Creative Industries Strand

2008  /  2007  /  2006

2008

Enterprise Island Challenge comes to Dorset

In collaboration with Young Enterprise South West, Aimhigher continues to motivate young learners to higher education through entrepreneurship. Groups of Yr 9 and Yr 10 pupils in ten Dorset schools will be engaged in the Island Challenge, which aims to raise aspirations to HE through doing creative enterprise. Pupils are encouraged to consider environmental, industrial, and social implications in creating a new business on their very own independent island. The pupils create miniature models of their island stating how they would develop the area to benefit the society and the wider community. Everything from theme parks, holiday camps to racing circuits have been considered, accompanied with market and promotional plans.

A student from Royal Manor School commented "I think I've learnt a lot. It's not always as straightforward as you think. Things change and you have to change your plans to make your business work."

An Aimhigher Ambassador also commented "By trying to manage a creative enterprise the students are doing exactly what they would be doing if they were running their own business. The problem solving, working in teams, sourcing materials, finding out that you can't always get what you want, has really opened their eyes to the business world. All the things covered are the precisely the sorts of things that they would encounter in starting and running their own businesses.”

This activity also makes the vital link between being entrepreneurial and looking at the training available at FE and HE. Aimhigher Ambassadors ensure that students are aware of the many choices and options they have available to them at college and university.

Deano Pickering from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth stated “It is the energy and enthusiasm from the Young Enterprise team and the Aimhigher Ambassadors that is invaluable in making this programme a success, my thanks goes to them.”

Performing Pathways

Performing Pathways is an exciting and innovative project which involves professional theatre and dance practitioners touring four schools across Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole with an inspiring workshop.

Leading theatre and dance artists Lee Hart and Leanne Desmond take the day long workshops with Yr9 and Yr10 students in collaboration with local student ambassadors from HE/FE colleges and the infamous hubalicious team. The students brainstorm ideas using dance and theatre games to decide upon an idea. Then, led by the professional artists, they develop their idea into a theatre and dance performance. The workshop finishes with the opportunity for students to find out more about being a professional artist with a question and answer session with the artists and student ambassadors.

Rossmore Drama teacher Sally McGraw commented, ‘This is a great opportunity for our students, they don’t often get to work with professional artists for a full day, hopefully this will help them focus their thoughts on progression into HE.’

Guidance on progression routes to HE have also been produced as part of this project, sign-posting young people to careers in the performing arts. Each pupil receives a progression route pack which includes a funky fold-out postcard with steps on how to get into various careers.

To find out more about the tour and to get involved have a look at: www.hubalicious.org 

Yeovil College fashion Master Classes

In collaboration with Yeovil College the Aimhigher Creative Industries strand has been running a year long project in Fashion. The project has consisted of three Saturday workshops and ‘twilight’ Fashion Master classes after school. Numerous schools have participated including Bucklers Mead, Westfield, King Arthurs and Beaminster.

Students have explored working with unusual materials and made garments within a theme of “Recycling and Innovation” using metal, paper and old clothing.

Alison Harper, M.A. and lecturer at Bath Spa University introduced students to working with paper, Jo Martin, B.A. (Hons) Taunton worked with metal and

Sophie Brown, a current foundation student at Yeovil College, gave a talk about progressing to university covering issues such as finance and long term career goals.

Textiles teachers, Sue Mead, Jacqui Rhodes and Val Case all attended and participated in the workshops and as a result greater links and bonds have been made with the staff and schools.

It is now the final stage of the project and preparations are underway for the end of project fashion show. This will coincide with the Yeovil College Art Department End of Year Show on June 20th 2008 at 7.45pm.

It will be a fantastic chance for the students, parents, staff, schools and the public to see the talented creations. Local dignitaries have been invited and prizes will be awarded to the school students for:

1. Creative use of Materials
2. Best Individual Creation
3. Most Innovative use of Recycled materials

Students will be helping to take part with many aspects of the show including modelling, dressing, hair and make up, lighting choreography and photography.

