The West Yorkshire Premiere of this feel good family comedy a talented diverse cast of performers in a brand new theatre venue for the city

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/tncaaproductions

Hi All

Its been a while since I last blogged and after coming out of a difficult personal period with family illness and a recent job change its long overdue.

My professional inquiry fortunately has continued a pace with student participants currently working with my theatre company each week with a view to engagement in English using drama as a tool.

Their time will culminate in a short run of the West Yorkshire premiere of The Addams Family Musical.

Signs are positive as i`ve received an excellent off the cuff feedback email from one of the students form tutors today who says he has noticed a positive change in this student.

Leaving my position at the school after successfully gaining new employment in another secondary school have created unforeseen issues that are taking time to resolve, in particular extra measures re data protection as I do not have the same kind of permissions I had as an employee there and difficulties quickly getting further info on areas of weakness in English. Fortunately the Deputy Head of English Dept has agreed to act as an advocate for my study in the school in my absence. 

Ive attached a poster for this feel good family show that takes place next week and will be the practical culmination of my study, before evaluation takes place. It goes without saying that any members of our Middx BAPP Arts Community are free to come as a guest if you are in the area, have fun watching and share some ideas time over a coffee.

A useful Iquiry tool?

Hi All


This maybe worth a look if your not aware. I haven't put it in my Inquiry plan yet but may be worth using;


 http://www.outcomesstar.org.uk/about-the-outcomes-star/

To be or not to be................a CIC?

During the course of my studies at Middlesex I have continued being part of the day to day running of a Theatre Company (The New Community Arts Academy) as Artistic Director.

Administering (not the most exciting part of the organisation but important) 

Over a number of years of being a solvent but an unconstituted charity it became evident that due to a lack of volunteers, with time to spare. In addition a key member of our management team and the voluntary treasurer became seriously ill. After tremendous canvassing through questionnaires, meetings , word of mouth – we had no alternative to move the group into thinking about becoming a CIC (Community Interest Company).

The process this took for me, as the person tasked with looking into it and reporting on it took a number of forms;

I downloaded all the appropriate literature available and immediately canvassed the opinions of people and organisations we regularly have dealings with and are familiar with our work.  Namely The Chamber of Commerce, Gumptions Centres (John Sims & David Robertson – Brown) who advise and locate businesses and have previously helped with sponsors.

I contacted Childuk an organisation used as a positive case study by the Government department of a successful CIC. I spoke to one of the two Directors there. He told me the pro`s and con`s and felt with there model they had made the right decision – he also felt that perhaps we would be too, in allowing two to three Directors the ability to make decisions in the best interests of the organisation.

I presented my findings on both options to our board meeting and it was carried unanimously.

I then went to all our members/parents  individually and explained the rationale behind looking at a change of  model for the group.

I had also looked at an alternative option, which was to become a committee managed  registered charity. I used as a case study The Chicken Shed Theatre Company. It was apparent that the board at The Chicken Shed was made up of very highly experienced and recognised figures from the business world and theatre, a lot of them. Our situation was quite different with only two or three committed and qualified leaders to take us forward.

We called a vote on the whole thing at our AGM which was carried 100%

I took in all of this an impartial view, although it could be argued I had an interest, there simply wasn’t anyone else to take it on.

The Group goes from strength to strength and we have as large a membership as we have ever had. We evaluated our last production and the satisfaction rating was higher than for anything else we have done.

We continue to attract bits of sponsorship and funding  that is required to be evaluated and meet set outcomes. Ive lost count of the number of meetings ive attended, garnering support from bodies such as The Rotary Clubs (I presented to them using a powerpoint package similar to but better for video clips slidedog).

Just food for thought for anyone thinking of embarking on such a journey – its frequently rewarding but a hard and thankless task at times.

 

Good Luck

Can Secondary Learners be challenged through the mediums of aspects of performing arts and one off projects to engage and progress in English & Maths

Please could you take time to look at this set of questions to help a potential inquiry. All responses, unless you give express permission, or chose to publish your answers, will be treated in confidence.

I am looking at using Survey Monkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/ as the means of communication, this is because our Deputy Principal used the same method recently on something I participated in and it seems relatively straightforward, perhaps you could give it a try.

I would like to do two surveys, aimed at adults and students, I wondered about the thinking around this In relation to the student element.

Would you describe yourself as;

Creative Practitioner
Performer
Secondary Education professional
Parent/carer of a current Secondary student

What is, in your opinion, the most disengaged year group;

Yrs;
7
8
9
10
11

Most disengaged gender;
Male
Female

In relation to English and Maths, what are /is the biggest bars on learning?

Would a focussed holiday activity/project in October half term (not many families can afford to go away then) help?

Would students gain from working solely within a group from the geographical area they are familiar with or engaging with young people from different socio/economic and located environments?

Would students gain more from working within a mixed ability setting (ie including some special needs) or from working within a group roughly at a similar level and facing similar challenges?


...These questions, I hope to add to but would welcome some initial feedback

Thanks loads

Russ






















I explored themes around my inquiry recently by attending and speaking at a Rotary event. This worked on a number of levels, namely;

It got me up in front of people from all ages and walks of life in an informal and not threatening environment.

I was able to actively canvass their thoughts on issues raised by the kind of partnership work I do. It enabled me to hone further my thinking on the way forward in this sector.

Nearly all were actively engaged in working or volunteering in a school setting, in particular Secondary and/or had past experience and the results that could be achieved through positive interventions.

They were very supportive and positive to the Presentation.

I chose to use slide dog http://slidedog.com/ as my presentation aid, due to short research through the internet. I needed something that was free due to lack of funds on my part and due to the nature of my presentation being very visual around performance, this particular facility allowed me - after a prolonged period loading - to play longer and many more video clips to highlight aspects of the success and development of my work within a voluntary organisation, engaging school students.

I found I was able to use images and clips as an alternative to cue cards, hopefully in an engaging way for the audience.

Developing questions for a professional inquiry

I am seeking to organise some questions in relation to my professional inquiry and through discussions during campus sessions with Paula using a mind mapping exercise, I hope my potential inquiry is forming a sharper relief.

I am aware, as a participant, on a professional basis of using survey monkey, this seems a safe, anonymous and secure meaning of doing a survey such as this and I wondered if any of my peers had used it? what thoughts their were on it, as a medium of communication?

I will be seeking to actively engage with my peers through social media, joining and initiating a SIG group as I have identified, in particular, a number of students with similar interests and lines of inquiry.

Please feel free to message me and I hope to likewise do the same.

In anticipation

Russ

Campus Session Hendon Tues 25th March 2014

Hi All

This was a very useful session, particularly as I was reconnecting face to face with people after some family illness issues and other considerations.

I would particularly like to thank Paula for giving me some more intensive one to one time at the end of the session, brainstorming ideas around the question and how to closely define what that question for the professional inquiry will be. In addition the fact that determining several different lines of inquiry before picking one in particular, can in itself be used as evidence of learning.

Alan made an interesting contribution that struck with me within the session and made me think, when we were discussing gaining knowledge, as a concept.

Do we gain knowledge by, for instance, reading and taking in someone else`s perspective on a given topic and perhaps recounting it to ourselves or is knowledge something unique to each of us gained by individual unique experience in whatever sphere of interest, that may mean our understanding is enhanced on something for the first time. I hope what I have just written makes some sense and that I haven't taken Alan`s comments slightly out of  context of the point he was making.

I enjoyed a blog link on working with special needs students I have just read http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/    

Hopefully I will be able to overcome my technological limitations and post more regularly now.

Russ