Festival News: Creativity for Active Health and Wellbeing

Published: 14 October 2021
Becky Stroud from Beck Primary School, Teo Greenstreet from Greentop Community Circus Centre and Helen Fidler and colleagues from the Virtual School for Children Looked After and the Children in Care Council discuss how cultural partnerships can support active health and wellbeing.

Amy Willoughby, Create Sheffield’s Creative Education Producer and Assistant Headteacher at Beck School welcomed speakers Becky Stroud from Beck Primary School, Teo Greenstreet from Greentop Community Circus Centre and Helen Fidler and colleagues from the Virtual School for Children Looked After and the Children in Care Council to discuss how cultural partnerships can support active health and wellbeing. This event was part of the ‘Why Creativity Matters NOW’ strand of the Learn Sheffield Autumn Online Festival

There was a great discussion during this event around how the challenges brought on by the pandemic has opened up opportunities for teachers and facilitators to be more creative in their days, often turning to arts and culture to support the mental and physical health of their students. There was also a discussion around the many restraints teachers usually have in their day, often pressured to meet targets and deadlines and participants asked how we might use relevant, relatable creative activities, like spoken word with a local rapper, or circus skills in PE,  to meet those same curriculum needs. 

 

During the event our speakers shared the following work;

Greentop Community Circus Centre and Beck Primary have co-created ‘This is Circus’ a 6 week Circus programme to take over PE. It has been designed to engage the least active children, promote resilience and grow creativity.  


The programme was tested at Beck with Y3 to Y6 groups during the pandemic, designed so it can be run entirely remotely by schools, for a lead teacher to pick it up and run using loaned equipment, detailed lesson plans and bespoke videos. It is now being adapted to provide a blended approach with circus teachers proving CPD and in class support.

Since September over 320 children have been involved at Beck Primary, Hucklow Primary, Brightside Infants and Bradfield and Dungworth Primary, 90% felt able to learn lots of different skills and 84% felt circus helped them take on and succeed at difficult challenges. You can read more about this programme here

 

•The Virtual School for Children Looked After, the Children in Care Council and creative partners Dominic Heslop (Rapper and Facilitator) and Nik Perring (Author) worked on a creative project with young people who have experiences of being in care. This creative writing project culminated in a published book of poems which were also printed around Sheffield city centre. The young people met with Dom and Nik weekly and through writing and spoken word, found that they could express themselves in a safe space with other young people that shared similar life experiences.


Dom, Helen and Clare Holdsworth from the Children in Care Council shared moving stories of what these sessions meant to the young people. They also talked about how they hoped that teachers might create similar spaces in their school day for ‘boundless creativity.’ 

You can purchase the young people’s published book ‘The Can in Can’t - Labels are for packages not for people’ by emailing Clare at clare.holdsworth@sheffield.gov.uk. The money raised goes towards printing more of these books. 

 

These case studies are well worth watching in full. If you missed this session and would like to find out more about what was presented, you can watch the recording here

 

About Create Sheffield 

Create Sheffield is Sheffield’s Cultural Education Partnership, it exists to take the young people of Sheffield on ‘a journey into the arts, culture and heritage sectors, benefiting the lives of all those in Sheffield aged 0-24. Create Sheffield is supported by IVE, the Arts Council Bridge Organisation for Yorkshire and the Humber and also has received support from other organisations in Sheffield.  

 

Create Sheffield ask everyone who has attended one of the sessions or watched the replay to fill in a ‘Getting to Know You’ form to help us gather your thoughts and needs, in order to inform Create Sheffield’s Cultural and Creative Education Strategy that will be implemented from january 2022.

In return for filling in the form, you will:

•Have the opportunity to shape future CPD sessions to suit your needs and interests


•Have access to CPD opportunities


•Shape opportunities for further networking


•Have the option to join and create networks and sessions that support your learning


•Have the opportunity to share & shout about creative and cultural learning projects 


•Have your voice heard!


Participant (education) Getting to Know You form

Participant (Arts & Cultural Partners) Getting to Know You form.

 

 

 

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