The Benefits of Outreach Education.
The Pocket Projects approach to outreach education is to take knowledge, skills and equipment directly to where it is needed the most.
We believe that this offering of expertise, technology and skills into a wide range of environments benefits many as it makes otherwise inaccessible technology accessible for all ages & skillsets.
It also encourages grassroots talent development in media by offering experiences & tasters that could potentially signpost a young person’s career into the creative industry.
Two of our most recent outreach projects that we have been involved with are ‘Burberry Inspire’ in partnership with Leeds Young Film, Ideas Foundation and Burberry and Bradford Council’s ‘Essential skills’ initiative.
Can Art improve student attainment?
Burberry Inspire is a unique 4 year project working with Yr 7, 8 & 9 (Key Stage 3) students built on the idea ‘that the creative arts should be accessible to everyone’. This has led to the creation of a unique schools programme that doesn’t just appeal to students but also equips teachers with the necessary tools to embed creative arts within the curriculum as a progression path to the creative industries.
At the core of this intervention is the question ‘Can the arts improve attainment levels’.
To answer this question a meticulous 4 year longitudinal study is being carried out by the Policy Institute at Kings College London . After this period we should know with certainty whether it has affected students’ grades in other subjects, boosted young people’s self-esteem and raised student aspirations.
We are only in our first year of the project and are working with two Leeds based schools – The Co-operative Academy of Leeds and The Ruth Gorse Academy. As part of the Leeds Young Film team we deliver an intensive 6 – 7 day programme of film activities. The main aim for the students is that they experience the whole process behind the production of a short film. The process begins with an open call to students and we eventually recruited a cohort of approx. 22 students whom where to become the final production crew. They then worked in 3 teams on the pre production, production and post production phases of filmmaking.
Bringing Hollywood into the classroom
Bradford Council essential skills was set up as it had been identified as an opportunity area and received a £5.5 million share of £22 million that was dedicated to the Department for Education funding to then be supporting activities in different areas to make different activities available that are also providing Essential Life Skills.
With this scheme Pocket Projects has worked with 30 year 6 pupils, 15 year 11 students & 12 16+ students delivering the 60 second Blockbuster Challenge.
We delivered 1 day creative film workshops that enabled the students to use iPads for both the filming and editing of their films. The students would come up with a theme and then script, storyboard, shoot and edit it into 60 second short.
Doing so these young people had the opportunity to really focus on what they wanted to create within their own short film.
So, what can you really expect from a Pocket Projects workshop?
Case Study – Keighley College – SEND Foundation Students – Essential Skills Opportunity
Workshop: ‘Staying safe using social media’
We found that during the early stages of the workshop students were a little shy at the start but soon found their confidence in the storyboard stage, this gave them the opportunity to really think about what should be included in the film rather than just going straight to the filming process.
When it got to the filming process students were first taught how to use the iPads, more specifically iMovie. This is a really simple and easy to use app that gives students a chance to really get into the filming and editing stages of short film making.
Once students are sent out of the classroom to film you really get to see them focus on the important things, they know what backgrounds are needed for the best result and they’ve got the right amount of confidence to know they can make mistakes because these can be edited out or just reshot.
In the editing process the students they have a puzzle to bring together and need to work closely with their group to create the film that everyone thinks shows their vision.
The benefits of this whole process is that it really does promote confidence in the students, it helps them work close with some people they may not have before, it helps their communication skills improve, it’s also a good chance for the students to have a small escape from their normal work and really just have some fun with others in turn giving themselves a sense of wellbeing.
During the workshop every student was successful in creating a film with meaning. This project gave them a chance to talk about something that had affected them in a negative way and then be able to start laughing about it, not allowing it to have any more influence on their life whilst teach others about those things.
