Impact Case Study
Background
SPARK is Wakefield’s Cultural Local Education Partnership, made up of a group of organisations and individuals working to ensure children and young people across the borough can enjoy, benefit from and progress in arts and culture. The partnership is governed by a Steering Group and supported by working groups focused on SPARK’s two main strands of activity: Creative Learning and Creative Voice.
SPARK’s Creative Learning strand aims to inspire and support educators, children and young people to engage with the cultural and artistic landscape within the Wakefield district through place-based learning. This approach champions a pedagogy that uses local context, resources and knowledge to frame learning both within and outside the classroom, created in collaboration with local people.
In September 2023, SPARK was approached by Wakefield Council and asked to deliver The Wakefield Curriculum, as part of the schools’ programme for the district’s year of culture, Our Year 2024. The brief was to create three packs of teaching resources for primary schools focused on local arts, heritage and culture.
The challenge
In planning and creating The Wakefield Curriculum, the challenge was to ensure that what was produced could be easily adapted to meet the needs of our local schools. Early consultation with headteachers emphasised that resources would need to compliment schools’ existing curricula and be easy to adapt to the needs of their pupils.
Cultural organisations and artists across the district together hold vast collections and expertise about the culture and heritage of the district that could be of interest to schools. Many organisations run schools’ programmes of their own with a focus on on-site visits and workshops. Several organisations in Wakefield have previously produced online resources for schools, using their collections and specialist subject knowledge. The challenge was to ensure the new resources would be easy for teachers to access and enhance what is already available from cultural partners.
The approach
The key to success in this project was a collaborative approach and the involvement of teachers from the start, to ensure that resource creation was guided by their requirements and feedback. In total, 56 different teachers engaged with SPARK during The Wakefield Curriculum project, from 45 different schools. SPARK began the project by consulting with a wide range of schools to find out the resource types and topics that they would find most useful. An online survey, an in-person teacher forum and visits to school headteachers were used to gather teacher input.
At a series of meetings, a small group of teachers then worked with cultural organisationsto plan and shape the resources, before draft resources were given to teachers in September to test in their classrooms. Schools with low levels of engagement with cultural organisations were targeted and invited to attend meetings, with some success.
SPARK reached out to local cultural organisations and artists to ensure that a wide range of people were involved in resource creation and that the stories told within the resources were as diverse and representative as possible. 10 cultural organisations and 10 independent artists were involved in the creation of resources for the project.
Pre-existing resources were mapped, and links were provided to these within The Wakefield Curriculum where relevant. Links to further information sources were provided, as were details of cultural organisations’ schools programmes.
Alongside The Wakefield Curriculum work, a series of teacher CPD sessions took place in 2024-25 also as part of the Our Year Schools Programme. 7 out of 12 of these sessions linked directly to The Wakefield Curriculum, providing teachers with further context and guidance on using the resources.
The project was co-ordinated by a dedicated freelancer who was employed by SPARK on a 0.1FTE contract. Monthly working group meetings were held for those involved. An adaptable approach was adopted throughout the project to fit with organisations and artists’ availability and respond to feedback and requests from teachers. There was collaboration across different cultural organisations
to produce resources that were rich in content and local knowledge and independent artists were brought in to complete specialist tasks such as video production and illustration, and to design creative activities as part of the resources.
The final resources were launched at the Our Year Educators Conference, held in Wakefield in December 2024. The resources are now freely available online to download from Wakefield Education Services.
Outputs
The resources produced focus on the themes of coal mining, the local environment and sculpture. They were developed using the collections and expertise of local organisations and are supported by contextual information and creative activity suggestions and demonstrations that can be used in the classroom or outside in the local area. Resources include how-to videos and guides, audio files, images and historical documents. All are provided in accessible and editable formats. The project grew and developed as it progressed, with further resources being added to meet the needs of teachers and showcase the culture and heritage of the district. In total we created 25 resources.
Initial feedback teachers has been very positive. In the first 15 weeks since the launch, the Wakefield Curriculum page on Wakefield Education Services has been viewed 1481 times and there have been a total of 1802 downloads of all documents.
- Teachers praised the range and depth of the information contained within the resources and the access it gives them to historical archives and photographs of the local area to increase their knowledge of the district and its heritage.
- The practical activity demonstrations and ideas are popular with teachers. The simplicity of the activities make them easy for teachers to use in their classrooms and will appeal to their pupils.
- Teachers can see many possibilitiesfor using the resources; both for increasing staff knowledge through teacher CPD and by adapting the resources to use with different key stages. • Teachers appreciate the way that resources and themes link together and are connected to the locality, with one describing the resources as embodying, “culture from where you are.” • Resources are being used to enhance classroom teaching and build upon the learning from cultural visits. At one school, Year 2 pupils used the sculpture video resources, together with a visit to The Hepworth Wakefield, to develop their skills and understanding of sculpture making and local artists.
Outcomes
Impact on schools
Engagement with SPARK during the curriculum development process has had multiple benefits for the teachers involved. Surveys completed by those who attended planning sessions revealed that:
- They have learnt something new about the arts, culture, history and heritage of Wakefield • The project increased teachers’ confidence in teaching about local arts and culture • Teachers are more likely to organise a visit to a cultural venue or a cultural activity involving artists for their pupils in the future
- The project has increased their perception of Wakefield District as a creative place • School leaders reported that the resources are useful to schools at a whole school level, in increasing teacher knowledge and pupil engagement. The link to the National Curriculum ensures that they are relevant for whole school use.
