Louise Marshall, Project Coordinator for Everyone is an Artist (Eden Court, Inverness) shares their Teacher Development Fund learning journey so far and highlights the importance of trust and nurturing within their professional learning design.
Aliens, single-track roads, postcards, iPads, buzzy bees and school dinners.
These are some of the highlights so far of Everyone is an Artist – the Teacher Development Fund project delivered by Eden Court Engagement in the Highlands of Scotland. The aspiration for Everyone is an Artist was to upskill teachers in small, rural schools to use film-making and drama activities when delivering the curriculum. Due to the geography, teachers in rural Highland schools struggle to access professional learning or to bring in visiting specialists. For example, Durness Primary has 8 pupils, P1-P7, and is a three-hour drive from Inverness. Therefore, Eden Court Engagement designed a two-year project in partnership with teachers to enable the transfer of skills in a phased programme.
We started with ‘takeover days’; two ‘special agents’ visited each school to get help investigating a crashed UFO. This allowed teachers to observe an arts-based approach to deliver aspects of science, maths, literacy and communication skills as well as elements of the Health and Wellbeing curriculum. This was followed by two co-planned but artist-delivered sessions. Teachers were involved in planning the content and outcomes of the sessions whilst still observing the impact of arts-based practice. We are now in Phase 3; co-planned and co-led sessions, the teachers and artists working alongside each other.
Teachers have talked about how positively their pupils have responded to all these sessions and there have been ‘lightbulb’ moments: “The penny dropped that drama and film could deepen the learning of the pupils on the topics we were covering in class.”
Online twilight sessions have offered additional training, including Anti-Racism, plus the opportunity to share some reflections on the project. We provided ‘Evaluation and Wellbeing’ boxes for teachers. These included self-addressed postcards to send us quick and instant reflections; disposable cameras and picture frames to capture particular moments; creative reflection cards to support evaluation; plenty of post-its, because you can never have too many; sketchpads, stickers, tea and chocolate. The boxes were really well received and all the teachers have engaged with the resources while being gently reminded that this is about their learning, rather than the pupils.
In June, we were able to bring everyone together, in person, for the first time. The day was a mixture of reflection, evaluation and training. We had input from Mya of ACAMHA (African Caribbean Asian and Mixed Heritage Association), with a provocation involving djembe drums and seeds. We gathered really rich feedback from everyone involved, and it was a fantastic opportunity to connect with each other. For teachers, it was the first in-person CPD they have had since Covid. We provided dinner and a hotel the night before to enable a 9:30 am start — a fairly standard expectation for many in other professions, but something that had never been offered to teachers previously.
We hoped to empower teachers to be more confident to include arts-based learning into their practice; already, teachers are trying out activities they have learnt with us. We hoped the sessions would have a positive impact on pupils; teachers have responded that pupils have relished the drama and filmmaking sessions, and they have seen less confident or quieter pupils start to flourish.
But the most unexpected and heart-warming outcome is the overwhelming feedback from teachers that they feel valued and nurtured.
There is surely no better foundation for our programme than this.
Sarah Eastaff, Director of Creative Learning, darts, offers insights into their Teacher Development Fund learning process. She highlights the team’s focus on iterative and responsive design, and reflects on the importance of fostering a culture of care in which confidence can be nurtured and sustained.
Hannah Tyreman, Professional Learning Lead at the Teacher Development Trust and Advisory Group Member for our Teacher Development Fund (TDF), explores what we’re learning about the role of trust in teacher professional learning from TDF projects.
