Shakespeare, puppets and flexibility: supporting flexible evidence gathering to achieve an Arts Award

Shakespeare, puppets and flexibility: supporting flexible evidence gathering to achieve an Arts Award

Picture of Guest Writer

BY: Guest Writer
19 Apr 2018

When we last heard from Rebecca Lonergan and Abbey Catholic Primary School, they were planning their Arts Award delivery for the year, making use of after school clubs and Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF). Rebecca’s back with an update on their progress.

We are now half way through the year, wondering where all that time went! We had a fantastic response to our KS2 after school Arts Award club, with a total of 21 children signing up for the 17-week course.Abbey Catholic Primary 04 cropped

For our Year 6 Bronze group, we started by completing Part A (Explore the arts as a participant) concentrating on their SSF experience - having the time to fully reflect on their experiences is so valuable for the children and an integral part of the Arts Award process. By reviewing the journey they have been on and the skills developed, their eyes opened to all the possibilities around them. For our Part C (Arts Inspiration) we looked at Henri Matisse and Wassily Kandinsky, with children completing their own independent research and focussing on areas of work that they were interested in. We then provided resources for the children to have a go at creating their own pieces of art work.

 

 For the skills share element this year (Part D), our group decided they would like to plan and deliver a drama workshop for year five pupils as this would give the children a taster of the SSF experience which awaits them in October 2018 and gives the session a real sense of value. Once this part was completed, we had three weeks left for portfolio building. Predominantly, our portfolios are paper-based, but the flexibility of Arts Award means we can make our evidence gathering the best fit for our students. In the past we have provided video and audio recordings as evidence and also children’s notes and photographs.

Abbey Catholic Primary 03One of the best things about Arts Award is that it accommodates this flexibility. It means that we can allow children to explore a diverse range of skills and this year has provided some unexpected opportunities. We have been able to take part in a puppet-making workshop, have visited the Royal Albert Hall for the Primary Proms and have enjoyed a fabulous pantomime performance. This has given the children a lovely varied range of experiences for their Bronze award.

Our moderation is booked for early May. For most children this is their first experience of gaining a formal qualification, and gives them a valuable insight into what’s ahead in secondary education. We are all eagerly looking forward to recognising the young people’s achievements at our celebration event in the summer and completing another successful year of Arts Award and SSF.

Request a free support session
Comments & Replies

Related posts