craft = skills for life

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action research pilot project 2009: report

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report

“Craft=Skills for Life focused specifically on addressing weaknesses

identified in the report Drawing together: art, craft and design in

schools 2005/08 while building on effective practice. The project

demonstrated the value of:

• starting out with clear and well-informed aims strong partnerships

based on a shared understanding about the unique contribution of

each partner

• inspired, supportive but robust project management, showing

sensitivity to partners existing priorities & initiatives

• involving all in evaluating the process and outcome for different

individuals and organisations

Craft=Skills for Life is an excellent example of best practice showing

how improvement and inclusion can be addressed efficiently but

enjoyably. “

Ian Middleton Her Majesty’s Inspector

National Adviser for art, craft and design education, Ofsted

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Index

Pages 4—7 Introduction

Page 4 Context

Page 6 Aims and Objectives

Page 7 Educational partners

Pages 8-27 Evidence of findings from the project aims

Pages 8-13 Prove the importance and validity of strengthening

the teaching of craft skills in our secondary schools and explore its potential to deliver learning across

multiple subject platforms.

Pages 14-17 Introduce pupils to a range of making skills and

allow them to engage with materials. The intention was to ignite an interest in teenage pupils to learn a

skill, inspiring a desire to produce quality and obtain the skills to deliver it.

Pages 18-21 Develop a “product” or objects as a vehicle to explore enterprise and industry. By combining the

creative process with the realities of the economy, the residencies offered pupils access to different

kinds of mechanisms for learning, creating and

sharing.

Pages 22-27 Discover if practical learning had any effects on how pupils learn and if it had an influence on their

attitude and achievement.

Pages 28-29 Conclusion

Pages 30-31 Future Recommendations

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Craft=Skills for Life was a year long pilot project of contemporary craft

residencies with three different groups of pupils in partnership with the Ishango Science Club, Wheelers Lane Technology College and Braidwood

School for the Deaf. Funded by Birmingham City Council through its annual programme - Creative Futures Awards, it was Craftspace’s major action

research project for 2009.

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Context

At a point in time when there is a perceived “feminization” of crafts, an

aspiration of this project was to begin the process of redressing this issue, while tackling the growing problem of underachieving boys within our schools.

While delivering previous projects in both formal and informal education, whenever Craftspace has placed male makers within an educational setting,

there has been a noticeable positive impact for and engagement of male pupils.

“The 2009 Ofsted report Drawing together: art, craft and

design in schools 2005/08 focused on the wide gap in

achievement between boys and girls. At the start of the survey, of

the pupils taking a GCSE in the subject 20% more girls achieved an

A*-C than boys, the widest gap of any subject. Whilst the gap

overall narrowed slowly to 17% in 2008, this is in a context of

continuous improvement for girls.” Ian Middleton Her Majesty’s Inspector

National Adviser for art, craft and design education, Ofsted

“It is particularly good that the underachievement of boys is being

addressed through this project. It has been clear for some time

that the changes to the education system in England, with a

greater focus on digital technology, paper exercises and academic

achievement has been more advantageous to girls. It is a huge

generalisation, but boys need to be engaged with materials and to

use their physicality to develop properly.” David Jones, CEO to the Council for Subject Associations

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Richard Sennett, a sociologist from the London School of Economics made

observations in his book ‘The Craftsman’ that were very pertinent to this project and underpinned the rationale for its development. He stated,

“craftwork teaches us that making errors and overcoming

resistance is not only the way to improve but also the way to

secure deep inner satisfaction, to earn respect and self worth.”

These residencies may lead to some of the participants aspiring to become

makers, but in line with Sennett’s thinking, it is the same skill set which can be used in what could be seen as modern day craftwork. Lab technicians, computer

programmers and engineers all share a common understanding with the traditional crafts, dedication to the time taken to gain their skills and the process of learning

through their mistakes.

Ian Middleton opening the exhibition at The House of Commons, January 2010

Within his recent report Ian Middleton also observed that,

“When evaluating pupils’ ‘achievement and standards’ inspectors

noted that where pupils engaged with contemporary practice their grasp

of key concepts, including creativity, was evident (Para.24).

