Policy and Practice Round-Up: April 2011
21 April 2011
As we start looking forward to the bank holiday break, the Cultural Learning Alliance brings you a round-up of cultural learning policy and practice, and a request for your help with a project.
Making the case for culture – volunteers needed!
Do you need more evidence to make the case about the impact of cultural learning? Are you struggling to convince your organisation or funders to support your cultural learning work?
The CLA is pulling together and presenting key pieces of research that demonstrate the power of cultural learning, and we need you to tell us what evidence you need to make your case, how you want it presented, and how you want to access it.
We are looking for volunteers to either attend a two-hour user group in London, or answer an online questionnaire and a follow-up phone interview with a friendly CLA co-ordinator between the 9th-27th May. If you haven’t got time in the next month, but would still like to contribute, we will also be testing what our user groups have told us with an online questionnaire in June, so keep your eye out for that.
To volunteer, please email info@culturallearningalliance.org.uk with your name, job title, organisation and a contact telephone number.
If you haven't yet read the NCA's National Manifesto for Drama, Theatre and Young People, then now is the time. The Drama and Theatre Manifesto recognises a common sense of purpose and a shared belief in the contribution made by drama and theatre to the quality of children’s lives in school and beyond. It is a call to action to young people, parents, teachers and theatre practitioners to unify their efforts and ensure that young people have access to drama and theatre.
The Manifesto Action Group are currently calling for quantitative and qualitative evidence of the value of theatre and drama for young people, so if you have any reports or evaluations that fit the bill, please do send them to steve.ball@birmingham-rep.co.uk by 15th July 2011.
Following on from our article earlier this month on what the Arts Council funding decisions could mean for children and young people, Alliance member Earlyarts have written this piece on the impact on the arts for early years.
Last month the Clore Duffield Foundation launched the Clore Poetry and Literature Awards. These Awards will support poetry and literature initiatives for children and young people, under the age of 19, across the UK. The Awards are worth a total of £1m over five years, 2011 to 2015, with individual awards ranging from £1,000 to £10,000.
The Clore Duffield Foundation has created these Awards with the aim of providing children and young people with opportunities to experience poetry and literature in exciting and compelling ways, in and out of school. The first round closes on the 20th May and you can download full details on their website.
Nick Clegg has launched the government’s plans for social mobility and the reduction of child poverty. There is an excellent summary of the headlines on Mike Baker's Blog.
Other Coalition news includes the recommendation from the Education Select Committee for Ofsted’s remit to be split, with children’s services and schools to be assessed and monitored separately. The BBC has an article here.
Thanks so much to everyone who fed in to our collective response to the curriculum review. It was great to get such a rich range of responses from across the sector and we felt that the final document was very strong. Debate on schools, the curriculum and the cuts continues across the press – from the Guardian’s piece on the English Baccalaureate, to the Independent’s article on reductions to A-levels and an article in the TES on creativity across the curriculum.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has approved publication of SQW’s 2010 Find Your Talent pathfinder case studies. The ten reports present contrasting models for partnerships of local authorities, cultural organisations and schools delivering a demand-led, area-based and high-quality cultural offer for children and young people in their localities. The case study reports can be read here.
Have a lovely break and, as ever, do get in touch to share your thoughts or experiences of cultural learning: info@culturallearningalliance.org.uk