Bill Taylor-Beales:

Morning  = Film writing

As a creative practitioner it is always very welcome to receive creative input from a professional in the field and in the morning was a great opportunity to explore some very creative writing exercises.

Kylie lead us in some non-dominant hand writing exercises leading onto some exercises to gather words and phrases into a stream of consciousness prose.

This was highly effective and very rewarding - everyone in the room was able to come away with a unique and strong piece of writing that would not have achieved without the process from Kylie.

As a creative practitioner the benefits were two fold - firstly for myself it expanded my process of writing and secondly it provided a very transferable skill to use in other workshop settings

We can already feed this back into the classroom with the digital story telling aspect of the project.

As far as a foundation for the new curriculum it is tailor-made for the creative approaches  the pupils will be encouraged to engage with in the future.

 

The afternoon saw us take these prose pieces into a recording environment with David who lead us through some foundational recording techniques which were immediately transferable to the school environment.

Plus he introduced us to the Binaural microphone which we had not encountered before and this opened up a huge potential for future creative projects.

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Cathryn Jones - Deputy Head Teacher, Pontarddulais Primary School

Feedback:

The training day by Swansea Collage of Art was inspiring. The creative way that the training was delivered supported the aims of the whole day. It ensured that you delved down and pushed yourself out of your comfort zone when expressing ourselves creatively through language in a way that was new to me. A creative way that enabled some excellent work to be produced. 

It was beneficial to me going forward as we need new and creative ways of engaging our learners in a curriculum that will develop cross curricular working and stimulate a deeper way of thinking. The approach used during the training I will utilise again. 

The afternoon workshop was excellent also as it opened my eyes to the further possibilities the recording and links very well with our Expressive Arts focus of Film. 

This will be utilised with the children going forward. Hopefully, we will be able to find a way of getting the children into the studio to record sounds, possibly to support our dance performance. 

This will open the eyes of the children into different career prospects and aspirations that are so important. 

The approaches and skills developed during the day will support us, in supporting our staff to build a new and inspiring curriculum in preparation for 2022. 

I would like to further develop our links with the Art Collage to support us in the future.

Thank you all for such a fantastic day that has really inspired me and helped me to develop new ways of engaging the children creatively. 

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Ceri Townley - Teaching Assistant,  St. Joseph’s Cathedral Primary School

 

I am a TA and I attended the CPD collaboration at Swansea College of Art with St Joseph’s Primary and Pontarddulais Primary on 22nd January 2020.  

I felt this course was beneficial as It demonstrated interesting teaching methods for literacy and how these methods could be used in a school setting. I particularly enjoyed learning how to enrich descriptive vocabulary through fun activities and using visual cues.

As this was a collaborative exercise and funded both teachers and TAs to attend, we all have first hand knowledge and understanding of how these activities can be used and what they can achieve in the classroom. 

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Emma Rees-Evans - Class Techer, Pontarddulais Primary School

A fantastic day from start to finish. Firstly, it was lovely to meet up with the staff again from St Josephs and Bill, it was enlightening to hear how the project was going in their school and discuss forthcoming events.

 During the morning session the techniques used in order for us to complete a piece of writing were so effective. The techniques used were new to me but I could see during the morning how I could use them back at school with my class, in order to promote their creative writing skills. I would never have come up with the end product if I had just been told to write about a picture. It was only down to the techniques which we followed – a great morning and techniques I will definitely use.

 

The afternoon session was very informative and gave a background to all the resources which can be used with a class in relation to recording their voices. Again, another area I didn’t really know much about. I Know need to spend some time looking at ‘Garage Band’ so that I can use it with my class.

 

I came away from the day feeling much more creative and excited as to what I can do within my class and felt confident that I could use these techniques in other areas not just this project.

 

I think I would benefit from maybe having some input or ideas/skills on how to create certain types of paintings /drawing or prints as I do not feel skilled/confident to teach this.

 

Thank you for allowing me to be involved in the day

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Michelle Thomas - Class Teacher, St. Joseph's Cathedral Primary School

We received a very warm welcome from Kylie who was to lead us enthusiastically and carefully through the morning’s well planned creative writing activities. We were joined in this intimate, relaxed setting by several teachers from other schools, who were also part of the team. 

Kylie led us on an exciting writing journey which encouraged us to think deeply about our own idea of ‘story’ before challenging us to create our own interesting ways of telling a story.  

Kylie’s use of digital technology, which provided the ‘human’ approach to this project was highly effective. It greatly enhanced the idea of ‘visual storytelling’.  The use of such dystopic images sparked spirited debate. It also gave us the opportunity to explore the range of feelings we were experiencing – from disgust to disbelief. This would be an excellent way of developing pupils’ vocabulary skills in a creative setting.

