Creative learning

UROCK Theatre Company delivers arts projects to schools in the East of England, supporting & initiating the young people’s cultural offer. As education specialists we have used that expertise to develop bespoke models of arts delivery and piloted them across the region with a range of schools & partners. 

This is a list of models that are available to schools across the complete range of ages and abilities, all of which are examples that can be adapted to a school or a group of school partners

Space 4 Dialogue project model.

Are you a school or an organisation wishing to reach out to young people and consult with them about what is important to your school?  

 It could be Diversity, Standards, Health & Wellbeing,  Arts in the Curriculum....  

UROCK Theatre Company has developed this in direct response to a request for a model empowering young people & their partner organisations. Our vision is to help young people realise their potential, using active creative approaches to consult with them and support their ideas & actions. We have received investment & support in the past from Norfolk & Norwich Festival Bridge & the Viscount Nelson Norfolk Schools Improvement.

How does Space 4 Dialogue work?

Making a space to talk about what is important together, learning to negotiate, view others perspectives and form an opinion. All these take practise and we spend time doing exactly that, as artists we improvise, draft and develop ideas as well present them.

This model is unique because it is flexible and can be used to support any current agenda or narrative. As artists we co-design with our organisation partners and we facilitate and lead that journey by using our creative skills and our experience as project managers. The activity is arts based and will be fun to take part in.

Our core business is placing children and young people at the centre, and we develop that objective by working with their learning experience with adults.  We will work with several settings in order to encourage partnership & exchange. We will work with a theme or agenda that is chosen by the partnership, making the work bespoke to the organisations, and co designed.

What does the model include?

• 2 hour creative active workshop for up to 25 young people in each setting
• Half day Workshop located in a [Heritage Environment Cultural Venue] where young people 
meet each other and practise their views
• An introduction briefing for adults who are responsible for working with young people
• Full day Event where young people lead [Take Over] as a result of their learning

In all pilots of this model we have encouraged or commissioned external feedback.  This is an extract.

“The unique feature of this programme is in the central axis of cross-arts exercises used in every session so as to liberate young people and their educators from the structures of school/work, and allow them to think differently about themselves as they develop new behaviours. Spoon feeding and dependency creates a lack of enquiry in young people. This process empowers & promotes independence when young people move out of their comfort zones”

Cross - Over project model

The target is year 7&8 students.  The rationale is to ensure students have an early perspective in their school career to be informed about the Arts. The artists will seek in this project to create an excitement about career routes in the Arts Industries, helping students to unlock their potential and raise the status of the Arts & its potential learning in the Curriculum.

The model includes: 3 whole days of Artists in residence with students and staff – timetable collapse for these students and students attend from different centres [possibly GFT students]  At least 2 artists will deliver the work and their art forms will be chosen once the planning session has taken place.

Frame – collaboration of cross art forms: integrating music dance & theatre [visual arts] that is contemporary and does not use the normal musical theatre template.

Objectives:

• Unlock potential & identify career routes.
• Create working groups with new dynamics
• A cross curricular opportunity and staff team development
• Provide a platform to support bronze Arts awards and further accreditation

Project Title – The work will be bespoke and decided by the schools in a shared planning meeting Example ONLINE   It will provide the inspiration and narrative from which to devise new material and work with core practise.

The residency will also include the following:

• A CPD training offer with teachers & TA’s – This will be an offer to all partnership schools that can be accessed on the same day at one venue.
• Working together to better understand impact
• Shared opportunities to reflect & review by students
• Receiving curriculum support ideas from the UROCK Creative Artists

Shakespeare 4 fun project model

• The model offers a large intervention across a school to engage with Shakespeare. The play is chosen by the school.
• The model enables around 12 groups of students to be engaged [approx. 300 pupils]
• That play will be explored with all ages at a level of understanding appropriate to age.
• The students will explore character, story, and concepts underpinning Shakespeare through 
movement & theatre activities.
• UROCK artists work with a creative approach and can adapt content according to age across 
key stages 1 & 2
• The focus of delivery will be creative workshops and not a performance outcome of a 
finished product [Schools can be empowered to develop this for themselves after intervention]

 A typical model might look like this:  With 2 Artist delivery in 2 practical spaces simultaneously.

• 3 days divided into 6 sessions of delivery

• Day one has 60 min workshops 
Year 1 x 2 classes & year 2 classes x 2 classes
• Day two has 60 min workshops 
Year 3 x 2 & Year 4 x 2 classes
• Day three 90 min workshops 
Day Three Year 5 x 2 classes Year 6 x 2 classes

*Models can be devised according to school size, facilities and availability of students.

Artist Residencies

UROCK Theatre Company delivers arts projects to schools around the region, supporting & initiating the young people’s cultural offer

A strand of that delivery this year has been the brokerage of high profile Artists in Peterborough including: - commissioned Dance/Theatre work with Gecko, a working relationship with Moko Dance, a long term champion role with Cardboard Citizens Theatre Company achieving wide-ranging impact in schools citywide.

UROCK Theatre Company has developed bespoke models of arts delivery and piloted them across the region with a range of schools & partners

In 2014 alone, UROCK  worked with over 20 primary schools and 10 secondary schools to delivery cross-arts residencies. These are bespoke to the institition we are working with and involve student leadership and creativity.

Basic model includes:

• 3 - 5 days contact with two or more artists.
• A taster of different art forms or practices.
• Group work to create an inter discipline performance/exhibition/installation.
• An inner or outer audience to observe/participate in the work.
• Reflection and learning progression audits

Arts disciplines worked with in the past: Acting, Movement, Storytelling, Recorded Voice, Sculpture, Dance, Drawing, Creative Thinking, Site-specific Performance, Improvisation, Comedy.

Arts Leaders Training at Royal Opera House Production Park and Backstage Centre Thurrock.

As part of the development process of Peterborough Cultural Partnership, in May 2013 UROCK Creative was commissioned to provide three days of arts based active training to 22 young people with an age range 7-18, 2 parents and 3 UROCK practitioners.

This culminated in setting young people a project challenge to plan and pitch their own arts event. Using media equipment selling the idea became a central part of their  successful projects. The third and final day was a visit to The Royal Opera House Backstage Centre at High House Thurrock in Essex, where young people were able to find out opportunities for career pathways in the creative industry and practise their learning by asking intelligent questions about behind the scene skills and production processes. As a group representing Peterborough, they were much younger than most visitors to ROH & Backstage but were inspired by the facilities and the experts they met.

Jointly funded by Peterborough Learning Partnership and Norfolk and Norwich Festival, this project involved representation of young people from all areas of the city coming together to create a team.