Ferdown Upper School Yr 11 Sitcom Project

As part of their Year 11 GCSE Media, 21 pupils from Ferndown Upper School are working with Bournemouth Media School (BMS) as part of a project on Situation Comedy. As part of continuing development and assessment the pupils are following on from last years practical projects they did with BMS in Year 10.

The Sitcom project feeds directly into GCSE course work and began in February 2008 with some lecture style theory sessions and seminars at the Centre of Excellence in Media Practice’s Screening Rooms at the University. The pupils then took part in a half-day session in the Media School’s new High Definition studio, learning the roles of production and finishing the day by making two live broadcasts.

Pupils are following this session with some school based preparation and will return to make their own situation comedy in the studio with members of the BMS’s teaching staff and demonstrators. In tandem with this BMS demonstrators are offering Ferndown School staff continued professional development on how to work with the latest software editing and chromakey packages.

2007

Young Design Project with The Bishop of Winchester School

October - December 2007

Many young people in Dorset do not consider progression to Higher Education/ Further Learning/ Vocational Training as a realistic possibility. But through Aimhigher interventions like the ‘Young Design Project’ aim to change these misconceptions for the better. The Young Design Project continues at The Bishop of Winchester School but this time utilising their updated media mac suite!

Building upon the existing work with Aimhigher schools, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth has been working to raise aspirations and attainment in Art education.

Pupils from the Bishop of Winchester have engaged with students from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth to complete their Art GCSE module in Design. With the assistance of Aimhigher funding pupils are taught Adobe Photoshop to complete their art brief. This has raised aspirations in progressing to further vocational learning and understanding more about Higher Education.

From October – December 2007, 18 pupils have been attending design workshops lead by staff and students from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, to receive 1.5 hours of design training every 2-3 weeks. The work produced by using their own drawings and ideas in this Yr 9 has sparked great interest in these young people to progress their learning to higher education. This class have also been given the opportunity to design the front web page for the Aimhigher Tracking website as a competition.

Young Design Project at Winton Arts and Media College

October - December 2007

The Aimhigher Creative Industries Young Design Project extends its work by engaging with even more schools this year! The project aims to enhance the learning of pupils and informs them to the benefits of Higher Education (HE) and has had much success over the last three years.

Winton Arts & Media College have invited staff and students from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth to assist them in completing their Design GCSE module in Photography. Winton College has just invested in a new media suite giving pupils the opportunity to work on industry standard machines. The students are taught Adobe Photoshop to complete their design brief. This has raised aspirations in progressing to further vocational learning and increased the awareness of HE. These pupils are taught new techniques to edit digital images whilst using a variety of photography equipment and resources.

Between October and December 2007, twelve year 10 pupils have received design training to enhance their vocational experience. The work produced by photographing their own drawings and ideas has sparked great interest in these young people to progress their learning to HE. The Arts Institute at Bournemouth in collaboration with Aimhigher aims to continue this support with local schools to motivate those from lower socio economic groups to engage with HE.

Creative Industries Exhibition 2007

Colourful characters visit Lighthouse in the Creative Industries Exhibition
July 2007

Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, a lion and a joker were just some of the colourful characters parading down the catwalk at the Lighthouse in Poole in July as part of the Aimhigher LIFE Area Creative Industries Exhibition 2007.

The exhibition was the culmination of many months of work by students from 27 schools in the region, organised in collaboration with all partners in the strand. All the work on display had been produced by students – from the invitations to the multitude of artwork on offer. Students, parents and grandparents all flocked to Lighthouse for the opportunity to see their work on display. The exhibition was a wonderful opportunity for students to have their work displayed in a professional environment and was a fantastic culmination to all their hard work.

In addition to the catwalk show the exhibition showcased the artistic talent of young students from across schools in Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset. The work included Picasso inspired artwork, 3D models, exploratory photographs, innovative short films, examples of physical theatre and script work and an 8 foot by 30 foot mural! Each of the partners (The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Bournemouth University, Weymouth College, Yeovil College, Bournemouth & Poole College and Activate) had worked in collaboration with schools and community groups to raise aspiration and attainment through the creative industries. Bringing their expertise and skills to the schools they worked with they guided and helped the students create the vibrant exhibition on offer.