The best results involved strong personal development, skills highly

valued by employers (Para.21) including: working independently,

sustaining interest, managing a range of tasks and meeting deadlines.”

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report

The aims were to;

1. Prove the importance and validity of strengthening the

teaching of craft skills in our secondary schools and explore its potential to deliver learning across multiple subject

areas.

2. Introduce pupils to a range of making skills and allow them to

engage with materials. The intention was to ignite an interest in teenage pupils to learn a skill, inspiring a desire to produce

quality and obtain the skills to deliver it.

3. Develop a “product” or objects as a vehicle to explore

enterprise and industry. By combining the creative process with the realities of the economy, the residencies offered

pupils access to different kinds of mechanisms for learning,

creating and sharing.

4. Discover if practical learning had any effects on how pupils learn and if it had an influence on their attitude and

achievement.

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Educational Partners Background

• The Ishango Science Club is a vibrant out of school organisation,

committed to raising the educational achievements of young African Caribbean people. Jeweller Will Evans worked with this class of gifted

and talented pupils to discover the value craft making can bring to

science and maths lessons.

• Braidwood School for the Deaf and contemporary felt maker Jamie Lewis worked with a mixed ability class of year seven pupils. The school

was interested in finding innovative ways to develop their pupils’ skills

as independent thinkers, creative enquirers and team workers as part of the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills initiative. This year group

would normally be split into two classes. The pupils in class B had a number of special needs, causing individuals to have lower literacy and

academic skills.

• Wheelers Lane Technology College focused on craft to discover if

learning practical making skills could help the behavior of boys who had become disenchanted with school. Already following a programme to

develop their Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL), this small

group of year seven and eight boys worked with ceramicist Andrew Tanner to explore if a ‘hands on’ approach to learning could help them

re-engage with lessons and school life.

All three groups began by taking part in a business enterprise workshop to

help them gain an understanding of products, pricing and market forces.

Each class then visited different cultural institutions for inspiration; the

jewellery displays at the V&A, The Design Museum and Birmingham

Museum and Art Gallery.

Pupils then went on to experience a number of technique workshops in their

chosen craft before embarking on designing and making their “products”.

Pupils and staff from Braidwood School market tested their felt lighting

range on members of the public as part of the Moseley Arts Market.

Statistics

3 Educational partners

4 Makers 46 Participants

4 Teachers

3 Families

2 Learning leaders

4 BSL interpreters 55 Workshop sessions

2 Sharing Celebrations

1 Member of Parliament

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Evidence of findings from the project aims.

1. Prove the importance and validity of strengthening the

teaching of craft skills in secondary schools and explore

its potential to deliver learning across multiple subject

platforms.

Jeweller Will Evans worked with this class of gifted and talented pupils from

The Ishango Science Club to discover the value craft making can bring to science and maths lessons.

report

The Ishango teaching team supported this aspect of the project and actively

worked with Will to extract scientific and mathematical opportunities wherever possible.

• This support remained throughout the project, the Ishango team

showed a positive and inquisitive approach to this experimental style.

• The first practical session involved heating silver in order to manipulate

it into a band.

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“I think the workshops had the right balance. The learning process was

broken down into simple terms that the pupils could understand. I still

keep hearing them using the terms several months after the project.

We created a key word bank of all the words and tools they have used

over the life of the project. We divided it into Maths, Science, Tools and

Skills and we have found this has worked really well in helping them to

retain the knowledge.

The practical sessions were fundamental in helping the pupils retain the

scientific learning. By remembering the activity, they associated the

science and maths facts with the practical process. It contained the two

methods of learning –seeing and doing- the repeated use of a process

for a purpose proved very effective.”

Jerome Watson, Teacher Ishango Science Club.

• A second topic of conversation was started through the observation of

oxidisation when soldering the joint. This naturally developed into a discussion about the nature of sulphuric acid, the active ingredient in

the “pickle”, used to clean off the oxide.

• This activity instigated conversations about the nature of metals and

what effect heating and planishing had upon the molecules in the metal.

• This led to Will casually talking about how to remove fire stain from the

surface of the silver, prompting yet further scientific conversation about alloys – what are they? – why add copper to silver? – and why does it

raise to the surface of the metal when heated?

