Creative Practitioner Opportunity

About St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School

“This is an outstanding school. It is rare to find a school with such a sense of purpose to provide the absolute best for all its pupils.” Ofsted 2009

This is St Bartholomew’s third Enquiry project with Creative. We want to build on what we have learnt over the last two years, particularly with regard to the successes of pupil-led creative learning.

We are looking for an expert practitioner/s who will help us explore the following enquiry:

How can film-making, combined with drama, through a cross-curricular approach, encourage our pupils to see beyond wanting to 'get it right', and empower them to take ownership of their learning through questioning, experimenting, and taking more risks?


Aims:

This project aims to:

• encourage pupils to challenge their own ideas of what’s possible and what they are capable of, through exploration and taking risks

• provide a more meaningful and exciting context to improve pupils’ writing

• empower children to lead their own learning processes and make their own decisions about what they want to pursue

• help staff to allow children to lead their learning


Brief:

We are open to receiving applications from individuals offering us both film-making and drama skills, from individuals offering just one of these areas of expertise, and also to joint applications which cover both areas.

We would like the practitioner/s to:

• research film-making equipment and software and advise the school on what to buy with the budget available (up to £1,000)

• inspire pupils and staff with new creative approaches to pupil-led learning, in particular through activities which lead to writing in some form or another

• listen to, be inspired by, and help realise our children’s ideas for the content of the project

• help staff and pupils gain confidence and new skills – not only in film-making and drama, but also in decision making, problem solving, communication and their understanding of the learning process

The practitioner/s would work with one Year 3 class of 30 pupils.


Timescale and Fee
Total fee: £2,800, including travel, planning, reflection and evaluation time, with an additional budget for equipment.

Dates: between Jan and April 2010, ideally in weekly sessions. Joint planning will take place in school before Christmas.


Project Management
The successful applicant will be contracted directly by St Bartholomew’s Primary School which has already secured Creative Partnerships funding to support this commission. In addition to support provided by Black Country Creative Partnerships (BCCP), St Bartholomew’s is also working with a Creative Agent, a freelance creative professional employed by BCCP to act as a critical friend, broker and creative advisor.


Selection
All applicants must have:
• a highly developed and reflective practice
• experience of working with KS2
• skills in film-making and drama facilitation, and an ability to communicate these skills effectively to pupils and staff
• a commitment to genuine collaboration with staff and pupils
• an interest in how people learn, and a belief in child-led learning


Application
To apply, please email:

• a current CV with details of 2 referees
• examples of relevant, previous work - up to 6 images, web links
• one page addressing the above criteria, explaining why you are interested in working with us and any initial thoughts you might have about possible approaches
• confirmation of Public Liability Insurance and enhanced CRB clearance less than 2 years old in order to comply with the school’s commitment to safeguard children

Please also send the school a DVD of either a short show reel, a short film or a piece of work you think will be of interest to us. No video clips, please!
To

D.Jones3@stbartholomews-pri.lpplus.net
and
lisaharrison@blueyonder.co.uk

and send DVD to:-

Darren Jones, CP Co-ordinator,
St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School,
Sedgley Road,
Penn,
Wolverhampton,
WV4 5LG

A group of pupils from year 3 will conduct the interviews, with the school’s CP Co-ordinator and Creative Agent.

Any queries, please contact our Creative Agent, Lisa Harrison, on 07967 231 960.

The closing date for applications is 4pm Thursday 11th November 2010.
Successful applicants will be notified by the evening of Friday 12th March.
Interviews will take place on Friday 19th November.

Unfortunately we have no flexibility around the interview date, and so if you cannot make that date, please do not apply.

We would like you to do a 30 minute activity as part of the interviewing process.

Background
Managed by a national organisation called Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE), Creative Partnerships (CP) is the Government’s flagship creative learning programme funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Arts Council England. It aims to foster effective, sustainable partnerships between schools and the widest possible range of cultural and creative partners that develop young people’s learning across and beyond the formal curriculum.

The Black Country Children’s Services Improvement Partnership (BCCSIP) manages the Creative Partnerships programme in The Black Country, Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire. BCCSIP is a strategic partnership funded by all four Black Country Local Authorities, the Learning and Skills Council, the Black Country Consortium and the University of Wolverhampton that aims to enhance teaching and learning in schools across the Black Country. It is a programme that sits within the University of Wolverhampton’s Education Partnerships department.

www.creativepartnerships.com