The exhibition was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Poole, and was officially opened by Professor John Storan, Director of Action on Access and Joyce Palmer, Director, School of Design at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth who commented “As someone who is passionate about art and design, tonight you are looking at the work of the artists and designers of the future...The work is outstanding and the students all have a great creative future ahead of them.”

Following the exhibition, the work is to be displayed in the participating schools and partner organisations to keep the creativity alive! A booklet is also being planned to commemorate the exhibition and demonstrate to schools the exciting and important work that the Aimhigher Creative Industries strand undertakes.

BU Film Media Project

In January and February the Aimhigher team at Bournemouth Media School, together with two BA Television graduates took part in two projects which involved making projects with young people excluded from mainstream education.

The newly built Pupil Alternative Curriculum Service (PACS) in Winton is a unit for secondary school pupils who have behavioural problems that disrupt others learning in traditional schools. A flexible learning approach had to be taken with such pupils as often students did not arrive for sessions or abandoned projects completely.

Working on a script provided by PACS tutor John Butlin the pupils were first trained by Bournemouth Media School graduates and then closely guided in completing the project. On March 1st the Lord Mayor officially opened the centre and the Aimhigher team were present to show the film and talk to visitors from local council, education and police about the project.

Photo Project

This project involved collaboration between BA (Hons) Photography at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth and Year 10 GCSE Photography students at Glenmoor School. Delivered over an academic term in Glenmoor School, a current undergraduate Photography student worked alongside Glenmoor students as an artist in residence.

Students were able to choose their subject, either corrosion or hands, and were encouraged to explore and push the boundaries of both traditional and digital photography.

“I have worked with Glenmoor students to develop the way they read images, helping them to look beyond the pure aesthetics of photography to find a deeper meaning. The girls entered enthusiastically into their project and maintained a high level of production. They have been experimenting with analogue imaging and digital techniques, manipulating images to achieve their desired outcome”. Ruth Weston, Year 2 undergraduate, BA (Hons) Photography, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth.

What’s Fantastic about where I live?

90 pupils from three local secondary schools in Dorset (Winton College of Art & Media, St.Edwards School & Royal Manor
Art College) took part in a Regional Project which aimed to strengthen collaboration partnerships and to celebrate the success of vocational learning through the arts.

Across two Aimhigher Partnerships (LIFE & Peninsula) The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Dartington College, University College Falmouth have engaged with pupils on one large project.

Pupils were asked to visually interpret the theme “What’s Fantastic about where I live?”, and the benefits of living in their local area.

Student Ambassadors worked alongside pupils as they brain stormed ideas around the theme. They then created expressive A1 art pieces utilising a mixture of materials including photo collages, paintings, pencil drawings and chalk smudging. The resulting designs were an exciting explosion of creativity.  The pupils used a mixture of ideas, from drawing landscapes, such as the beach, to individual interests like music and hobbies.

Wessex Film Festival 2007

The ‘First-Take Wessex Film Festival’ served to celebrate,showcase, recognise and commend films produced by schools in collaboration with the Aimhigher team at Bournemouth Media School.

This was a fantastic opportunity for schools to get together with professionals from the media school and to appreciate all the energy and creativity that had gone into the making of the films.

The festival took place at the Centre of Excellence in Media Practice’s screening room and was followed by a buffet and drinks reception at which staff and students took the opportunity to network and discuss media programmes.

Costume Project

This project involved collaboration between the BA (Hons) Costume for the Screen and Stage course at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, a specialist Higher Education Institution of arts, design and media, and the GCSE textiles course at King’s High School.

The Costume project was instrumental in the school’s achievement of Specialist Arts Status and contributed to the increased interest in GCSE Textiles, as well as greatly improving results.

The collaboration informed and contributed not only to programme development but to team motivation as the group was instrumental in the experience, success and enjoyment of pupils and staff at Kings High and BA Costume undergraduates.

Working with students from nontraditional backgrounds gave insight into issues and potential barriers that these students might encounter in a Higher Education environment.

