculum; the decline in the arts as an academic progression route within our borough is something we need to […]
This article reports on the preliminary findings of a pilot project commissioned by Curious Minds, which linked two performance-based cultural partners (The Horse and Bamboo and Primed for Life) to two nursery schools in Lancashire. A research team from Manchester Metropolitan University worked in collaboration with Curious Minds to explore how collaborative partnerships between performing […]
Introduction The arts can be a powerful vehicle for supporting children experiencing disadvantage, with rich approaches to learning in non-arts subjects and connecting the school curriculum with experiences beyond school. The growing commitment from teachers and leaders to harness the full potential of arts in the curriculum, along with the increased policy drive for the […]
It is 20 years since the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999) offered a simple if daunting definition of creativity: Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value. NACCCE also made a landmark recommendation about the need for a national strategy to embed creativity […]
A picture not only paints a thousand words and tells a story but also crosses language and communication barriers. It encourages inference; it involves both artist and audience; it is a piece of expression or reaction. The picture is the leveller, as well as the talking point and the stimulus for retrieval, not least in […]
Disciplines and interdisciplinarity Historically, academic disciplines were defined through the departments within which they were taught at universities, with the same subject separation mirrored in the UK school system. For example, history and biology are single academic disciplines that are also taught as single subjects in schools, falling within the higher-level humanities and sciences faculties, […]
We’ve recently finished analysing 6,000 responses from 14–18-year-old students. As part of a three-year research project, we asked students – through focus group interviews and a survey – about the arts in school: whether the arts subjects matter to them, what they learn and how they experience the teaching. One message came through consistently and […]
The DfE’s Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development (2016) suggests that a stand-alone training event, such as a one-off twilight session, is ‘unlikely to have a lasting impact on pupil outcomes’ and instead promotes a longer-term programme of varied activities. In this case study we (a Y6 teacher and a drama-practitioner) share our joint experience of […]
Assessment undertaken in schools should be valuable and worthwhile for students. In recent years, the pressures placed upon schools to improve performance have increased the pressure on teachers to assess frequently and summatively (Fautley, 2010). In my experience as a music teacher, assessing in this way does not always equate to success, worth or value […]
Rosenshine’s principles of instruction (2012) offer 10 research-based strategies with suggestions for classroom practice. Here, I discuss how principles one and 10, relating to the importance of regular review for long-term learning, can be used in practice in the modern foreign languages (MFL) classroom – but many of these ideas are applicable across different subject […]
Whilst there is clear intention that children should have opportunities for practical experience, this seems to be limited to performance skills, rather than composing skills. Whilst performing is an important aspect of music education, it is just one parameter of what I would argue should be a much more all-embracing framework. I want to consider […]
Many schools choose to engage in professional partnerships with artists and arts organisations, whether they be school residencies, individual artists working in school settings or venue-based school excursions and education programmes. There have also been many studies in the last couple of decades, both nationally and internationally, that overwhelmingly reveal the positive outcomes for students […]
We began teaching our subjects to pass on our knowledge and passion, but with our busy daily working and personal lives we sometimes forget to ‘feed’ the very fire that began all those years ago. When the pedagogy and syllabus knowledge begin to embed, how might we revisit our passion for the subject we studied […]
