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Engaging Children in a Creative Curriculum
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Background: Our children are particularly in need of having their awareness about Europe raised as their cultural focus lies very much in India, East Africa and Pakistan. Very few children at Mayflower travel to Europe, but tend to fly over it on their way to the Middle East, Asia and Africa! Continuing the raise the profile of Europe within school will develop the children's sense of European identity. Creative Curriculum: Mayflower Primary School offers a creative curriculum designed to engage the children through topic based work which covers many different areas of the curriculum. We aim to make links across the curriculum so reinforcing the learning in different disciplines. This is working well within school, but with the new curriculum coming into English schools in September 2014, we want to maintain the momentum of creativity and ensure that teachers are re-energised with ideas for developing their classroom practice. Modern Foreign Languages: The new curriculum requires a modern foreign language to be taught in school from September 2014 Although we have been teaching French for a number of years, it needs a boost of inspiration and ideas to carry our French teaching to the next phase. Broaden the European experience of our staff These mobilities would enable the European dimension to be fully integrated into our new and developing creative curriculum. Mobilities: Over the course of 2 years, we plan to have 6 mobilities by members of school staff to visit a partner institution and shadow outstanding teachers in their classrooms. - The teachers would plan to learn more about the creative learning-through-play opportunities in Early Years, cross-curricula activities and active learning opportunities with the older children (particularly in relation to the arts and culture, including digital technologies) and language learning throughout the whole institution - The visits would improve the teaching and learning of languages and promote the EU's broad linguistic diversity and inter-cultural awareness. Activities will include: working with a variety of teachers across the school to observe how creativity is promoted through the curriculum. The staff member will also look at planning and assessment materials, as well as similarities and differences between the school experience for the children. Staff will also use the opportunity to informally upgrade their language skills and develop a network of supportive professionals in another country to use as a resource. Methodology: We intend to establish an eTwinning project and use the TwinSpace portal to collate all the evidence related to our visits. We are already communicating regularly using SKYPE, email and phone calls as well as face to face meetings as part of our Comenius project. We anticipate building on our very effective communication pathways to develop our relationships futher and include all other relevant stakeholders. As part of our Comenius project, we already produce regular reports to staff and Governors at school, as well as delivering whole school assemblies to the children detailing developments and updates. Results and Impact: We would anticipate staff coming back into school full of new ideas and confidence to deliver a more Eurocentric curriculum, which would support the long term aims of the project. Long term benefits: - inspire staff to deliver engaging, cross-curricular, creative lessons. - increase language confidence and competence. - Embed European identity firmly throughout the school.
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