Project Delivery

Schools entering the Creative Partnerships programme are often keen to start the process with a high-profile event that excites people’s expectations and generates enthusiasm. While this may be appropriate in your school, experience has shown that a more measured approach grounded in careful planning may be more productive in the long term. It is important to consider:
• Who in your staff team should be involved in planning the programme? This will normally involve teaching and nonteaching staff
• What role will pupils play at the planning stage?
• How might other members of the school community become involved – eg parents, community members, local partners?
• Once ideas for the programme have been developed, who else needs to be consulted about plans?

Some schools find it convenient to structure the programme in line with a three-term plan. For example:

Term 1 – Planning

• The school is matched with a Creative Agent
• A period of induction and relationship building starts
• Ideas for programme activity are scoped
• The school, with the assistance of the Creative Agent, selects the creative practitioners who will be involved in the programme and contracts are drawn up
• The programme is planned in detail with the creative practitioners and a completed project planning form is submitted to the ADO
• This is accompanied by a completed budget planning form
• The ADO approves the project or suggests further refinements
• The first instalment of project funding – 40 per cent, ie £1,200 – is paid to the school upon receipt of a signed offer letter from the ADO

Term 2 – Activity

• Programme activity starts in the school
• Reflection on progress and impact takes place at regular intervals. ‘End-of-session’ record sheets are used as a basis for brief conversations, ensuring the project is kept on track
• The activity is documented using a variety of means in order to provide a rich account of what went on
• Activity is supported by professional development opportunities

Term 3 – Reflection

• When project activity is completed, the Creative Agent holds evaluation conversations with pupils, teachers and creative practitioners
• The findings are collated and synthesised into the final report that is submitted as part of the project end form, together with final monitoring figures to the ADO
• The final budget form is completed and submitted to the ADO
• On approval of this report and the final budget form, the final 60 per cent of funding – ie £1,800 – is paid to the school
• The school plans how to move forward, incorporating the learning that has arisen through the programme

In reality, these delineations tend to become blended. For example, project activity might start in the first term and run into the beginning of the third term. Schools will need to make planning decisions in the light of other pressures on the timetable and on staff. Please note that while you will be developing a culture of reflection among all the people involved in project activity throughout the life of the project, it is important to allocate enough time for the formal evaluation process. Dealing with the unexpected
If many things start to happen that are unexpected, partners should get together and see where you might modify project plans to incorporate some of these changes. It is important to consult with the participants and see how exploring new directions might lead to positive outcomes. Be open to change and to the unexpected – the journey has as much value as the arriving. It may be that the anticipated learning outcomes that are being worked towards are accompanied by an equally valuable set of unexpected learning outcomes. These need to be looked out for and captured as an important aspect of project activity. The evaluation system allows for this.

What can go wrong?

However well your project is planned, things can go wrong. Much of the real learning that takes place during the course of a project is derived from how people deal with matters and solve problems when things go wrong. Where problems occur for logistical reasons – the wrong space, not enough chairs or resources or the wrong meeting place – these things can usually be fixed through better planning. Often a mistake can be the result of poor communication: how can that be improved? Harder situations are ones where emotions are key – where someone is not being listened to, where someone feels they got overlooked or excluded but cannot articulate these feelings and there is a bad feeling or an air of negative resentment. Make it the priority to deal with it as soon as possible. If it concerns the whole group, use group listening techniques. If it is between teacher and creative practitioner, then it is sensible to call in your Creative Agent to facilitate a conversation with you both so that all issues get aired
and decisions get made. Teachers can, on occasion, become frustrated by a practitioner’s lack of classroom experience but this is, in effect, one of their greatest assets, enabling them to ask tricky questions about how schools operate. As ‘irritants in residence’, they can open minds to different ways of working.