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“I was talking to a lad just now and he said,

‘I thought this was going to be all about making jewellery, but there is

so much more because we have learned about maths and science, we

are drawing and designing and we are also going to learn how to

market it.”

They love the fact it is not one dimensional, this project draws in many

levels of learning.” Alison Gove-Humphries, School Improvement Adviser

Birmingham City Council School Effectiveness Division

“Through Craft= Skills for Life the participants get to understand why

they go to school, in terms of “Why do I need to go to maths lessons?”

or “Why do I have to go to science? Why do I need these core

subjects?” Will has demonstrated why you actually need them because

he has involved them in his design process, it is a good aspect for them

to see why they need their core subjects.”

Nathan Shillingford, Lab Technician & co-ordinator Ishango Science Club

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Will also observed that the retention of information seemed higher when

the learning was linked to practical exploration. The pupils understanding of oxidisation, fire stain and acids was much better than their

understanding of some of the maths areas which they covered in the theoretical design sessions.

This should be viewed in the context that the processes where oxidisation and fire stain occurred were repeated throughout the project,

allowing opportunities for the teaching staff to randomly ask pupils questions, reminding them of the chemical reactions they were witnessing.

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Braidwood School for the Deaf was interested in finding innovative ways to

develop their pupils’ skills as independent thinkers, creative enquirers and team workers as part of the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills

Initiative.

They discovered through the course of the project that many more

opportunities for cross curricular learning arose.

“Pupils had maths targets to do with different types of triangles. We did

one workshop where the pupils were making a large group piece based

on different triangle shapes, so we could link their maths targets in to

the project itself.”

Rob Young, Teacher Braidwood School

“This is covering a lot of the curriculum, but not in a way which we

would normally do. They are away from English, maths and science, but

they are still doing English, maths and science through this project.”

Keith Barlow, Deputy Head Teacher Braidwood School

“It was great to see pupils working together as teams and individually,

learning new skills and being on task all the time.”

“We took the pupils work to the Moseley Art market and set up a stall.

The pupils made a questionnaire in their ICT lessons, they were able to

talk to the general public about their work, to ask them questions and

get comments.”


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report

“Using specialist equipment in an experimental manor has highlighted

the creative links between Art and Design Technology. We are now

exploring within the school how the two departments can work closer

together.”


The participating pupils at Braidwood School also delivered peer mentor

sessions to the entire year eight. This helped to demonstrate their understanding of the skills involved in felt making. It also developed their

communication skills, strengthened their confidence and introduced them to leadership skills.

However, although there are many positive comments and observations

from the teaching staff directly involved in the project, a barrier to maximising on opportunities for cross curricular learning was in persuading

the wider teaching staff within the school that this was something worthwhile pursuing. Something which could help enhance their individual

subject areas rather than being an inconvenient hindrance.

Instructional communications developed with the year 7 and 8 boys’

literacy group was a prime example of how the project could give added value to another subject area but this success was due to the teacher

being involved in both the project and the literacy class.

The market research questionnaire was successfully developed by the ICT

department but unfortunately there was a lack of interest in compiling and analysing the findings from the questionnaire with the pupils, despite the

ICT teacher leading on the schools bid for Enterprise Status.

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“Peer mentorship is something that we have tried before with one or

two pupils to moderate success.

What I find interesting is that this is a younger group teaching the older

group and it is fascinating that the year eights are accepting the

situation, of what is being said and how they are being taught. It is very

good.”

Keith Barlow, Assistant Head Teacher Braidwood School

“For the pupils to maintain such a level of interest in this topic for this

amount of time is a testimony to the project itself. The process they are

going through I find fascinating.

I’m really impressed with our pupils that they have worked on this for

about ten weeks and they are still keen and enthusiastic and willing to

show the year eight pupils what they have learned.”

Keith Barlow, Assistant Head Teacher Braidwood School

Unlike the other two educational partners, the nine participating pupils

from Wheelers Lane Technology College were not a regular year group . The class was made up of pupils from across years 7 & 8 who had become

disenchanted with school and were following a programme to develop their Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL).

