This morning, I met with Emily Hastings from Acting Up! (see facebook.com/EmilyHastingsActingUp/ and actinguptheatre.co.uk/
for further details) to brainstorm ways in which we might collaborate in the near future.
I am keen to work with the Education Performance and Inclusion Team at Gloucestershire County Council to establish a Geography/Humanities Subject Leaders’ Network for primary schools (as they already have operating for English, mathematics and science) and run three different workshops over the course of the next academic year. I would hope that these days contain a strong element of interactivity since I feel that this approach gives teachers more confidence to replicate the suggested activities in the classroom. It is essential that creativity/innovation features highly too; several schools need to embrace fresh ideas to re-ignite teaching and learning within their establishments and inspire and engage youngsters. ‘Taking learning outside the classroom’, ‘integrating geography/history with the arts’ and ‘promoting enquiry-based learning’ would be ideal themes to explore throughout 2017-2018. Not only do I have plenty of projects/examples to showcase/share with delegates, but I am also able to draw upon other people’s expertise, such as Emily for drama, Sarah Shaw for dance and Kathryn Minchew for D&T (food). Enticing the Teaching School at The Crypt School , where I will be teaching two days a week from September 2017, to host such workshops might be my next challenge; we could all benefit from pooling contacts and the associated publicity, I feel sure.
Over coffee, Emily and I discussed opportunities to work together in the near future and gave each other plenty of food for thought. It was great for both of us to have someone very like-minded to bounce ideas off. Back to the drawing board now and a few leads to pursue … watch this space to see how things evolve. Exciting times ahead, hopefully!