"I will always be a learner, and that is what I want for every child in my school, that they are always open to learning." Head teacher, Wilthorpe Infants
A two-year research project funded by Creative Partnerships BDR in collaboration with Heads Together has been conducted at Wilthorpe Infants - a school which has been one of the shining lights of CP BDR over the past five years.
Heads Together, the community arts organisation and Wilthorpe Infant School in Barnsley have evolved a long project involving digital photography, art and film, together with huge input from parents and the wider community.
Visual artists, photographers, storytellers and architects were brought in to help teachers take control of developing their own creative ideas, take risks with teaching and become learners alongside the children.
A Year One teacher was able to do this with great success and said: "You know when you go off on a tangent and say I want to do that, they had given me more confidence to think, well I want to do this and to actually do it."
Children involved with the project remarked on how the curriculum boundaries became less rigid and Kate Pahl, who compiled the final report on the extensive project feels that a supportive head teacher, risk-taking teachers and the Heads Together artists embedding good practice within the school could ensure creative learning is sustained at Wilthorpe.
Since the CP BDR and Heads Together project, Wilthorpe Infants School has had a sparkling Ofsted report and are currently developing a website for the wider community. Kate Pahl, who carried out extensive interviews and research on the project said: "Its effects continued to be felt by the children most powerfully, who took me round the school to witness photographs of their area, to hear stories of rabbits and football, holidays, marriage break-ups and experiences in Barnsley, of the Metrodome, Locke Park, Cannon Hall and other experiences, farming, mining, building. The project brought these discourses into school and they stayed."
