PEEK (POSSIBILITIES FOR EACH AND EVERY KID)
PEEK has been delivering Arts Awards since 2011 and in that time has supported almost 100 young people to gain a Bronze Arts Award in a variety of settings. For more info on PEEK, click here. Here's an overview of lots of different Arts Award projects they have run:
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Working with Primary 7 pupils, we worked with four groups each year in two schools: Alexandra Parade Primary and Golfhill Primary in Glasgow.
The main challenge we faced was the completion of the booklets and any written work. This was largely due to the young people having just finished the school day and not wishing to spend their time doing yet more writing. Another reason this was such a challenge was that many of the young people had major literacy issues and some needed one to one support. This was a problem particularly when researching and recording evidence for Part C: Arts Inspiration.
Recording all our Portfolios on film was good for the young people as they built confidence in front of the camera and also gained skills in using the camera as they filmed each other. However, the challenge with this was largely felt by the advisors as it was a little harder to keep track of the evidence and ensuring everything had been completed. It also meant a lot of work editing each individual Arts Award Portfolio.
Another method we used, and that which we found most effective was scrapbooks. Two of our groups designed and created scrapboxes which they used to store evidence. We gave them cut out shapes which they used to write down ideas, opinions and provide witness statements for each other. These and photographs taken from each week were stored in the boxes and at the end of each section they took the evidence and put it together in a scrapbook. This was presented at the moderation along with some film evidence. This was more successful as the young people felt creative collating the evidence.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Working with Primary 7 pupils, we worked with four groups each year in two schools: Alexandra Parade Primary and Golfhill Primary in Glasgow.
The main challenge we faced was the completion of the booklets and any written work. This was largely due to the young people having just finished the school day and not wishing to spend their time doing yet more writing. Another reason this was such a challenge was that many of the young people had major literacy issues and some needed one to one support. This was a problem particularly when researching and recording evidence for Part C: Arts Inspiration.
Recording all our Portfolios on film was good for the young people as they built confidence in front of the camera and also gained skills in using the camera as they filmed each other. However, the challenge with this was largely felt by the advisors as it was a little harder to keep track of the evidence and ensuring everything had been completed. It also meant a lot of work editing each individual Arts Award Portfolio.
Another method we used, and that which we found most effective was scrapbooks. Two of our groups designed and created scrapboxes which they used to store evidence. We gave them cut out shapes which they used to write down ideas, opinions and provide witness statements for each other. These and photographs taken from each week were stored in the boxes and at the end of each section they took the evidence and put it together in a scrapbook. This was presented at the moderation along with some film evidence. This was more successful as the young people felt creative collating the evidence.
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YOUNG VOLUNTEERS
Each year we work with a small group of young people who gain training then devise, organise and lead a project on an issue of their choice. The young people naturally gravitate towards presenting their project in a creative way such as through photography, creating a play or holding an interactive exhibition. This is a large piece of work which makes a huge demand on their time and the young people don’t feel they are able to concentrate on completing an Arts Award at the same time. Therefore, we offer the young people the opportunity to complete an Arts Award retrospectively. Once they have time, they use the evidence which has been gathered throughout to put together their portfolio. They will also use other volunteering work they have done to complete other sections where appropriate. PEEKTANIUM This was our first non-school Bronze group, aged 13 to 16 and we had never worked with them before. They all had different interests but wished to create a project together so one of them had the fantastic idea of making a music video. Over a few weeks the group chose, recorded & mixed a song (a version of David Guetta and Sia’s Titanium), wrote a storyline for the video, created graffiti art for the set and choreographed a dance then filmed, with no previous acting experience, a moving portrayal of a family breakdown due to alcoholism. This was all led by the young people, some of whom were working from personal experience. The video was a great success but the group found it very difficult to commit to completing their portfolios. This project was a fantastic success. Two of the young people involved are currently working towards a silver award and one of them has taken on a Creative Learning Apprenticeship with PEEK. One of the young men involved was expelled from school during the project because of non-attendance and, as he stated ‘because I’m a troublemaker’. When I told him I saw no evidence of this but a hardworking, caring young man he explained that ‘This is different, this is fun and you listen to my ideas’. PEEKENDERS PEEKenders are a weekly group who have mixed abilities and there are a number of behaviour issues among the participants. More than 10 young people started working on Bronze and almost all of them completed Part A which was exploring the art of screen printing. However, as they moved on further many struggled with the formality and again, the writing up of evidence. Only 4 of the group passed but the adviser is on hand for any of the others to complete their award if they feel they want to. The young people gained great confidence in passing the award and they wish to move on to a silver award. We are hoping to start a group for them in Spring. CURRENT PROJECTS Currently we are working with a small group to complete their Silver Award. They are working individually as they each wish to explore a different art form. We have also just introduced the Bronze Award to our Youth Theatre group. FUNDING Funding for projects comes from a number of sources. The Primary School projects and the PEEKenders group have primarily been funded by grants from Community Planning while the volunteers and PEEKtanium have used funding from a number of trusts to gain their awards. However, young people have managed to source extra funding for some of their projects by applying, themselves to our local Youthbank. This is another way of them developing further skills as well as creating more ownership for their projects. |
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ADVICE FOR ADVISERS
· Help the group to find ways of creating portfolios which works for them but doesn’t add loads more work for yourself. · Give the young people as much ownership as possible – help them to find their own path. · Keep the Bronze Arts Award Skill Share simple – let the young people run a game with their peers or use an activity where they already help out. · Be prepared to do ‘blast days’ – days where you gather the young people along with their evidence, some pizza and an ipod full of good music to put together portfolios. · Be flexible with your ideas and time. · Give yourself plenty of time to internally moderate before the external moderation – just to ensure you can catch up with the young people to add in evidence if need be. · Remind the young people to clearly mark the sections and number pages if required. · Have fun and enjoy it – you will learn so much along with the young people |
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