The first Expressive Arts Conversation Day was held on 25th November 2013 at the Raploch Community Campus in Stirling. The event featured several stimulating practitioner inputs and lively discussion throughout.

The attached document is a collated record of the Implemento table discussion, which was designed to provide starting points for actions to address the key issue of the day – building practitioner confidence and capacity in relation to expressive arts:  Expressive Arts Implemento Session

The main themes we explored (identified during the morning session) were:

• Developing appropriate expressive arts CPD
• Providing appropriate support
• Developing an effective model that balances creative space with skills development
• Creating sustainable partnerships

If visitors to the site have further thoughts or ideas with regard to the issues raised/omitted from the initial conversation please use the blog to share them with colleagues across the country.

Working groups are currently being created to explore the actions suggested/required to take forward the themes listed above and also to identify further actions specific to each area of the expressive arts across all sectors.

Education Scotland will add information to the blog about progress in our partnership with primary colleagues to create and support a national expressive arts primary network. From the responses to the questions in the afternoon session, and to evaluation questions, it certainly seems the idea of a national network is one practitioners and education partners would endorse and support. The collated responses from the afternoon session about the networks are attached below:

National network responses

A second Expressive Arts Conversation Day is in the planning phase and we intend that it will probably take place in Inverness in February or early March to provide greater opportunity for our colleagues from further afield to attend. Once again, this information will be added to the blog.

You are welcome to contact me or any member of the team if there are aspects of expressive arts in general you wish to discuss in greater detail or examples of innovative practice you feel Education Scotland should see.

We look forward to continuing the conversation with you …