Children & The Arts help schoolchildren from Liverpool experience the arts
In the school year 2006/7 The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts funded the participation of 305 children from three schools in Liverpool in a year long programme of events at the Unity Theatre. The three schools (two primaries and one secondary) had not had any prior involvement with the Unity Theatre. For a number of reasons, the schools were not offering cultural access to their pupils before the start of this project and all were very, very keen to pursue a sustainable relationship with the Unity. Children & the Arts is continuing to support this programme in the current school year.
Croxteth Community Comprehensive School is a co-educational school for students aged 11 to 18. The school is in a recognised area of significant social deprivation where levels of literacy and numeracy are below average and unemployment levels are high.
As part of Children & the Arts’ Start programme, the school worked with the Unity Theatre on a project that gave students the opportunity to experience two professional performances, each supported by a series of practical workshops.
A teacher at Croxteth told us that, after the second performance visit, “The journey back to school was incredible, I have never witnessed such vibrant conversations. The bus was alive with chatter, debate, frenzied dialogue and fun. It epitomised the energy and excitement that you would want pupils to experience in the theatre. I never anticipated this buzz.”
Through the programme a teacher reported, “The improvement in students’ listening and communication skills was very pronounced.” She added that the two theatre visits that formed the heart of Croxteth’s Start experience “provided a real wow factor that enriched the students’ lives.”
Of the 83 pupils involved in Start, 76 said that they would revisit the theatre in their own time.
The project also helped the Unity Theatre develop the range and scope of their outreach programme of activities and increased their awareness of how disadvantaged communities are largely over looked in the planning of cultural projects and events.
Posted 19th May 2008
