Curious Minds

Arts Award and SEN - Online Forum Success

The latest Arts Award North West Online Networking Forum took place on Thursday 28 November from 4pm - 6pm and the topic of the forum this month centred around using Arts Award with young people with special educational needs.

It was an exciting and dynamic session, providing a chance for Arts Award advisers to ask questions on how they can utlise Arts Award with young people with special educational needs and Bryony Bell and Michelle O'Callaghan shared some fantastic examples on how Arts Award has been used to tremendous effect in SEN settings.

Creative Approaches to Evidencing

One of the key messages of the forum was that alternative approaches to evidencing are in no way limited to young people with special educational needs.  Advisers working in youth justice and with disengaged young people have used many similar techniques successfully; similarly, many cultural organisations who wish to avoid making the award feel too 'schooley' can adopt these approaches to move away from long, written portfolios.  Using video, artwork and recordings is in no way a 'second choice' option; it is equally valid and in many cases more appropriate to creative work.

Below you can view an examples of a completed Bronze portfolio from Robert. Hopefully this example can give you some ideas of some of the techniques used to make Arts Award evidencing as accessible and creative as possible.

Robert's Bronze Arts Award Portfolio

Top Tips for Running Arts Award in SEN settings

During the forum, Bryony Bell shared a series of recorded interviews with Sue Caudle from DIY Theatre in Salford which is for adults with learning difficulties. Sue is an Arts Award trainer and senior moderator and runs specialised training for advisers working in SEN settings. In these interviews, Sue shares her top tips, ideas and experience of running Arts Award. We will shortly be uploading Sue's interview for you to dowload and listen to.

Arts Award SEN Web Resources

Arts Award have recently launched a special educational needs page: www.artsaward.org.uk/special. This new space within the Arts Award website includes case studies, ideas, and advocacy for running Arts Award with young people with special educational needs. It's also a space to share your success stories - there's a link on the page to add your case studies, whether they're from a whole group project or of an individual's development. Downloadable directly from this page is 'The Ideas Bank' (worked on by Sue Caudle) - a brilliant new resource for anyone looking for ideas and advice about running Arts Award in this sector, as well as a number of advocacy resources including documents on running Arts Award in SEN settings (published by Nasen) and on the value of the arts for people with PMLD (published by Mencap).

Online Networking Forums

The full notes from this Online Networking Forum can be downloaded here:

Online Networking Notes Arts Award & SEN 28 Oct 2010

Our Arts Award Advisor Online Networking Forums take place on the last Thursday of every month, running from 4-6pm. Whether you're an existing adviser or you're looking to find out more, this is your opportunity to join a regional conversation and get advice on making Arts Award work for your organisation. More info...

The next session is due to take place on 25 November, from 4pm-6pm, live on-line here and the next session focuses on 'celebrating success'. We hope to virtually see you there.