Where there is money, how can it be wisely spent to support work with & for children and young people

Where there is money, how can it be wisely spent to support work with & for children and young people

gayle sutherland, 19 September 2012

Gayle, Will AJ, Will W, Jo, Carly, Pam, Lucy, Nancy plus 4 more..

Networks useful - think we need a participatory network for Kent, would be v useful - is there a way to do that?

Parents like work with longevity - things last last beyond the experience eg online interactivity, participatory follow up events, activities such as sunflower seed to grow (then uploads photos on to website), uploading sessions/experiences on to blogs, — things that extend NOT replace the theatre experience. This enables family engagement too, as often activities need more than child to achieve. meaningful and memorable experiences beyond the show such as access to stage, seeing puppets, touching things, back stage tours all good too. This is all about adding value to the experience.

Be good to share these approaches and ideas between us - good conversation to be had about tips and tricks....

In kent is opportunities to subsidise work across private and state schools

Schools don't know what to bring in as don't have the knowledge or time to look - curated offers (like the way rural touring do) would be helpful, selection of work that someone is telling them is quality, is safe to select from. Free visits/tkts for teachers to

see previews or work in other venues helpful. Teacher preview nights eg like a pot luck event focused on work for education

Is difficult to create work in current funding environment - ACE not keen to fund schools - interest in ideas like groups of school co-commissioning work and scope for state/private collab there. Difficult to know what schools want - if they involved from start more likely to make relevant work that others schools would want.

There is no seal of approval for schls work - no way of knowing what is good or not - can easily make a mistake - dvds/brochures/events that show work of more than 1 company useful, seeing work - otherwise a relationship with 1 company can become too important and limit children's experience.

Companies can have little sense of what is helpful to a school - can offer something that makes more work rather than helping teachers do their job/curriculum

sessions which bring together practitioners and teachers be useful - to explore value of theatre in schools and look at where it best adds value
sessions for artists/practitioners re the changing education environment be useful - extended schools used to be really good at making sure you could make links and had the up to date buzz words and curriculum links but they gone now – need some of that.

Need to know how we can best contribute to the non-arts subjects and how to develop out of curric/after school offers

Feels like war against culture in schools by central gvmt - need to campaign gvmt (bring it down!) Danger a pupil could go through whole of education without an arts

experience

Big gap between rich and poor in Kent - theatre seen as for wealthy. Schls tend to be very big or very small. Agreed having stats useful to target work and for funding applications - so have more robust model for prioritising schools - have good feel from local knowledge but sporadic and not always based on much other than feelings - we often make up our own lists and systems on not much info.

Really want to get together with teachers to talk about all of this - have a joint conversation

Tags:

money, children, prioritising, government, Young People, Education, funding, Quality, Funding, Money, education, teachers, schools, Schools, young people, data, networks, knowledge, bridge, added value, quality

Comments: 2

Pam Hardiman, 20 September 2012

This really felt like a conversation which should continue. The idea of a participatory network seemed to be welcomed by the group, in an attempt to get the right work to the right people with the minimum of stress, obstruction and cost...as well as strengthen local connections and maybe just chew the artistic fat!

gayle sutherland, 20 September 2012

And here is the link to the Call for Network proposals from Artswork as the SE Bridge http://bit.ly/Qj1nmw Let me know if anyone wants more info