Subsequently it was not so relevant for this group to explore learning

opportunities across multiple subject platforms. However they significantly proved the importance for strengthening craft skills in our secondary

schools.

These findings are explored fully in aim 4, “Discovering if practical

learning had any effect on how pupils learn and if it had an influence on their attitude and achievement.” Pages 22 & 23.

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report

2. Introduce pupils to a range of making skills and allow them to engage with materials. The intention was to ignite an

interest in teenage pupils to learn a skill, inspiring a desire

to produce quality and obtain the skills to deliver it.

All three groups were successfully introduced to a range of making skills

relating to the discipline of their chosen maker.

Will Evans had the most success with the Ishango Science Club. Pupils in this group truly engaged with their materials and showed a real

understanding of the skills needed to manipulate them in order to create

their designs.

This should be viewed in the context of the pupils being “Gifted and Talented” and the individual pupils choosing to attend.

“Ajani actually made his own tool. He wanted to achieve a certain

result and we just didn’t have the right punch tool, so with a little

guidance he set about fabricating his own. I think this is a pretty

spectacular achievement and as a result he was really excited about

using it, much more so than a tool out of the box, he felt real

ownership of it, leading him to show real care during the making

process.

More importantly, through making his own tool he understood how

it would work, through trial and error he learned that if he filed a bit

off one side he could make it run straighter and more efficiently.

This is a fundamental transferable skill which could lead to a career

in engineering.”

Will Evans, Ishango Science Club Resident Maker

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“The project had a major

effect on Leroy, on his

confidence levels and as an

effective participant. Leroy

picked up the making skills

very quickly, he was the first

to finish and it was good to

see other pupils asking him for

help. He is a very quiet

person, in a normal lesson he

would come in and he would

be in his own little space.

People wouldn’t normally ask

him for assistance, he might

ask them, but in these

sessions everyone was asking

him, can you help me to do

this and how do you do that?

He eventually assisted on

everybody’s pieces and I think

that is excellent.”

Nathan Shillingford,

Lab Technician,

Ishango Science Club

“Leroy is really quite shy, so asking

him to talk, to verbally express his

understanding of a subject is not the

right approach for him. The making

process has really helped him, it has

allowed him to get on with something

physical, that he is actually good at

and enjoys. It allows him a channel to

express his understanding.”

Jerome Watson,

Teacher Ishango Science Club.

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report

In comparison with the other two groups the pupils at Wheelers Lane

Technology College initially did not appear to truly engage with the materials or show a strong desire to produce quality or obtain the skills to deliver it,

but when viewed against the pupils’ track record within their school careers to date, their achievements’ and engagement proved far greater than first

expected.

A great part of the project was taken up building the pupils confidence in

their own ability and allowing themselves to accept that they were capable of producing something of quality.

“It was initially very difficult for the boys to take pride in their work and

accept praise as many of them were not used to compliments. As the

weeks went by, the boys improved their concentration skills and learnt

to take a little more pride in their work”

Lyndsay Powers, SEAL teacher

Wheelers Lane Technology College

In order to help these pupils to truly understand the skills needed to

produce quality this group needs longer and sustained exposure to making.

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Pupils at Braidwood School showed a real excitement at using the sewing

machine, they proved a desire to learn the skill of felt making through their persistence at making.

“They became more confident as the project went on. They understood

a lot more and were more adventurous planning and designing their

own ideas.”

Bev Blisset, Teaching Support & BSL, Braidwood School.

“Year Seven worked in three groups, a felt making group, another

printing on the press with colours and patterns and the third sewing.

I liked sewing”

Rasik, Braidwood School

Unlike ceramics and jewellery where many different techniques and more

demanding processes are involved, the actual process of felt making is very basic. No matter how complicated the design is, the process varies

very little.

The pure fact that the pupils remained on task for the entire project,

persevering to refine their techniques proved their desire to obtain the skills to deliver quality.

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report

3. Develop a “product” or objects as a vehicle to explore enterprise and industry. By combining the creative process

with the realities of the economy, the residencies offered

pupils access to different kinds of mechanisms for learning,

creating and sharing.

