schools – Southampton Cultural Education Partnership

Exploring Creative Careers with Cantell School

Hi! I’m Philippa and joined as the SCEP’s new communications assistant in late February: you might have seen me on a few social media posts. The first two events I attended so far have been at the wonderful Cantell School. I’d love to showcase what I’ve been up to.

First, Lucy Marder (SCEP Lead) and I attended Cantell’s Future Focus Evening on Wednesday 25^th February. This was aimed at Year 9 and 10 students, we attended with Silva Chega from Mayflower Theatre and used the opportunity to spread the word about the creative and cultural industries to more than 30 students and their families. We discussed a diverse range of routes into creative futures and shared leaflets that exhibited a variety of our members’ offerings. It’s so important to showcase the variety of opportunities that are out there for young people interested in the creative and cultural sectors.

Whilst at the Future Focus Evening, we asked the question,

“What will you create in your career?”

And received a variety of brilliant responses from young people. Some of our favourite answers were,

‘Healthy hearts’; ‘Queer cinema’; ‘Helping others capture moments’

It was a pleasure to talk to aspiring cardiologists, cinematographers, photographers and many other aspiring young professionals!

For National Careers Week, me and Lucy returned to Cantell School (Thursday 12^th March) with an assembly. Here, we had the opportunity to represent the cultural industry to over 200 Year 8 students. We signposted them to Discover! Creative Career‘s brilliant resource, whilst showcasing the many creative careers out there. We also had the opportunity to answer a variety of thoughtful questions, that we hope encouraged them to pursue a career they’re passionate about. Thanks for having us!

As I continue my work with the Southampton Cultural Education Partnership, I look forward to spotlighting the incredible work of our members and connecting with you through regular updates and newsletters.

See you at the SCEP/Southampton Education Forum (SEF) Expo at Redbridge Community School on Thursday the 23rd April!

Banister Primary School’s Journey with Dance

Pupils at Banister Primary School have been using movement and dance to look at geography and science from a new perspective.

Natalie Watson and Year 4 students at Banister Primary School exploring geography and science using dance and movement.
SCEP *Cultural Curriculum*, part *of Better Lives Through Culture*. Photographs: Nosa Malcolm

Movement and dance specialist Natalie Watson has been working with the school to devise new ways of teaching geography and science as part of the Southampton Cultural Education Partnership (SCEP) Cultural Curriculum project.

After a term working with the Year 4 classes (together with teachers Miss Golden and Mr Darling) to devise a new scheme of work for geography, the project has been rolled out across different key stages and Natalie has now worked with the Early Years Foundation Stage, Year 2 and Year 5 on their science curriculum.

During an inset day in April, Natalie also ran whole school CPD workshop with the full teaching staff to discover ways to bring dance and movement into their daily lesson planning.

The Cultural Curriculum project is taking place in four different school settings across Southampton with Arts2Educate, SoCo Music Project, ArtfulScribe, as well as dance practitioner Natalie.

Are you a school setting looking to develop Cultural Capital and creative learning in the classroom? Get in touch with scep@soton.ac.uk to explore how we can support your ambitions.

SCEP supported by

Better Lives Through Culture, in partnership with Artswork

Watching the magic happen

Creative Mentor Amy Spencer describes exploring creative ideas in the ‘safe place’ of the art department with her mentee.

Amy Spencer, visual artist, SCEP Creative Mentor

Hello, my name is Amy and I am a visual artist and mentor for SCEP. Since starting my training for the Creative Mentoring Programme back in November last year, I have been trying to imagine how it might play out in real life.

Exploring History through a Cultural Lens

Creative Arts combine with History at Woodlands Community College as Year 7 students bring creativity into their learning about the Mongol Empire this term.

Abi Thommes from Arts2Educate has spent the past term working with students to find out how they would like to bring music, art and drama into their lessons. This is one of four arts/schools partnership to develop a Southampton Cultural Curriculum, as part of the SCEP’s Better Lives Through Culture Programme.

Working in partnership to achieve priorities for children and young people

Place-based partnership with cultural and child-focused organisations is key to achieving Southampton City Council’s priorities for children, Councillor Darren Paffey told SCEP (Southampton Cultural Education Partnership) members at a recent meeting.

Cllr Darren Paffey and Child Friendly Southampton logo

With partnership working at our heart, the SCEP was delighted to welcome Southampton’s Cabinet Member for Children and Learning and ward councillor for Bargate as a guest speaker at our last Members meeting:

‘There’s a lot of belief out there that councils are the sole organisation that can solve all problems in cities. It won’t be a surprise to know that’s not true. Everything that we do depends on the partnerships that we have built up with cultural organisations, with businesses, with our schools, with our early years settings and with the universities,’ said Cllr Darren Paffey.