Children & the Arts

The pilot of Catalyst, designed and run by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, was a series of professional development days for Key Stage 2 teachers held across the UK.

On each day, teachers worked with leading arts professionals to gain practical skills in using the arts in their classrooms, with a particular focus on storytelling and literacy and had the chance to meet guest speakers including award winning authors, storytellers and directors of national arts organisations.

Every teacher who attended received a FREE limited edition of Catalyst, a new book that includes 60 inspirational activities to use in the classroom covering Dance, Poetry, Music, Storytelling, Theatre and Visual Arts.  The book also gives practical information on planning arts projects and working with external artists and arts organisations.

Thanks to the extremely generous funding from The Eranda Foundation each training day cost just £45 per teacher.

In 2008/09 Catalyst days were held in the following areas:

Hampshire - 12 November 2008

Birmingham - 17 November 2008

Bristol - 01 December 2008

Liverpool - 06 February 2009

London - 12 March 2009

Newcastle - 09 July 2009

Catalyst Day Event Details

 

Hampshire - 12 November 2008

Set in the beautiful surroundings of Stansted Park country house, Rowlands Castle, Hampshire, PO9 6DX, the day included guest speaker Eleanor Updale, author of the multi award winning Montmorency series and workshops led by arts professionals which explored:·

Storytelling - How to turn your pupils into master storytellers, Michael O’Leary

Musical Narratives – Bring the past to life with sound by composer and educationalist, Rachel Leach

Movement – Explore history through movement with primary dance specialist, Sarah Dekker.

Catalyst flyer for Stanstead Park

Birmingham - 17 November 2008

This day was held at Highbury Hall, 4 Yew Tree Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8QG. It is a stunning building constructed for Joseph Chamberlain in 1878. Ben Haggarty, an advocate of the art of professional performance storytelling and Kate Norgate, who co-founded the London Centre for International Storytelling in 2004 started the day.  Ben also lead the storytelling workshop and Rachel Leach and John Lindley held music and poetry workshops.

Catalyst Flyer for Highbury Hall

Bristol - 01 December 2008

Set just outside of Bristol in Kings Weston House, the day was designed to help teachers to integrate the arts into their teaching practice, focusing on storytelling – and literacy – as a thread to do so.  Master storyteller Jamila Gavin, author of the award winning Coram Boy and the Surya Series began the day followed by workshops in:

Storytelling – how to turn your children into storytellers led by Sally Pomme Clayton

Moving Stories – exploring historical stories through movement with primary dance specialist Sarah Dekker

Talking Pictures - drawings inspired by stories

Catalyst Flyer for Bristol - Kings Weston House

Liverpool- 06 February 2009

Set in the beautiful Knowsley Hall, in the grounds of Knowsley Park the training day introduced arts in the classroom, focussing on Storytelling, Poetry and Music. The day began with an address by Stuart Hardcastle, from BeatLife, a professional musician who has performed around the world and was followed by 3 inspirational workshops:

Storytelling - How to turn your children into storytellers, led by Amy Douglas

Poetry - Poet John Lindley gave advice and revealled how to introduce poetry into the classroom

Music - BeatLife led a rousing music workshop

Catalyst Flyer for Liverpool - Knowsley Hall

London - 12 March 2009

This day was held in the event rooms at Kensington Palace. The training day focussed on Storytelling, Drama and Music. The day began with Ben Haggarty, an advocate of the art of professional performance storytelling and Kate Norgate, who co-founded the London Centre for International Storytelling in 2004.  Ben also led the storytelling workshop. Other workshops included:

Musical Narratives – bringing the past to life with sound by composer and educationalist Rachel Leach

Drama - Exploring history through drama

Catalyst Flyer for London - Kensington Palace

Newcastle - 09 July 2009

This day was held at Seven Stories, The Centre for Children’s Books and focussed on Storytelling, Drama and Music. Debbie Beeks, Participation Manager at Seven Stories, started the day with a talk on the work of Seven Stories and the impact it is having on young people in Newcastle.

The day’s workshops included:

Storytelling – building your storytelling skills with Malcolm Green

Theatre – bringing stories to life through drama with Debbie Beeks based on the children’s book The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer.

Musical Narratives – bringing the past to life with sound

Catalyst Flyer for Newcastle - Seven Stories