Mid-March. The Element team was in a different school every day, running creative arts projects with Key Stage 3 students. After 9 weeks working with four groups of brilliant students, we were gearing up for our end-of-project showcases, where families and school communities would celebrate the creativity of the Element participants. In our second to last week, there were murmurs of coronavirus: snatched conversations that students had heard passing the staffroom; bits of the daily news shared along the corridors. Was school going to close? Did that mean an early holiday? What about school friends, and lessons? What about materials, and equipment? And then, on our last week of the projects, schools began to close their gates indefinitely.

The shift for the Element team - from setting out from the office after lunch each day, filling up the tube carriage with bags of paint and reams of flipchart paper, and then facilitating sessions with brilliant young students - was nothing compared to the shift for the students. We felt that sudden school closure, although necessary, would not be positive for the majority of young people we worked with, a feeling that has since been evidenced more widely (check out Power 2’s survey here; UCL’s Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunity’s briefing notes here; and the Metro’s article here). Proudly, we are a delivery partner of West London Zone, whose speed in responding to school closures was admirably speedy. Within three weeks Element had an approved proposal for online creative projects with students; in another two the projects began. We’ve been able to work with students who had done an Element project in “normal” circumstances, as well as students new to Element, who we have met for the first time on screen. Our work with West London Zone students shares the same values as our work with the Element care leaver network during this time: drawing heavily on 5 Ways to Wellbeing, and championing creativity as a crucial tool for wellbeing. Our experience working in schools twinned with our adaptable approach has meant that whilst these values remain intact, the content offer for West London Zone expresses a bespoke design that has focussed in on the specific needs of 11-14 year old school students during this time. What does this actually look like? Have a gander!

Creative challenges (daily)

Much like our #CreateDaily challenges for Element Young Creatives, we have been sending daily creative challenges to Element students via their wonderful Link Workers. Our “feedback swirl” is incredible important here: students are invited to share any of the challenges they have done during our weekly group sessions; but they are also encouraged to share each challenge with the Element team, for detailed and individual feedback on their work. We think it’s really important for students to have specific messages relayed back to them about their artwork, because a lot will have lost this kind of interaction (typically provided by brilliant teachers in school) during lockdown. We’ve also been told by students that the workload they are getting from their schools can be overwhelming. Providing quick and joyful creative challenges has meant that students can use creativity in their break times, re-connecting to their own artistic strengths and interests, and fortifying themselves for their next section of homework. The challenges have been set by the Element team, Element creative partners, and Element Young Creatives. This last group has told us how much they have enjoyed setting challenges for younger children, and passing on their own imaginative artistic briefs.

Stretch challenges (weekly)

Some students have valued the daily creative challenges because they are a welcome distraction from homework, or boredom, or low moods. Others have valued the challenges because they are actively wanting to engage in specifically artistic activities. For these students, the weekly stretch challenges offer a longer-form bit of artistic work, to be engaged with expansively. As with the daily challenges, the Element team have encouraged students to share these back with us, for detailed feedback on their creations. Having something that students can spend as much time on as they like, take ownership and practice creative control can be a really useful anchor in a world where personal agency and control have been taken away.

Cultural links (weekly)

There is such great cultural output on t’internet right now. Each week, we send students our top pick of funky, free cultural links to check out. With these links, students have been transported to Rio de Janeiro to look at famous South American murals; they’ve wandered the Royal Academy galleries from their sofas; they’ve made their own piece of abstract art; they’ve tried their hand at making their very own stop-frame animations … We know that some children and young people are continually checking news outlets in a way that becomes less informative, more anxiety-inducing as the pattern embeds itself. Offering other ways to engage with the internet, that show the creative side of humanity, can act as a gentle reminder that although the world looks strange at the moment art prevails.

Video sessions (weekly)

Across multiple different groups and schools, the Element team have been hosting Friday video sessions for Element students. These sessions have had a strong focus on socialising (albeit through video) and having fun: we’ve played charades, alphabet shapes, pass-the-object-through-the-screen; we’ve drawn our favourite fruit, vegetable, country; we’ve made posters, poems, and paintings. The sessions have often involved comically short time-based challenges, in order to counteract the idea that all work and all products have to be perfect before being shown to the world. We’ve encouraged quick thinking, and fierce imagination. Students who were reluctant to turn on their videos in the first couple of sessions have become confident presenters of their own art, and vocal suggesters of creative group challenges. The artwork that has been made - both individually and collectively - has been beautiful. Not only because of the talent of the students involved, but because of the process through which they created their work: a process of taking the plunge, stepping out of their comfort zone, allowing their imaginations to run riot, and generously sharing back to their group.

Bronze Arts Award (weekly)

The Element team has been working with a few students to complete their Bronze Arts Award qualification during this time. In a mixture of group and individual sessions, these students have shared their own artwork, talked about their artistic styles and influences, reviewed a piece of public art, discussed an artistic inspiration, and taught one of their own art skills to each other. Working with students who had previously done an Element project, these sessions were an opportunity for extended discussions on art: why it’s important, what it’s there for, and how we should engage with it. We have focussed particularly on building skills in critical thinking and personal reflection. By the end of their Arts Award project, all students were confident in claiming “I am an artist”. We believe that nurturing young creative voices is essential if our society is serious about building a national cultural output that is inclusive and relevant.

Link Workers

We would like to give a HUGE shout out to West London Zone Link Workers. Each Link Worker is based in one (or two) schools, embedded within these communities and working with a specific group of students. Their knowledge of their cohort, and their approach to engagement and support, has made Element’s projects with West London Zone students as smooth as a paintbrush gliding across a blank canvas! We’ve really enjoyed working alongside Link Workers, and really value their championing of Element

“The young people who have been involved have really enjoyed the ritual of completing the daily challenges and discovering their creativity”

“Thank you for your passion, understanding and cheerfulness!”

Students

The students we have worked with during this time have shown creativity and imagination in absolute spades. For example: after students decided their favourite art-form, the Element team challenged each video group to come up with their own curated event that incorporated all these art-forms. In the space of 10 minutes, the groups had come up with a festival of world music; a fete for multidisciplinary arts; a skillshare event; a photography masterclass day … Oh, and all with beautifully decorated tents, teepees, bunting, stalls - one even had a butterfly walkway! This was all imagined in 10 minutes! We asked the students two questions: what does creativity mean to you, and has your idea of creativity changed over time? Here are some of their responses, in written and artistic form:

“Learning - Sharing - Energy and new ideas - Experimenting - Bringing yourself - Expression - Freedom - Passion - Pride - Joy ”

“I’ve seen that creativity can unite people, and it’s interesting to see the different creative choices people make”

“Before I saw creativity as only in drawing or painting, but it’s actually in everything. If you think creatively and use your imagination, you can bring it to everything you do”

“Creativity is stepping outside of the box. Before I thought it was just doing what people told me to but now I realise it’s about finding my own unique voice”

COVID-19 Series: Creatively Engaging School Students