Kylie’s next activity for us was very carefully engineered so as to be in complete contrast to the above activity. We were asked to relax and connect with our consciousness using abstract automatic handwriting.  This was a new experience for many of us and it was a great, fun way of really being in the moment, providing us all with the necessary ‘lightness’ following the harrowing nature of the previous video.  Again, this would be a highly effective practice for our pupils in school, allowing them to really ‘be’ in the moment. 

The sentence starters provided by Kylie were also a great way of encouraging the writing process. They would certainly provide useful prompts for any reluctant writers in class. 

I think the next part of our writing journey was my favourite activity and I’m confident that the children in school would love it too! Using the piles of words and phrases we had previously created, we were asked to cut and mix them up to make new combinations.  This way of working really helped spark new ideas in my mind and it would provide a strong scaffold, again for those reluctant writers in class. It would take away the fear that some children have of feeling their work is ‘wrong’ or ‘not good enough’. 

By the end of the morning session, ably supported by Kylie, we all managed to create our very own piece of writing, and most importantly it was done in quite a unique way! 

We were then invited to the recording studio to learn about ‘Professional Audio Recording Practices’.  This was my first experience of a recording studio, so I was keen to make the most of it!

Once again, we received a warm welcome from our leader David.  Initially he talked to us about computers, audio interface, speakers and microphones. 

He then invited us to record our own voices, using the phrases and key words that we had created that morning, which provided continuity between the two sessions.  What an experience! Not only did we have fun but we learnt lots of new facts about how to be successful when using a microphone and the key part acoustics play in the whole process.  This new found knowledge would certainly help us in school with our music lessons.

For me personally, the session spent on using BBC Sound Effects was particularly useful, as our Year 5 class had an assembly coming up and both Mrs Phillippart and I were very keen to use this newly discovered resource. 

 In conclusion, there is no doubt of the positive impact this whole experience   has had on me as a teacher. Greatly motivated by the knowledgeable, confident, calm and patient delivery of both leaders, I felt empowered to use digital story- telling to introduce rich writing experiences into my classroom environment.  Indeed, upon my return to school, I quickly set about incorporating this ‘human’ approach into our creative writing experiences across the curriculum. Most importantly, the children loved the ‘freedom’ this new way of working offered. We also managed to use the BBC Sound Effects in our class assembly, so all in all, a very productive and positive outcome.

Thank you all very much for inviting me to be part of this experience. I hope to visit again in the not too distant future and maybe next time, we could bring a small group of children with us too,  as it would certainly provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of them to take part in a ‘real’ sound recording session. 

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Hayley Thomas – Class Teacher and Expressive Arts lead Pontarddulais Primary School

Working Whispers Project – Swansea College of Art

I thoroughly enjoyed the day. It was a fantastic opportunity that I was so pleased to be a part of. The morning session showed us how to inspire pupils in order to develop their creative writing. The techniques used were very engaging and I felt I could adapt them to suit pupils of any age within the primary setting. Completing the activity personally allowed me to see how the techniques added detail and length to my writing. I was very pleased with our finished results.

I took lots of information from the afternoon session. I enjoyed using the equipment and would definitely like to learn more about how I could use this more in class. I aim to use the techniques of adding voices and sound effects during our next ‘into’ film project.

I am looking forward to using everything I learnt today to enhance the future teaching and learning within my classroom

Thank you for the opportunity

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Cerian Appleby – Class Teacher, Project and Expressive Arts lead St. Joseph’s Cathedral Primary School

It was lovely to be able to collaborate and share the storytelling process with artists, colleagues from higher education,  staff from our own school settings and with colleagues from another school. Rarely do we get this opportunity where the training is tailored to our own needs so specifically or in a project we have co-constructed. This shared experience allowed us to exchange creative ideas and explore new ways to develop our own storytelling methods and techniques that could be used with other adults and children we work with. It enabled me to explore something that could be implemented directly in my class and I have already used the techniques on a number of occasions since attending the training. The children in my class responded well to the practical tasks and alternative writing and recording methods and used this approach when constructing their Chatterpix 'Avachats'.  

 

It was very useful to touch on the idea of script and creative writing, the journey from paper to screen and to consider visual storytelling and some practical exercises. It was also very useful exploring the different effects that could be obtained from using different equipment and sound techniques. In our ever increasing digital world it gave us lots to consider and an insight how we could use these tools for different effect with those we work with.

 

The training was invaluable and I know the practical exercises are something I will use with future classes to develop creative practice within and beyond the classroom. A big thanks to Swansea College of Art for sharing their skills and techniques and to all colleagues for embracing the day, making it so enjoyable, supporting me as I stepped outside my comfort zone and allowing themselves to do the same.  

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