Moreover, this project developed the knowledge and understanding of the continuum of design education. Furthermore this project won a Higher Education Active Community Fund (HEACF) staff volunteering award in December 2005.

Here's Looking At Me
June/July 2007

A six week project was held at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth during June and July 2007 aimed at encouraging Black and Minority Ethnic students into Higher Education. The project was centred around self portraiture through the use of digital photography and image manipulation techniques.

Digital photography was the first stage of the programme. Students will re-visit their work and apply further digital post-processing techniques in the weeks to follow.

This programme was delivered as an evening workshop and attracted ten participants. The Arts Institute at Bournemouth worked in partnership with Salisbury College to plan the delivery of this activity.

A scheduled second phase of this project will be delivered by Salisbury College for Black and Ethnic Minority students during the academic year 07/08.

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Artist in Residence

This project involved an artist in residence being placed in Rossmore Community College to work alongside Year 10 students. A Year 2 Fine Art student from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth acted as artist in residence for one academic term.

Rossmore students worked on two projects during the residency. The first was ‘Cubism’; students produced three dimensional portrait constructions influenced by Picasso.

The second project was ‘Natural Form’ where our artist in residence assisted students with their exam preparation and final work.

“The students have come a really long way, I have seen their painting and drawing skills develop greatly. From my first visit to Rossmore, students have really applied themselves and have produced some excellent pieces that are on show today”. Liana Boyiakis, Year 2 Fine Art undergraduate, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth.

Physical Performance Project at Yeovil College

June 2007

This project, involving 14 year 10 students from Wadham School, Crewkerne took place at Yeovil College in June 2007. It was run in conjunction with 4DR Theatre Academy founder’s, Tamsin Randall and Jo Howard who led the two day intensive workshops.

Over the two days the students created an 11 minute piece of physical theatre which was inspired by a 4DR piece called 'Flicker'. This piece looks at the notion of emotional scars.  The Aimhigher physical theatre project was tailored around this theme, using choreography from the original piece and also other 4DR works.

Using contact work, trust exercises and the relationships built within the choreography the piece evolved through workshop, improvisation and experimentation. Throughout the two days the students had dedicated lighting and sound technicians to ensure they had a fully integrated theatre experience.

The whole event was recorded by the Yeovil College Media Department and a DVD was created of the process and the final performance piece. Each student was given a copy as a record of their achievements. The film of the project was premiered as part of the 4DR event ‘For One Night Only’ when all students had the opportunity to see their finished performance piece on film.

Salisbury College Design Project

In response to the highly successful Young Design project run by The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Salisbury College have been working in collaboration with Trafalgar School, Downtown to raise aspirations through design.

Over six weeks twenty students from Trafalgar School, Salisbury have worked in collaboration with a Salisbury College tutor to create CD cover designs. Using photographs as a starting point, students worked at the college using the Apple Mac suite to manipulate and play with images to create designs. The students were introduced to the basics of software and equipment and then were allowed to experiment with their own designs to create exciting and eye catching images.

The project allowed students the opportunity to visit the college and gain a taste of what studying at FE level would be like. Coming onto campus allowed them to view the facilities of the college and raise aspirations about contuinuting their education to Higher Education.

At the end of the project students were able to take away their finished designs and put them in a CD case making a replica music CD cover.

Modelmaking Project

Graphics students at Rossmore Community College collaborated with BA (Hons) Modelmaking for Design and Media at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth. Students worked alongside three current Year 2 undergraduates and were set a project brief to design and produce either a travel clock or torch.

The project ran over a six week period working with 35 Year 10 and AS Level students. Rossmore students visited The Arts Institute for their last session where they had a guided tour of the facilities on offer and their work was professionally photographed.

This project has helped to increase the awareness of higher education and raise the aspirations of students from a school where progression into further and higher education is low.

The following are comments taken from completed Aimhigher evaluation forms by Rossmore Community College students:

“There is more to the Institute than I thought”

“Art Institute is cool”

“Again, do it again”

“You can do loads at The Arts Institute, it’s not just art”

“Enjoyed all of it!”

