Curious Minds

Breaking Through Barriers and the Road to Success

On 31 March, Childwall School in Liverpool held an event to celebrate its Creative Partnerships project:  "Breaking Through Barriers and the  Road to Success"

Their school's enquiry was:  How far and in what ways can aspirational and inspirational learning opportunities be developed for young black minority ethnic (BME) pupils by fostering a sense of history, identity and place?

The project focused on twelve pupils in year 8 and 9 who were not fully engaging and therefore not attaining to their potential, with a view to developing leadership and literacy via technology.

Jude Bird (Creative Agent) and Thomasina Afful (lead practitioner) worked with James Kerfoot (deputy head), Marcelle Greenbarg (lead teacher) and young people to investigate and explore inspirational black leaders and role models, looking at ways of working in partnership with them to develop aspirational learning. 

Pupils examined and expressed in writing the necessary skills they felt are required by role models they admired eg Police Superintendent Rowley Moore.  They made a film of their findings, including interviews with local leaders and role models.  They presented the film to an invited audience (including parents) and spoke confidently and eloquently about how the project was developed and what skills they had each developed, including investigative, interviewing, filming and editing skills.  Most importantly the young people saw these inspirational leaders in terms of their own future.  Their vision of themselves and what they could achieve had expanded and with this their self-esteem increased.

During the project, pupils from Guilden Sutton Primary - a mainly white rural West Cheshire school which is undertaking an Enquiry project on global citizenship - visited Childwall to discuss and explore this topic from very different perspectives.  Teachers from Guilden Sutton reported that Childwall pupils hosted the visit with confidence, making the younger pupils very welcome, and debating some interesting issues.  A selection of thank you letters from the Cheshire pupils were on display at Childwall.  It is hoped this partnership will continue beyond the project.

James Kerfoot (deputy head at Childwall) said:

The Childwall Sports and Science College ethos is to promote Leadership at all levels. The Curious Minds Enquiry School project  allowed a small group of students to develop their ideas about the cultural barriers to success and to raise their aspirations and to develop yet again the power of student leadership in our school.

Jude Bird (Creative Agent) said:

 This project has raised the pupils expectations-how will the school sustain this?

 

The film produced during this project will soon be available to be published, when it is we shall post it on our Vimeo site and also in a future e-bulletin.