On the blog this week, we hear from Danielle Murphy, Creative Learning Manager at A Mind Apart in Sheffield. Danielle describes how the flexibility of the Arts Award framework enables them to respond to each of their young people’s individual needs and how achieving the qualification has opened up doors to further their education or follow a new career path.
A Mind Apart is a theatre company and alternative education provider and we are an Arts Award Trinity Champion Centre. As the Creative Learning Manager, I oversee our education department and am extremely passionate about Arts Award and its accessibility for neurodivergent young people. As a unique performing arts organisation with the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to develop themselves creatively, regardless of background or age, the Arts Award qualifications simply make sense for us and fit seamlessly into our values and ways of working with children and young people. We have been delivering Arts Award for over 10 years and are currently delivering Bronze, Silver and Gold level.
Engaging young people
Specialising in working with young people who are neurodivergent we understand the individual needs of a learner and the importance of a ‘hook’ to engage young people and to promote passion for a subject. To support this, we use Bronze Arts Award to explore different areas of the arts to see which the learners enjoy the most. We often follow this with Silver Arts Award, honing in on their interests and prompting them to take ownership of their learning by specifying a chosen arts subject to follow.
Small group delivery
One of the ways that we support our neurodivergent and SEND learners is by delivering the sessions in small groups. This enables the teacher to give individual, tailored support to each learner and ensure that they understand what is expected of them. In addition to this it can often help the learners to feel less overwhelmed when meeting new people in their group and can lead to them feeling more confident to share their thoughts and opinions when we are discussing a topic.
Flexibility
The flexibility of the Arts Award framework allows learners to present their work in many different ways, which supports neurodivergent learners to express themselves, whilst sitting perfectly within our values and ways of working as an organisation. We encourage our learners to present their work in a variety of ways, guiding and supporting them with an accessible way of creating their portfolio, the art form they choose and their individual needs. Examples of ways our learners have chosen to present their work include video, scrapbooking, handwritten, voice recordings and digitally. From working in this way, the learners are supported to evidence their growth and development whilst being given autonomy with their work. In supporting this way of learning, we find that learners take more pride in their work, and it automatically becomes more accessible to them. For learners who prefer a clear structure, a folder is printed with a checklist on the front so they can visually see what they need to do to complete the qualification. For others, it’s broken down into small sections at a time to ensure they don’t feel overwhelmed.
Success story
A prime example of our success with Arts Award was with one of our alternative education learners. She was struggling to access mainstream education due to outside circumstances and had recently been diagnosed with autism. She was finding the structure and crowded classrooms in school difficult, so we ensured that she had a calm and relaxed environment to work in with us. This was created by asking her how she likes to learn and after taking time to listen to her; we incorporated her requests into our space. This included a playlist of her favourite music, cushioned break out areas and regular breaks. The Arts Award framework worked exceptionally well for this student as there was a clear structure to the end goal, so the learner could see exactly what she needed to do to complete the qualification. She had ownership of her learning and together we were able to plan how she was going to achieve this.
Accessibility
For Bronze Part B (explore the arts as an audience member), we ensure that anywhere we visit will be completely accessible for our learners before taking them. This includes checking it is physically accessible as well as appropriate to their needs. This often includes checking what times are quieter for the young people or arranging a specific tour just for them so they are able to comfortably ask any questions they may have. Sometimes, for this section, we bring the show to the learners, whether that be through a visiting theatre group or watching a live performance recording. These memorable, impactful arts experiences have always led to outstanding reviews (personal reflection) and often provided opportunities that these students otherwise would not have had access to. They also take pride in sharing their review with their peers and displaying it on our Arts Award board.
Student voice is at the centre of how we work as an organisation, and our delivery of Arts Award is no different. Our young people regularly express their enjoyment of the learning they experience through our Arts Award programme, due to us providing a safe welcoming environment where they feel supported and understood. They enjoy the freedom to choose their own learning and use technology to support this.
Impact
The impact that Arts Award has had on our company and learners has been huge. It has allowed our young people to further their education and move onto college and/or Sixth Form with an extra qualification to those gained at school. In some cases, it has been the only qualification the student has achieved successfully and has supported them moving onto foundational courses after school, where they could then gain English and Maths qualifications.
Arts Award regularly helps our young people discover what they would like to pursue as a career or hobby and introduces them to new art forms and cultural experiences they otherwise would never have experienced. Most importantly, it builds up their confidence and promotes self-belief so they feel ready to move onto the next stage of their learning and lives, whatever that may be.
To find out more about what we do, please visit our website or email me danielle@amindapart.org.uk.