“Want to do it again”

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High School Musical project

Raising aspiration through music, drama and dance

May 2007

Five Aimhigher target schools took part in this exciting project which outlined opportunities for studying the performing arts at Higher and Further Education.

On three hot days in May hundreds of students filled the Jellicoe Theatre at Bournemouth & Poole College to watch a highly energised production of High School Musical. Final year students at Bournemouth & Poole College studying for a National Diploma in Performing Arts presented their end of year project, a production of High School Musical, to eager and enthusiastic year 9 pupils. Students from Glenmoor School, Ashdown Community College, The Grange, Rossmore Community College and Winton College of Art & Media watched as they were presented with a cacophony of music, dance and acting.

The performance ended with a question and answer session with the cast. Head of Performing Arts at Bournemouth & Poole College, Jo Bardsley, outlined opportunities in the performing arts and then the cast took questions from the floor.

In the second phase of this project the students got the chance to try being in a musical! Lecturers from Bournemouth & Poole College and FE students from Bournemouth & Poole College went into the five schools to deliver workshops around the High School Musical theme. Classes were split into music workshops and dance workshops. In the dance workshops students learnt how to dance as the cheerleaders, the ‘wild cats’ whilst musicians learnt parts of the script and some of the musical numbers. The two workshops then combined to create their own version of a part of High School Musical.

The following comment pays testament to the fantastic experience for the students:

‘The best play I have ever seen’
Pupil from Ashdown Community College

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HomeLand at Portland Young Offenders Institute

During the first phase of the HomeLand project which offered taster sessions in theatre writing for young people in North Dorset, Activate was contacted by Portland Young Offenders Institute, who were keen for a similar project with them.

Activate ran two six week projects this spring 2007 with two different groups of young offenders working for a whole day, once a week with an artistic team who encouraged participants to create new pieces of theatre.

The team included Shaun McCarthy, a playwright who was involved with phase one of HomeLand and carried out some fantastic work in inspiring young people in youth centres across North Dorset. As well as leading workshops in new theatre writing, Shaun used his experience as a lecturer at HE level to give the participants information about progressing into higher education.

Activate also worked with Jon Nicholas who recently moved to Bournemouth having worked in the past with Cardboard Citizens, Geese Theatre and Theatre Centre and has worked in conflict resolution internationally. Working alongside Shaun and Jon was Ollie Bland, a member of drug and alcohol rehabilitation theatre company, Vita Nova. Ollie is a member of the company’s new writing group and has been inspired to progress into further education. Ollie supported Shaun and Jon and provided inspirational talks on how he has progressed into further education through theatre.

The project has been a huge success with many participants saying how it has changed their perception of further education and how they might go about joining a theatre company.

The workshop period was filmed by interim arts and is being be made into a DVD which will be distributed to the participants as a lasting legacy of the project. Portland Young Offenders Institute also intend to continue this work as part of their education programme at the unit.

The Big Fish

Aimhigher funded 120 budding artists from local primary and secondary schools in the Chesil Education Partnership area who joined forces with Weymouth College Arts Department and created a giant fish which now proudly takes a prime position in the College grounds.

School children from Bincombe Valley School, St Andrew’s Primary School,
St Georges School, St Johns School, All Saints School, Wey Valley Sports College, Budmouth Technology College and Royal Manor Arts College have been working on the massive project for 3 months and have together created over 1000 scales that are individually hand-tied to the giant fish structure which is 5 metres long and 2 metres wide. Over 125 kg of clay was used to make the scales before they were each individually hand pained by the students. The scales also consists of 350 recycled drinks cans donated from Asda.

Sue Moore, Principal of Weymouth College unveiled the fish in front of the excited audience who saw the final project for the first time. She said: “Weymouth College is really proud to have such a fantastic art project displayed at the College. We love working with the local schools and hope that you will enjoy coming back to the College in the future and see the ‘Giant Fish’ still on display knowing that you each had a part in the making of such a wonderful creation.”

Sue Moore also gave each school who took part in the project a fish plaque to take back to remember the event.