All three groups began by taking part in a business enterprise workshop to

help them gain an understanding of products, pricing and market forces.

Young Enterprise was engaged to run the one day session for all three groups together.

What worked well?

• Bringing the three schools together helped everyone to see the bigger

picture of the project and started to build a sense of community between the pupils.

• The workshop did go some way to helping the pupils to understand that different groups of people have different needs, tastes and price ranges.

The aim to set the “making” challenge in a context of enterprise was to

move away form the idea of craft being a “soft” subject, which only held therapeutic value. We wanted to challenge the impression of craft being

an outmoded subject which belonged in the 1950’s.

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What didn’t work well?

• Young Enterprise didn’t live up to expectations.

• Holding an enterprise day ran by an outside organisation led to it

happening in isolation to the rest of the project.

• Due to the cost of the session the group was too big and subsequently could not afford to engage the makers for this session.

• The makers did not gain anything from the session and therefore were unable to refer back to any learning during the session.

• The teaching staff had not fully engaged with the session and so they

unable to assist in helping the pupils to refer back to the session at

relevant points in the project.

• The pupils did not really retain any of the knowledge as it was all theoretical and seemed to have no relevance to the project.

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report

The visit helped both the Wheelers Lane Technology College and the

Braidwood School teams to concentrate on a chosen theme but unfortunately there was very little time spent in the retail outlet and what time they did

spend in there was unfocused.

Pupils and staff from Braidwood School market tested their felt lighting

range on members of the public as part of the Moseley Arts Market.

This allowed the pupils to view their work in a commercial setting along side professional makers while helping them to gain an understanding of market

values.

“The pupils work looked great and this was an ideal opportunity to link

into the business enterprise element of the school.”


A visit to a local museum was incorporated due to an idea of Wheelers Lane

Technology College resident maker, Andrew Tanner. Rather than making a prototype craft piece for a theoretical market, it would be far more interesting

to place the residency in a local museum, to be inspired by their collection and create a piece of prototype craft to sell in the museum shop.

This seemed the ideal way of marrying craft and enterprise.

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How to improve the enterprise element.

• Involve the maker right from the beginning to ensure enterprise is

involved at key strategic points throughout the project.

• Take the pupils to a cotemporary craft fair in order for the pupils to

experience how commercial makers market their work and give the pupils the chance to talk to a number of different makers.

• Andrew Tanner reflected his preference to have taken the

participants shopping to different retail outlets, to show them

where his products are sold, what his contemporaries sell and discreetly observe the clientele.

• Engage the local museum as a major partner in the project at the

development stage, to ensure their full commitment.

• Ensure every group has the chance to market test their product.

• Help the pupils create questionnaires to gain valuable information on

the type of person who visits the museum, what gifts they would buy

from the shop and how much their spend would be. This information would form the basis for their decisions on what to design and make

for the rest of the project.

• Budget for an industry link to allow for each group to get piece or

capsule range batch produced and the possibility of it being sold in the outlet.

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“Their behaviour initially didn’t improve. It was very much a case of

them getting to know what was going on, getting confidence from the

people they were working with. Once they had confidence in that, they

just improved drastically. The fact that the boys can produce this

artwork and show it off at an exhibition has just made them feel

fantastic about themselves.”

Richard Tattersfield, Head Teacher Wheelers Lane Technology College.

report

4. Discover if practical learning had any effects on how

pupils learn and if it had an influence on their attitude

and achievement.

Wheelers Lane Technology College focused on craft to discover if learning

practical making skills could help the behavior of boys who had become

disenchanted with school.

Already following a programme to

develop their Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL), this small

group of year seven and eight boys

worked with ceramicist Andrew Tanner to explore if a ‘hands on’ approach to

learning could help them re-engage with lessons and school life.

“Attendance within this group

was below 90%, if this had

continued across the whole of

their school life they would

actually have lost half a years

education, which is really

quite drastic.”

Paul Fear, Learning Leader

Wheelers Lane Technology College.

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“During the life of this project the participants attendance rose by 66%

while their behaviour improved by 67%. This is a phenomenal

improvement which not only benefits the individual pupils, it has a

positive impact upon the school as a whole.”

