Results

An IRP Success Story

The last day of the Programme was organised as a fun day for the Learners from the Animation and Drama Projects (and a couple from the first three weeks' projects). The activities undertaken were those requested by the young people: Sue returned in the morning with Circus Skills, big screen Tekken was on offer and so on....

However, one of the Learners (Juicy) decided to spend the day working on writing a story with Peter and with other workers on spelling, style and construction. By the end of the day she had completed her story and had it on disk to take home.

An ILP / Drama Success Story

During the Drama project, one of the Learners began to really show an interest in Drama and was given a workbook. She used it for sketches, scripts and song lyrics and, with encouragement, began setting ILP targets. She also set herself reading targets for the IRP and, by the end of the project, was hoping to apply to study Drama at college. She asked to stay on for the second project, despite not really being interested Animation. Instead she made up a full ILP plan, setting targets around designing clothes and planned visit to shops, libraries, etc. This went well for a day, until the arrival of another girl on the project who wasn't interested in joining in. This disrupted the previous success rate.

A Music Success Story

The Music Project worked exceptionally well - partly due to music being one thing all the Learners weren't afraid to show an interest in and partly because the workers involved managed to develop a good rapport early on with their group.

The Learners made some good tracks (see NL Radio) but, more importantly, a couple of the Learners were willing to admit they had found the project beneficial. On the final day one wanted to know what "next week's" activities would be! Another, who produced a track with some well thought-out lyrics, won a music voucher for her answers to SEND's quiz. On the final day, she was voted by Learners and Workers from both the Music and Animation projects as the person who had got the most out of being there overall.

"I’ve got loads more confidence. I’m pleased with what I’ve done, and well pleased with my track. I wouldn’t change anything about it…"

An Animation Success Story

With many of the Learners being out of mainstream education, or not getting on well with conventional learning, it was interesting how well they took to a structured rewards system.

Some had encountered the gift token rewards scheme for the IRP before. With a combination of t-shirts, bags, wallets etc provided by the Learner's support agencies and a budget for more individual rewards provided by Charnwood Arts, a new scheme was set up for the Animation Project. The Learners collected points for punctuality, participation, exceptional behaviour, good work and generally showing a commitment to anything positive on the Project. Targets were set (small reward = 100 points, large reward = 300 points) and the Learners saw their points go up on a board as they collected them.

The idea was the scheme wasn't about winning prizes, just collecting rewards. However, very early on the Learners were judging it as a race with a leader. They also took a keen interest in who was getting what points and why. By the end of the project the group had become so engaged that they were self regulating the scheme. They started knocking points off each other, or even themselves, for poor behaviour, pointing out situations worthy of reward and asking for targets to achieve.

Each Learner was given a pack on the final day, with individual rewards (books, DVDs, CDs, art pens) they had earned.

A Visual Arts Success Story

The day at the Ceramics Studio was initially dreaded due to the previous behaviour of the Learners. This was in some way with good reason (see Rachel's photo in People) but the day actually turned out to be one of the best of all the Projects. The physical nature of throwing pots on a wheel was eventually more appealing than just throwing it. The abstract quality of using clay also enabled the Learners to just engage in the activity without getting disappointed that it wasn't as good as someone else's. Even with the odd disruption due to personal problems, everyone threw at least one good pot (see VA Galleries), focused and really enjoyed themselves.

Other Results and Feedback

Throughout the Programme the Workers met to review the work so far and make changes to improve matters. After the six weeks there was a final review meeting to evaluate the projects as a whole and offer suggestions for future work.

Amongst the more interesting reasons given by workers for if and why the projects had worked were:

~ 50-60% of the Learners stayed to complete the project
~ Storytelling brought out Learners' writing skills
~ Many learners developed more grown up behaviour and better attention skills
~ Workers came away with more awareness of how and why the Learners react and act
~ Everyone was inspired in some way (more cynical Workers confined this to the Learners)
~ No police were called and no one arrested.

The Learners were also monitored by their Youth Worker teams and given a chance to feedback. A few weeks after the projects had finished the Learners' situations were as follows:
13 had returned to School.
1 had entered P/T Employment and BS 1:1 (Basic Skills Support Work)
2 were receiving Student Support
2 were seeking Employment
2 were seeking Employment and receiving BS 1:1
2 had entered Employment
2 were in Residential Schooling
2 were in the ISSP Programme
1 was in a Pupil Referral Unit
1 had started a College Course
2 had started APEX training courses

Some of the reasons the Learners offered for liking the projects were:
~ It wasn't like school
~ Could have Fag and other breaks at times they picked
~ Treated more like adults
~ Doing things they normally wouldn't get to do
~ Making new friends
~ Having breakfast
~ Having something to do