The children, accompanied by their teachers made good use of their time at the College and took part in a ‘Big Quiz’ designed to take them around the College and enabled them to see the range of facilities and to have some fun at the same time before finally enjoying a fish lunch in the College restaurant. Aimhigher Student Ambassadors from Bournemouth University were also on hand to talk to the students about student life and support the students in their activities throughout the day.

The College music students provided entertainment during the lunch.

Laura Jones (10) from St Andrew’s Primary School said:” Seeing the fish unveiled was great. It looked much nicer than I thought it would and also so much bigger. I have really enjoyed taking part in the workshops and I am proud to have made 4 scales for the fish.”

James Mansfield (10) from Bincombe Valley School said: “The fish looks amazing, really cool. I am very pleased I was chosen to take part in this project, coming to College was fun and I’m also enjoying the lunch here.”

Sarah Colwell, Project Manager at Weymouth College said: “Every year we do a different project on a ‘Big Theme’, last year it was the ‘Big Picture’, this year the ‘Big Fish’. We enjoy these projects just as much as the children who take part and are already planning for next year’s Big Project. We are very grateful to Aimhigher for sponsorship and support so that we can work on these fantastic projects.”

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Aimhigher Design Taster Sessions at Bournemouth and Poole College
March 28th 2007

Through the provision of The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Aimhigher has been able to offer ‘design taster sessions’ in studios to National Diploma pupils to give them a flavour of Higher Education. Bournemouth and Poole College pupils were invited to spend half a day at The Arts Institute to see what ‘life as a HE student’ would be like.

An introductory session using the program Adobe InDesign was organised for seventeen pupils, as they aimed to complete a creative brief to produce an integrated magazine article. In this session the pupils used new IT resources, experienced learning in a studio environment and learned new creative skills on an industry standard program.

These sessions are used to raise aspirations and attainment in art education and to raise the profile of studying at Higher Education. Students stated how they could see that getting a Higher Education qualification can greatly help them in achieving higher paid jobs in the design industry.

'Routes into Higher Education' !
Vocational Taster Day at University/College

On 26 March 2007, 30 pupils from Bournemouth and Poole College visited The Arts Institute at Bournemouth for an Aimhigher Vocational Taster Day. This was a day of raising aspirations for HE, and informing students that there are more ways into higher education then just A levels!

The pupils completed five vigorous activities informing them about expectations when studying for a vocational award, student fees and the chance to quiz the student ambassadors about student life. Many of the pupils stated that they didn’t realise the huge amount of courses available to study at higher education and all stated they were sure that they could find something to suit them as individuals.

" Thank you for the taster day … It made a number of impressions on many students, helping them to understand where, or how they might enter into HE in due course. Some have also had their eyes opened to other areas, which they had not considered so far. The students from both groups have all been speaking about the today, they might not have had many questions for you, but they did ask me! ”

Fred Neal, Bournemouth & Poole College

Young Enterprise Projects for local schools - March 2007

“Alan Sugar eat your heart out, because the next ‘apprentice’ could be a pupil from one of our Dorset schools!" says Deano Pickering Task Leader AL2a

Exciting enterprise activities come to Rossmore Community College, Glenmoor School, Winton College of Art & Media, Avonbourne School, Portchester School and St Edwards Catholic School as pupils seek to become entrepreneurs.

Through Aimhigher more than 160 pupils in years 9 & 10 from six different schools in Dorset have taken up the challenge of working together in teams to form their own companies.

This one day activity, assisted by the charity ‘Young Enterprise’, aims to draw young peoples attention towards enterprise, vocational learning and becoming an entrepreneur. Pupils were given the opportunity to make a product out of a bag of various materials which then had to be marketed and sold to their relevant consumer audience.

These activities have raised aspirations for enterprise and have therefore promoted the benefits of further learning and higher education. The pupils used their creativity to produce prototype products that could be sold. Pupils from Avonbourne School stated that they never thought enterprise was so much fun and that going to higher education could help them to be more entrepreneurial. Furthermore five pupils from Glenmoor School stated that they would highly consider establishing their own businesses and go into further learning in the future.

