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A case study from Creative Partnerships Kent: Hythe Community School, Roy Smith, Shelby Wolf and Shirley Brice-Heath

The ?Art of Looking? began in October 2003 explains Anna Cutler. It was a project that grew organically between an open-minded and risk-embracing school, a local artist and an international research team who were already on site investigating children?s language and cognitive development through creative practice.

The research team had been working with the school on Joinedupdesignforschools, a previous Creative Partnerships project, and were keen to stay on site to look further at the children?s learning through visual language. Roy Smith, a local artist, sat and discussed with the school and with the research team ? Shelby Wolf and Shirley Brice-Heath ? how he could work on improving the children?s drawing skills and how this might be observed and analysed by Shelby and Shirley to see what impact this would have more generally on the children?s learning. Over the period of a year, Roy came in to the school every week, taking small groups of children to draw, paint, make objects and above all learn how to look. It sounds simple, perhaps unremarkable, yet this description belies the sophistication of the concept, the joined-up thinking of all partners and the quality of experience and expertise from each of the partners involved.

Hythe Community School is an infant school where education and early years practice is discussed over lunch, in breaks and in cars to and from work. The staff care passionately about getting better, always improving, finding the better idea, and working in different ways. Roy Smith lives locally and was a teacher himself for many years until he stopped to focus on being a sculptor. When I met him, some months before, at a symposium for individual artists run by Arts Council England, he had mentioned this school and his interest in working with them to improve the external environment.

During our conversation, I was impressed by the way Roy spoke about the children and his own practice. I was also completely fascinated by his community vision and clear enthusiasm for working with the school and with young people. He showed commitment to what he had planned and his clear quality values and high aspirations for what children can achieve were a breath of fresh air. Roy communicated through a seriousness of purpose in his use of language and ideas and these are some of the fundamental qualities we look for in our practitioners, alongside their portfolios and skills. I was immediately interested in the possibility of him working with us, and while we talked I was simultaneously weighing up my budget against a potential missed opportunity.

We have a close relationship with the school and after several conversations with both parties, it was agreed that Roy would go into the school just to meet with them. They were delighted by him; in fact that night, I received an email from the Head, Carolyn Chivers, saying that his presence that day had made it the best day in school since they had worked with us on the Joinedupdesignforschools project. She asked if they could work with him and Shelby on a new long-term project that they had got excited about. I got rid of some less important budgeted items for my year and said ?yes?.

Once the project was underway, Roy sent me updates on his plans, objectives and findings in the class. It was exciting to read how the children were exceeding his expectations in their abilities and how he was developing and adapting work as the project progressed to keep them stretched and motivated. I receive many of these reports and diaries from our cultural practitioners working in Kent and they nourish me and my team; we read them eagerly, reminded why stretching ourselves to the limit in supporting these projects, artists and schools is really worth the strain. Through the process, we are also in a constant state of learning and are better able to select the right partners for schools and better understand the needs, problems and findings of different organisations and individuals.

Over a year, significant changes have taken place for the children and the staff at Hythe community school through this collaboration. The improvement in the children?s drawing is nothing less than remarkable. Children who once sat for three minutes drawing objects in rows are now using perspective (and talking about perspective), they are spending extended time, sometimes hours, concentrating on looking at objects and translating this into line, colour and sculpture. They are trying things out, making connections, using metaphors and asking ?what if??. The focus and attention to detail is staggering in children so young, and if this weren?t enough, the research team found other things too: this project was having an impact beyond Roy?s sessions with them. The children were transferring these skills into other areas ? particularly to maths in which the exam results improved as the children were better able to understand the concepts behind the questions of comparability, measurement, distance and proportion ? this was, after all, what they were learning about and drawing with Roy.

I must mention here the input of the exceptional international research team, who in the course of their work offered professional development for all the staff and looked at their use of language with the children. The conversations between the researchers and the staff and artist have moved everyone on in terms of their own learning about children?s development and the staff have often remarked that this is the best professional development they have ever had.

My worries centre around how to make this sustainable. What happens when Roy decides to leave; what happens when the staff move on to other schools? Is this a freak wave of success with these particular children or can it be made into regular tidal movement?

But the teachers remind me that what they have learned through this can never be taken away and that they will work with children wherever they are to maintain this kind of practice. Roy and the research team have brought in an alternative perspective ? one that assists them in their work and has changed their own practice. As Roy says, ?It is so important for us all to carry on learning, I was beginning to forget. Kids don?t have this problem. I?m now learning to consider myself an honorary kid.?

Hythe Community School was enlightened to begin with. They now have the tools and the knowledge to know why this type of collaboration works and what the benefits are, and in the process are able to change and develop for the better. This will be of benefit to every child who passes through this school for years to come. Shouldn?t all children have this right?

Anna Cutler, Creative Director, Kent.
e: kentcpinfo@creative-partnerships.com

Details of this and other Creative Partnerships projects at Hythe are published in Visual Learning in the Community School by Shirley Brice Heath and Shelby Wolf. The boxed set of five booklets is available from Creative Partnerships at £10.00. ISBN: 0-7287-1036-6.

To order, phone Marston Books
t: 01235 465500.