Colin Appleton, Deputy Head Wheelers Lane Technology College

“There was a great atmosphere in the room and the boys seemed to be

both enthusiastic and engaged. I have noticed a change in a number of

the boys which I can only put down to raised self esteem and confidence.”

Rachel Tomline, Head of Art Wheelers Lane Technology College

“Since starting this project my

behaviour has improved. I’m

listening a lot more to people,

so I can do the work a lot easier.

Before I wouldn’t be listening, I

would be just doodling or talking

to someone else.

I have to listen to find out how to

do stuff.”

Anthony, pupil


“My Behaviour has changed

because I’ve been learning

how to work in big groups

and tiny ones, before this

project I could never work

in groups at all.”

Dean, pupil


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report

The participating year group at Braidwood School are normally split

into two classes. The pupils in class B have a

number of special needs, causing

individuals having lower literacy and academic skills.

“The beauty of this project is

that it allowed these pupils to

shine. We have discovered

that many of the pupils from

class B are actually high

achievers when it comes to art

and craft. Working with the

pupils together during this

project the two defining

classes are not so obvious as

in the more academic areas,

you just see capable pupils.”

Rob Young, Art Teacher,

Braidwood School

“During the Craftspace sessions

certain pupils were able to relax a

little which gave them space to focus

a bit more. I think a lot of the pupils

liked the element of fun, I don’t think

they could believe we were giving

them the freedom to play, to make a

mess. This actually gave them the

freedom to experiment and to

discover for themselves. I thought

this was very beneficial for them.”

Bev Blissett, Teaching Support

& BSL Interpreter

Braidwood School

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The thirteen boys and three girls

in the Ishango class allowed for some interesting observations on

the different learning methods used by boys and girls.

The following conversation between resident maker Will

Evans, project co-ordinator Stuart Shotton, class teacher

Jerome Watson and lab

technician Nathan Shillingford during the project evaluation

illustrates their different approaches’.

JW - The boys came into the workshop picked up the

hammers and wanted to start

straight away.

WE –Yes the boys appeared to rely upon their natural

instincts rather than a

conscious thought about what

was the best way to approach

the task.

NS – The girls though, sat down and worked out a

process of how to use the

hammers. So their thought

processes were used initially

more than the boys. I noticed

that the girls didn’t need too

much help. They sat back and

thought the task through,

where the boys rushed in,

found themselves in a mess

and needed help more often.

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report

JW – Yes the boys were too eager to start, their

natural ease with the

tools led to them not

truly listening to

instructions. They had a

sense of thinking they

already knew what to do.

This bravado resulted in

mistakes happening

more often and a

puzzlement of how they

ended up in a mess.

WE – The boys began with very ambitious ideas but tended not to think them through

properly before starting. They didn’t think

about the process and how they could

achieve their goal.

Where the girls,

although their ideas

were not so ambitious

thought through how

they might get to the

finishing point, they

planned out their

route, which

techniques they would

employ and which tools

were appropriate.

SS - What became apparent through this project was the difference in learning techniques employed between boys and girls. Even in practical

sessions the girls generally approached the task in an organised and

meticulous manner, keen not to make mistakes.

Although this did not mean that they did not make mistakes. Whereas

the boys just needed to get their hands dirty, they appeared to feel that

they already knew how to do something. That once having a process

demonstrated to them, they knew how to do it and they thought it is

easy.

They needed to get involved and start doing. It was only once they had

become involved and made their first mistake or in some

circumstances their second or third mistake did they stop reflect and

ask for help.

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JW – The boys had to reflect more than the girls because of the mistakes they made, stop look back and ask “Where did I go wrong?

What did I want to do? What did I want to achieve? What’s my goal? Ok

what do I need to do now?” Once they had been helped through their

problems they were off again until they made another mistake and the

reflection process started again.

SS - This is a very strong way to learn, through experimentation. Roel made an observation that he felt he had made a mistake. He was

heating a piece of silver. He wasn’t paying enough attention and melted

it. To his surprise it turned into a ball. When he took it to Will he was

informed it wasn’t a mistake, he had in fact discovered a technique.