Contact:

Deano Pickering

Task Leader AL2a

The Arts Institute at Bournemouth

The Enterprise Pavilion

Wallisdown, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5HH

T: 01202 363209

E: dpickering@aib.ac.uk

W: www.aib.ac.uk

Young Design Project with The Bishop of Winchester School 2007

The partnership continues with The Bishop of Winchester School as young students are inspired to be designers. In collaboration with Aimhigher, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth have been working to raise aspirations and attainment in art education.

Pupils from The Bishop of Winchester have been invited to The Arts Institute at Bournemouth to complete their Art GCSE module in Design. Pupils are given the opportunity to work on industry standard machines, as they are taught Adobe Photoshop to complete their art brief.

Since September 2006 41 pupils have been attending The Arts Institute at Bournemouth to receive 1.5 hours of design training. The pupils are from year 9 and 10 and they visit fortnightly. The work generated has been inspired by using their own drawings and ideas and, has sparked great interest in Higher Education. This term the young designers have been designing CD covers for current and fictitious bands!

This has raised aspirations in progressing to further vocational learning and understanding more about Higher Education. School art teacher Stuart Palmer states that due to these workshops his pupils have generated a high level of work increasing attainment and grades towards their GSCE’s they have all exceeded his expectations.

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2006

Budmouth College InDesign Project - December 2006

Through the provision of The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Aimhigher has been able to offer ‘design taster sessions’ in studios to year 11 and 12 pupils to give them a flavour of higher education. Budmouth College of Technology pupils were invited to spend a day at The Arts Institute to see what ‘life as a HE student’ would be like.

An introductory session using the program Adobe InDesign was organised for twenty pupils, as they aimed to complete a one-day creative brief to produce a calendar for the new year. In this session the pupils used new IT resources, experienced learning in a studio environment and learned new creative skills on an industry standard program.

These sessions are used to raise aspirations and attainment in art education and to raise the profile of studying at HE. Many of the students commented that they felt they were treated as adults and 89% stated it had given them a clear idea of what studying at HE would be like, with all of them founding it incredibly useful.

'home?land' – a new play written by young people from North Dorset

2006 - 2007

“Is 'home' just houses and streets, trees and fields? or is where you live more than that to you?”

home?land is an inspiring new script writing project for 13 – 19 year olds in North Dorset.  It has been run as a project in two phases, the first phase has researched the possibility of setting up a permanent new theatre writing group in Dorset.  
 
Scriptwriting workshops were run by nationally acclaimed playwright, Shaun McCarthy at youth centres and venues across North Dorset throughout June/July 2006.  All young people from every ethnic origin in North Dorset were invited to take part in writing a script that was performed at Durweston Village Hall on 31st July 2006.  The new play was interpreted by performing arts students, selected from Bournemouth & Poole College.
 
Through the development of the home?land project, Activate has developed an active partnership group with representatives from accross the region.  The evaluation from this partnership and the young people will feed into the potential development of a permanent new writing for theatre group in Dorset.

From the research and feedback from partners on the home?land project, Activate intends to evaluate phase one and look towards creating a new theatre writing group in Dorset. 

Contact:

Becca Gill
Theatre Development Co-ordinator
Activate Performing Arts
27 West Borough
Wimborne
Dorset, BH21 1LT
T: 01202 884340
F: 01202 886304
E: beccagill@activateperformingarts.org.uk
W: www.activateperformingarts.org.uk

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Kings High Costume Project

(ongoing)

The Workshop:

This project is an ongoing scheme run over the past three years by The Arts Institute at Bournemouth and Kings High School. The aim is to produce costume based work over the academic year with the help of members of The Arts Institute at Bournemouth as well as providing them with lectures, demonstrations and talks to help with the creation of their own costumes.  Regular visits are undertaken to the school by both staff and students with the end result being a Costume Show at the end of each academic year held at The Arts Institute with students from the school taking part as models.

The Benefits:

• The project will raise awareness and aspirations of the school students and show them what possibilities are available to them after GCSE level. This in turn helps to build strong relations between the Arts Institute and local schools.
• Arts Institute students get valuable teaching experience and helps them progress onto furthe