Perry Beeches School Birmingham Outdoor & Drama/Story-Telling Creatives Required We are looking to develop the speaking, listening and writing skills of our Year 1 pupils through developing interesting learning opportunities in our outdoor spaces using drama and theatre approaches. Quick Summary of our Project What is the project? A Creative Partnerships project using drama and theatre approaches to explore the question: How can creative and practical learning through drama and role-play in the classroom, and during outdoor play, increase children’s language development? When is it taking place? It is taking place in the Spring and Summer terms 2011 Closing date for application: Monday 29th November 2010 Interviews & Creative workshops: Thursday 2nd November 2010 After appointing our practitioner(s) there will be a half-day planning session in mid January for practitioner(s) and staff. The majority of the project will take place in the Spring & Summer Terms 2011, with a project-sharing event taking place in July 2011, dates to be confirmed after interview. We estimate this project will be the equivalent of 8 -10 working days in length. Who are we looking to collaborate with? We have big plans for our outdoor spaces, including creating an outdoor stage and performance area where lessons can take place and where children can explore, play and develop their stories at playtimes. We are looking for a practitioner who is experienced in developing drama and theatre in a Key Stage 1 context, someone who is imaginative and sees developing stories and dramas in outdoor environments as an exciting challenge. Alongside, drama and theatre skills, you may have skills in theatrical set design & making sets or specifically in transforming outdoor spaces into imaginative explorative environments for children to develop their imaginative ideas in. As well as applicants from individuals we are happy to take joint applications from creative practitioners who are interested in working collaboratively on a shared planning & delivery process. Also, we are happy to receive applications from organizations specializing in the areas of drama, theatre, developing outdoor learning areas but please specify in your application who from your organisation will be leading the project and what specific experience they will bring to exploring and developing our area of enquiry. Fee We are looking to work with our practitioner/s over approximately an 8 - 10 day period and this is to include delivery, planning, documentation and evaluation time. There is a set budget of up to £4000 to cover both practitioner fees and all resource costs. We already know we want to spend 25% of this budget on materials and labour costs in terms of developing our outdoor theatrical learning space. Therefore, the maximum practitioner fee will be £3,000. If you have a set daily rate please submit this as part of your application. Why have we picked this topic? 40% of our children are SEN and a 1/3 of our children are EAL therefore developing speaking and listening is a priority. We want to place a greater emphasis on developing our outdoor spaces as creative learning environments. We are aware that our use of our outdoor spaces is quite sporadic at the moment and we are looking to work with practitioner(s) who can inspire us, bring new and thought-provoking ideas and solutions, and help us develop our approaches regarding developing teaching and learning outdoors. Project Information The successful candidate(s) will be working with Year 1 pupils, which consists of 88 pupils divided in to three classes. During our planning we will explore how you will structure your partnership with the school to creatively and meaningfully involve each of the three classes. We have regular staff meetings and we would like our practitioner(s) to be available to attend these at the beginning, middle and end of our project. Here, you will work alongside our Creative Agent and School Coordinator to introduce, share and update how the project is progressing, answer staff’s questions and participate in discussion regarding how the work explored in this project can continue to be embedded in the school’s teaching and learning practice. We would like this project to work towards a sharing event at the end of the summer term 2011. We are very open to ideas regarding the shape and form this sharing event will take and we would encourage applicants to bring potential ideas to share at their interview Key Aims of the Project To develop speaking and listening skills with our Year 1 pupils To work with staff to create interesting opportunities for children to develop their writing skills. To increase teachers confidence to develop teaching and learning in our outdoor spaces. To collaborate with the school to ‘theatricalize’ a particular area of our playground To collaborate with the school to create drama environments where children develop their own stories and plays. To support the school in embedding the creative teaching and learning ideas which are generated as part of this project. Creative Practitioner Specifications First and foremost applicants must have experience and skill in the areas of drama and theatre. Creative partners should also be able to demonstrate: A commitment to collaboration with teachers & pupils A well developed reflective practice and an ability to share and communicate this practice with Key Stage 1 children. An understanding of how children and what motivates children to learn An ability to share their practice with the wider school community. Highly developed communication and negotiation skills An ability to motivate and inspire others. School Information Perry Beeches is larger then most infant schools. It shares its campus with the local Junior, Secondary and Special Schools. This group of schools together with two neighboring schools form an extended cluster of schools designed to provide an increased range of opportunities for pupils’ learning. Most pupils at Perry Beeches Infant School live locally and come from a wide variety of economic and social backgrounds. Approximately half the number of pupils are of minority ethnic heritage and a few pupils are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. About 1/3 of pupils are entitled to free school meals and a similar proportion of pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The school holds a number of awards including healthy schools, active mark and Arts Mark Silver. Application Process Please provide a written application of no more than 500 words outlining why you are appropriate for this position, how you would support pupil voice and collaboration between pupils & staff. Please go into detail about any initial ideas for how you would share your specific skills and approaches with our pupils & staff. Brief outlines of an initial session plan are welcome. Also, please provide web links to examples of your work if available. Please provide a CV and two references from education providers that you have worked in partnership with before. If you tender as an organisation then please state who the person/people will be who will work directly with our school and who will be attending interview. A current Enhanced CRB Disclosure and public liability insurance of at least £5 million is a condition of application. Please note if you are invited to interview you will be asked to deliver a 30 minute creative workshop with pupils as part of the interview process. Post or email your CV and application explaining how and why you would like to work with us to: Julie Goody Creative Partnership Coordinator Perry Beeches Infant School Beeches Road Great Barr Birmingham B42 2PY Email: Julie.goody@perrybeeches-inf.bham.sch.uk If you have any further questions about this project please email Juliet Raynsford our Creative Agent at juliet.raynsford@btinternet.com