“[The Wakefield Curriculum] helps teachers with their subject knowledge, ensures resources used with children are genuine, supports the National Curriculum objectives.”
One school leader, who is the deputy headteacher at Pinderfields Hospital Pupil Referral Unit, engaged with SPARK throughout the curriculum development project, and in September 2024 joined SPARK’s steering group. His involvement with the process and with SPARK more widely, has had a significant impact on his staff’s perception of culture and the arts in Wakefield. Since his involvement, pupils at the school have had greater access to arts and cultural education and the staff are more aware of the opportunities available to their pupils.
“Just having conversations and being involved in the curriculum and going back to the school has already had a huge impact on staff and their perception of cultural access in Wakefield.”
The headteacher and the Art & Design curriculum lead teacher at Hendal Primary School were also heavily involved in the Wakefield Curriculum project. For this school, working with SPARK has helped to enhance what the school already does, adding further local relevance and links to the curriculum, particularly within Art & Design. The school recognises the benefits of this approach for their pupils, and staff have also benefitted from making closer links with Wakefield’s cultural organisations through SPARK
“Locality is a key curriculum driver – it makes concepts easier for children to relate to; when local topics are discussed they can make the connection – ‘I’ve seen that, I’ve been there.’”
Impact on cultural organisations
Working on The Wakefield Curriculum project had multiple benefits for the cultural partners involved. It was an opportunity to work closely with teachers and deepen their understanding of their needs and school priorities and build longer-term relationships.
“It is our priority to develop relationships with Wakefield schools – this was a good way of doing it through consultation, and with the resources as a legacy.”
The project enabled cultural organisations to work together and increase their knowledge of each other’s collections. This means that they can signpost schools to each other’s work and open up wider conversations with schools about the cultural offer in the district. Partners have also been able to share this work with their wider networks, helping to promote their own work, and that of SPARK, to audiences outside of the district and to raise the profile of the cultural offer in Wakefield.
The project also helped organisations to think about their collections in new ways and consider how they can develop further school resources in the future, both individually and collaboratively. For organisations with limited school offers, the project was an opportunity to raise their profile amongst schools and make new connections with teachers and achieve something that would be difficult to do on their own. For others, the project was a chance to meet their organisational targets by bringing a different offer to schools or to put focus on an area of their offer that they are currently developing.
“It was important for the organisation to be involved, making meaningful connections through the lens of education and learning.”
This was the first project of this scale for SPARK as a partnership, which helped to give a purpose and focus to SPARK’s work. The process developed over time as input from teachers, artists and other organisations grew. This gave the project authenticity and integrity and means that the resources created will be a lasting legacy which teachers can continue to use for years to come.
Impact on artists
Working on the Wakefield Curriculum gave artists the opportunity to share their work with others. It provided a platform for them to increase awareness of their work with local teachers and provide knowledge which would enhance teachers’ practice. In addition, the opportunity to work in partnership with cultural organisations and the local council was a benefit for artists in helping to build their networks.
Artists enjoyed the process of resource creation, praising the communication and coordination between SPARK partners and artists and the way in which the process was guided by teacher input.
“Through good communication and collaboration we were able to create something that was extraordinary and special as a resource.”
Lessons Learned
The amount of work generated by the Wakefield Curriculum project was a challenge at times given the limited capacity of those involved in the project. Lessons were learnt about the nature and parameters of collaboration and the need for clear allocations of tasks and explicit guidance around resource format at the start of the project. The iterative process of editing resources in response to feedback from teachers was valued for making the resources higher quality, however clear timelines are needed
to ensure this does not become unmanageable.
The process of creating resources collaboratively was greatly strengthened by the work of the freelance project co-ordinator. This role provided essential support in bringing cultural organisations and teachers together and editing and formatting resources. It is important that this is once again built into the budget for any future projects of this nature.
“The process was organic and changed along the way in response to what schools wanted and what was realistic to achieve. People were willing to adapt. Having someone to coordinate and oversee it was vital.”
The use of freelance artists to create resources was a strength of the project, but did also create challenges due to the organic nature of the project and difficulties in providing a clear brief to the artist involved. This highlighted the need to ensure that there is good communication between all stakeholders throughout the project.
The project provided valuable lessons in engaging with teachers across a long-term project. The support of Wakefield Council wasinstrumental in helping to promote the project and raise awareness with schools, particularly in giving access to classroom teachers through subject networks and to school leaders. The challenge remains however in finding new ways to reach greater numbers of teachers with this type of work.
Project Legacy
There is interest amongst teachers across the district to continue working with SPARK and driving forward the work on place-based creative learning. Teachers would like SPARK to create more resources of this type in the future. A small group of schools are keen to continue to work closely with SPARK to steer their work with schools by being part of a working group alongside cultural partners.
Amongst cultural partners there is also a commitment to collaborative working as part of SPARK. Some organisations will use the experience to re-evaluate their current school resources and see how they can be updated, whilst others are considering how they can broaden their offer for schools using the new relationships they have formed through this work.
For SPARK as a partnership, the project has brought many benefits. It has strengthened the relationship with Wakefield Council and brought in new organisations such as Biffa and West Yorkshire Archive Service who had not worked with SPARK before. The project provided a tangible output with which SPARK can engage with schools and promote its wider work, and a methodology for working collaboratively on future projects.
Most importantly, the project has enabled SPARK to develop strong relationships with teachers, one of whom has now joined the SPARK steering group. These teachers’ commitment to SPARK’s work will ensure that SPARK is able to continue build on its work with schools and work towards achieving its aim of ensuring that children and young people across the district can enjoy, benefit from and progress in arts and culture.
