09/10/18 – Creative Partnerships

Integrating the arts in education is one thing but another positive way to get children involved in the arts is to look outside who’s in the school. Bringing in professionals to help can give children a deeper understanding and show teachers different methods of practice for using in the classroom. It can also be effective to get children involved in expressive arts projects out with the school. Meaning they get the opportunity to see the arts out in the real world and see how they can be used day to day and bring positive benefits to the children and others involved.

Creative partnerships enhance pupils learning experience and help develop their skills and the practitioner’s skills. Showing the different ways in which children can get involved in the expressive arts in school and out of school helps support the curriculum and support the aspects within it.

We got to experience this during one of our music workshops as a group of primary 6/7 school children from Greenmill Primary school came in to show us what they had been up to. We became the students and they became the teachers, the children were involved in the String Project which enables them to continue their music studies after leaving primary school. The String project is funded by East Ayrshire’s Youth Music Initiative and it was amazing to see so many children excited about the arts and music and interested in working together as an orchestra. They preformed for us using different instruments including the violin, cello, double base and viola and then they gave us the chance to learn the cords and have a play with the instruments.

I felt this was a great way to encourage the children to explore the arts because if they enjoy what they are doing then they want to do it more, they become passionate about it which is a great quality to have and take away with them as well as feeling like they have contributed towards a greater goal.

Creative partnerships are great and effective forms of collaboration and people working together towards a common goal. We continued this approach in dance as well by splitting into groups to create a routine, during which the teacher had very little to do with the task, we were in charge and in control of what kind of routine we good put together. To help get us started we were given 10 different moves that we could interpret anyway we liked and create a routine using the moves we created and decided on together.

Using this kind of activity in practice is exactly the kind of thing that shows how the expressive arts can create positive relationships between teachers and students and between students and their peers. It shows and develops skills such as communication, teamwork, creativity and passion.

Reference List:

Vimeo, Inc. (2018) Greenmill Primary School String Project, Available at: https://vimeo.com/176221212 (Accessed: 9th October 2018).