The Films

Well this is it! All of the completed short films. We’re really happy that they all look so different, it’s a reflection of the unique ideas that everyone had and the wildly different projects. Thank you to the pupils, school staff, all the artists and practitioners that inspired us so much.

We’re sorry if some films haven’t got music, or if the sound seems fuzzy… With a little more time we’d have liked to iron out any mistakes and polished everything up a bit – but… as they are, the films are completely from the hearts and minds of the people who matter! For us that’s the most important thing.

Windows

Our journey has ended. A few views from our many windows…

It’s a shame we were inside so much!

St Mary’s

Our last day in school. The team of 6 pupils at Grantham St Mary’s shared their memories of the 2 Creative Partnerships music projects with Jane and Eddie. They worked with us to imagine what different sounds would look like if you could see them, using two different techniques.

The first activity was inspired by a film from 1936 by Oskar Fischinger – in which colourful collaged sound shapes came to life with animation. Next we switched off the lights, turned on our led torches and drew sounds with light and long exposure photography… Take a look!

Well done Beth, Elleonar, Jacob, Kai, Lily and Eliza.

St Hughs

Our penultimate day in Lincolnshire – this time at St Hughs C of E Mathematics and Computing College in Grantham.

The school have been remodeling and rebuilding, looking at how to make learning more personally engaging. Their work with CP focused on the English department. Pupils have had a real hand in planning and designing the new spaces, we met with 5 of them to find out how.

Tinino, Johnathan, Sean, Jake and Jessica gave us a guided tour of their new English block and talked us through all the 3D drawings, the furniture, the paint on the walls, explaining their choices and exactly how and why the ideas developed. We learned a lot about what makes a classroom work, and how important it is that pupils have some control about the spaces they learn in.

As well as filming interviews we made some quick animations – they might not make it into the final film but it was a good way to get more relaxed about speaking in front of the camera.

Stay tuned for the finished interviews – thanks to all the pupils for talking so openly and intelligently with us, and thank you to Mrs Bennett for all your help and dealing with our unexpected arrival!

Old Leake

Here’s a look at what we’ve been doing today.

We worked with Gracie, Jessica, Megan, Shay, Danny, Angel and Matthew to create a huge drawing – a kind of map, showing all of the different things they have done with artists in their school.

They told us about building pyramids, making puppets, and inventing whole worlds to explore. They explained about whirlwinds, volcanoes, curly cats and dogs… And it’s all here recorded in pictures and diagrams – if you know how to look at it right.

When the picture was finished we had a video tour of the map, everyone telling their parts of the story. The puppets even helped too.

We had a very good time!

We were sorry not to meet Mrs TW, but would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Limb, for standing in, and helping us out.

4 Schools down – 2 to go!

Wow – it’s been a  busy week! We’ve learnt lots about Creative Partnerships (CP) in 4 Lincolnshire schools so far. Each of the projects are very different to each other – schools have worked with different people, over different amounts of time, exploring different themes and questions, with different year groups, approaches and creative activities… Lots and lots of these things are ‘different’ – yet despite this, we’ve started to see several things that they all have in common…

By talking to the young people who’ve worked with CP, we’re discovering exactly how much of an impact creative learning has had on their schools. They’re telling us how much fun it is to learn through hands on activities – because they ‘learn a bit better’ that way. The 26 pupils at the 4 schools have taught us that what they value  is the freedom, opportunity and time to explore things for themselves, in imaginative ways – to choose, learn, and experience learning through their own decisions… Open and honest conversation has revealed that what might begin as uncertainity, or fear of ‘not getting it right’ has turned into joy and excitement, and a realisation that  ‘you couldn’t really get it wrong’…

Burning eyeballs in Boston!

We’re editing. We’re looking at screens a lot…

Fosse Way update

Hi folks, a quick update with a bit of video from Tuesday. The Fosse Way film crew in action.

No sound, no time for that, but hey – if anyone from the school wants to download this and add their own music that would be very acceptable and cool.

That reminds us to say – you can download any of these videos by clicking to view them on the Vimeo page (a good idea anyway because they’re better quality) then scrolling down to the bottom right where there is a link to the original file. So, you could add your own soundtrack, re-edit the animations or… It’s up to you.

St Helena’s

Stones, shells, sea and sand were our tools today whilst working with pupils at St Helena’s School in Willoughby.

Our day began by squeezing into the office of Mrs Belton – the head teacher! We proceeded to fill it with our big black boxes of equipment, 6 hard working pupils, and all of the above mentioned natural objects, to make this, the third film about working with Creative Partnerships.

The morning flew by – Thomas, Amelia, Kayleigh, Beth, Alice and Toby made our jobs easy today – despite never animating before, they very quickly mastered the skills and were soon coming up with lots of brilliant short sequences for the film – using the natural objects in such inventive and imaginative ways.

The local paper popped in to snap a photograph of everyone, and before we knew it, it was lunchtime!

After a nice lunch, it was time for a sit down and a chat – you’ll have to wait for the finished film to hear what they said, but for now, you can watch this…

Thanks to Mrs Lancaster for your help throughout the day, and to Mrs Belton for letting us invade your office!

Nettleham

We had our second great day on Wednesday, this time in Nettleham Junior School . Everyone worked super hard on their film – a story of creativity beyond time!

Owen, Madeline, Rosie, Alice, George and Alfie used the idea of a time machine to explore what school was like before, during and after their time with Creative Partnerships. Everyone animated swirling, zooming, starry effects, and used springs, nuts, bolts, cogs and wheels to film moving time machinery.

Later we all sat down to talk about how pupils feel about creativity in their school, and they tried to squeeze their really intelligent thoughts into a short script. They had such interesting things to say about the projects they’ve done, about how important it is to learn creatively and to be able to choose just how to learn. They were so positive about what’s happening in school. Thanks to the time travelers for working so enthusiastically and thanks to Mrs Kay for all her help.

Heres a sneaky look inside the time machine…