Last year, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation launched the Teacher-Artist Exchange; a two-year development programme for teachers from six Letchworth primary schools. Broadway Gallery partnered each school with a professional artist, with the aim of innovating the way they work. The programme, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund, explores how teachers can use visual arts to inclusively support children’s social and emotional needs.
To do this, a cohort of 18 teachers and artists are working together to create new approaches to teaching and learning, rooted in collaboration, experimentation and the belief that every child can flourish when given the right tools.
So, what is the impact? According to the teachers and heads involved, it’s changing classrooms, school culture, and even whole-school policies.
From the beginning, we have carefully nurtured the teacher-artist relationship to create the right conditions for meaningful collaboration. Within the programme, each school has their own focused question exploring social and emotional needs for their pupils, which they explore across the two years. This has required a lot of trust; trust to test new ideas with a classroom, to step outside of their comfort zone, to speak up when they feel something isn’t working. This is no easy task when teachers are required to be masters of control within their class; simultaneously managing a whole class, delivering the curriculum and supporting a wide range of children’s needs. The support and modelling of this risk-taking by Letchworth Headteachers has been immeasurable.
Letchworth Headteacher“It takes being a bit brave […] and it takes building a school culture where teachers feel able to take risks.”
To achieve this, we’re designing and delivering a learning programme for teachers and artists which encourages lasting change in schools. Through regular cohort learning days, individual support and true partnership working, we have seen a genuine increase in confidence across the group. Each school works in a trio of two teachers and one artist. Although some groups have had one or two changes in staff across the year, the partnerships remain strong, and those who have remained throughout have anchored the learning in each setting. This has enabled those newcomers to accelerate their understanding of the work, encouraged by their peers.
Alongside our regular cohort sessions, we have taken the opportunity to share best practice, partnering with some great organisations who are making change. Last year, we took the full cohort on an ‘Inspiration Day’ to the National Portrait Gallery, taking part in a workshop led by their Head of Learning.
A highlight this term was a learning session delivered by Greenmead Primary School, specialists in supporting children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). Educator Tim Twomey spoke passionately about why creativity is essential, especially for children with additional needs.
“The arts provide so many different modalities that they’re the best tool we have as teachers.”
Among our cohort, we are fortunate to have our own special school in the mix; Woolgrove School Special Needs Academy already works closely with Letchworth schools supporting the wide range needs of children in the town. We hope this programme will further support the whole town embedding creative approaches that help children manage emotions, focus their energies and succeed in the classroom.
A key part of this year has been building cross-school learning. Now that the teacher-artist trios have developed their own creative techniques, they are in a position to share them more widely across the cohort. In previous terms we often looked outward for examples of best practice, but this term our teachers instead turned to one another for inspiration. During our ‘Swap Over Days’, each group was partnered with another to visit classrooms and see different teacher-artist collaborations in action. The cohort gained so much from this, with many noting that opportunities to learn from other schools have been all but lost since the COVID-19 pandemic. From the outset, our partner Headteachers hoped the programme would strengthen ties between Letchworth schools, and we are proud to see that vision becoming reality.
Now, with two school terms left, we are working closely with Letchworth Headteachers to further consolidate and embed this work. As well as seeing the impact on the individual participants, we are seeing the effects on their wider schools. Discussing the positive influence of the programme, one Headteacher praised the whole school change provoked by this work.
Second Letchworth Headteacher“Ultimately, our policies will need to be rewritten, and our curriculum statements because then that will be the legacy.”
Currently, we are drawing together the plans for sharing the many layers of learning beyond our town. With the backing of Paul Hamlyn Foundation, this work will be under a national spotlight, helping to make Letchworth a leader in place-based, creative professional development. In partnership with our teaching community, we are demonstrating the powerful impact that investment in creativity, collaboration and inclusion can have on our schools. Together, we are shaping a future where every young learner can flourish in Letchworth.