#393 Big Feelings – Springfield Infant School with Cohere Arts

The children thoroughly enjoyed the project and seeing them dancing and hearing their singing develop in confidence throughout the six weeks has been fantastic. Some children who were very reluctant to initially participate in the project and were very self-conscious have now auditioned in school to be part of a film being made by a local artist. I definitely think if they had not had the opportunity to be part of the ‘Big Feelings’ project they would not have had the confidence to even want to take part. Some children who were reluctant to participate in whole group activities and had generally hidden so they were not heard in the group have flourished.

The project has allowed them to be creative and make decisions about how they are involved and which parts they put themselves forward for and I think this personal creative capital is what has helped them want to be involved.

The project has also allowed all of the year group time to talk and express their feelings through dance and drama activities about transition, this is helping them come to terms with the major changes they will be experiencing in the near future. For children this can be a traumatic time, transition is an area where for children of  6 and 7 putting all their worries and angst into talk is extremely difficult, so addressing this throughout the sessions has helped them. I spoke to some of the children to discuss their emotions and how they deal with them.  We have shared the film made with our governing body who were amazed by the film because the children participating are so endearing, it is a really feel uplifting film which left the governing body asking if this is something we continue to do year on year.

The format for the sessions was structured in that the children had a starting theme but the follow up work (singing, dancing and drama) was based around their responses.

The project enabled us to meet all the Hullabaloo22 outcomes:

Outcome 1: Education providers enrich the cultural and creative curriculum in their settings

Children have been able to actively help guide the workshops as subsequent sessions are built around their choice of vocabulary. Staff have participated and worked closely alongside Cohere Arts staff skills and confidence to embark in the activities has increased through CPD workshops delivered. The governing body could see first-hand the value we place on creative arts and how much enjoyment the children have had participating in the project.

Outcome 2: Providers inspire & support young people to develop careers in the creative sector

Children’s confidence has grown, children want to take part and perform, and some children have auditioned to attain a part in a film being made by local photographer and film maker Jamie Hawkesworth.

Outcome 3: Arts and cultural providers attract more children and young people from under-represented communities to take part the cultural offer in Ipswich

Children who took part come from a range of different families with a range of personal needs.

Outcome 4: Providers support young people to develop creative skills for life, especially supporting mental health and resilience

The project allowed children to sing and act out their frustrations discuss their causes and help work through solution to build mental resilience in the learners. In discussion children confidently spoke about their worries and how they would deal with them, they were able to use other synonyms to describe happy or sad and draw their bodies to explain how they feel when they are nervous.

Outcome 5: Providers support young people’s attainment in creative subjects

The children generally have developed excellent collaboration skills, which was something COVID had had a direct impact upon. Before the project the children had not ever learnt the art of negotiation, turn taking and compromise. Many of the children would only work with one other close friend and had almost developed an awkwardness when they had to work with someone outside of their comfort zone, so having to work as part of a group really has helped their team work skills and a respect for one another.

Outcome 6: Education settings develop as hubs for high quality arts and cultural experiences

Staff CPD means that the children will now have a wider experience within school as staff are now equipped to expand their repertoire.

Outcome 7: Providers support whole family engagement in culture

Due to COVID restrictions the first group of learners had to be filmed for their final performance. We were able however, to secure further funding for additional groups to take part in the project, we are planning a final end of year performance including all the year 2 children together and they will perform for the parents together.

Outcome 8: New partnerships develop between community organisations/groups and arts providers

It has been fantastic working with Cohere Arts, Amy Mallett and Sarah Lewis have really understood the needs of our young learners. Every session has had the children fully engaged and eager to participate, the pace of the sessions they have delivered has been excellent and they have had high expectations for all the children.

The challenges were based around the timings and space needed during the earlier part of the term, staff and child absence was high due to COVID through the Spring term too. We would do all the workshops through the Summer term as transition visits are being done so that it is more relevant to what is actually happening to the children at the time as they are visiting their new school by that point in the school year.

Working with Cohere Arts has allowed staff to gain new skills to transfer and weave into our transition activities and Cohere Arts have produced sets of resources for us to use in the future.

FS was able to use lots of synonyms to describe emotions: exhausted, tired, nervous, worried, scared, frightened, happy, and joyful. He discussed how he sometimes has butterflies when he is worried but sometimes it is because he is excited, he describe his legs feeling like jelly and says that he runs away fast from a situation when something scares him.

They also have some ideas for how to cope with uncomfortable situations and were able to talk about what how they react when they are nervous or worried. LK said, “I like to be alone and have time to think, then I share my worries in the morning.” The children talked about being scared of the dark, stranger danger, and seeing scary adverts popping up when they watch thing at home online and meeting new people. LM described how if she is worried in bed she wakes her sister for a chat and a cuddle.LK talked about the five finger breathing, and FS talked about having his night light on when he is in bed and it is dark. I then asked the children how they felt about going to the junior school and they generally felt excited to see sibling, friends and cousins although one said, “Just a little nervous.”