WE – Yes and he actually inspired a whole group of other boys to want to do the same thing, all keen to witness a technique discovered by one

of their peers.

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report

Conclusion We evidenced in a relatively short period of time through these three

individual residencies that craft can play an important and relevant role in

the education of today's children and boys in particular.

We have shown craft to be a perfect vehicle for cross curricular learning for pupils of all abilities, particularly in science and maths. That repeating a

process in the act of creativity has a positive impact upon how pupils learn,

it helps concentrates the mind and embeds the learning. When linked with enterprise it can be a catalyst to create many more opportunities for multi

platform learning, instilling in the pupils that skills learned in one subject area are transferable to others.

We have shown practical workshops promote experimentation in boys approaches to learning, that making mistakes is a valid way to learn and

can actually lead to unexpected and exciting results. It illustrates that learning is a process of discovery that can happen in a practical workshop

equal to that of an ICT session.

The most successful results were evident where partnerships were taken

seriously from the beginning. Where teachers actively engaged in the process ensuring maximum learning could be extracted from every

opportunity.

Providing the right environment and tools for the job is essential.

It is important to stress that the creativity in the craft activity must not be

lost during this pursuit of cross curricular learning. That quality in the

design development and making process must be kept as a priority in order to keep the repeated actions fresh and the learner engaged. Making

a ring once in a science class is a novel and creative experiment in demonstrating scientific reactions but it does not necessarily embed the

learning, the repeated action is all important.

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Participants with Rt Hon Clare Short MP at the House of Commons celebration event Jan 2010.

“Craft = Skills for Life highlights the value of practical learning. Helping

our young people to achieve their true potential is vital if we want a

vibrant community and economy for future generations. To see these

young people so enthusiastically engaged with their work testifies to the

success of this project.”

Rt Hon Clare Short MP

(January 2010)

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report

Future Recommendations

It is important in the next stage of the project to build on the cross curricular

learning in a much more joined up way and embed the enterprise element into the heart of the project in order to engage with industry.

We have managed to show the potential for cross curricular learning through

craft across three separate schools but we now need to prove this in the same

institution with different academic levels in order to prove whole school change.

We propose;

A three year project which will consolidate our findings from the three pilot

residencies.

A national initiative, placing professional makers in secondary schools,

partnered with cultural institutions.

The partnerships will develop educational enterprises in each school to create craft/design prototypes intended for batch production. Inspired by an aspect of

their partner museum/gallery pupils will create limited edition products to sell in

the venue’s retail outlet.

The enterprise will be the focus for cross-curricular work across the subject areas, each department using the enterprise as a teaching tool to fit into their

scheme of work as applicable.

Pupils will be responsible for all aspects of the enterprise, from product research

and development through to pricing, packaging and marketing. This initiative will allow pupils access to real life skills, decision making, team working and

creative thinking.

Statistics

• Number of artist days : 52 (including 10 days planning and prep)

• Optimum school size : 900 – 1200 pupils, year 7 intake 200, 8 classes

• No weeks in academic year: 39

31

Initiation

• Start by the team (co-ordinator and school liaison) meeting all the teachers to brief them and discuss implications/opportunities.

• All year seven pupils then to be briefed by the team about what is going

to happen.

Maker Selection

• Makers to be interviewed by a panel of teachers and co-ordinator.

• The interview process would also involve the makers running a short ½

hour workshop with a cross section of year 7 pupils. Pupils to report back to interview panel to influence the selection process.

Project Logistics

• All year 7 classes to visit the Museum/Gallery. If the maker does not accompany the pupils to the museum it is important that the pupils are

briefed by the maker before the visit. • All year 7 classes to have 1 day taster workshop with the maker. Either 1

school day or 2 .5 days etc. to be negotiated. • Pupils to choose /nominated to join after school clubs to work on enterprise board and product development workshops.

• Maker to run after school sessions once a week and be available the

same day to liaise with subject teachers, plan sessions and deliver sessions with different subject classes.

• More visits to museum/gallery when necessary. • Business volunteer /adviser to sit on enterprise board.

• Special series of sessions could be planned for SEAL groups, Gifted &

Talented etc. all tailored to their individual needs.

craft = skills for life

Documents