Teacher Development Fund news!
We are delighted to announce we have been awarded one of this year’s Teacher Development Fund grants from Paul Hamlyn Foundation for ‘From HEAD to TOE: Learning to Learn’. Working in collaboration with six Primary Schools across Lancashire, we will provide valuable CPD for teachers to develop their pedagogy and facilitation toolkit through a care-filled approach, bringing the dance and the creative moving body into regular practice in the classroom. Our approach is rooted in embodied, experiential learning, instilled in teachers and modelled to pupils to open up new opportunities to access learning. For pupils, the programme will focus on establishing and nurturing executive functioning skills and metacognition to support pupils in gaining more confidence, independence, resilience and self-awareness in their approaches to learning.
This is a fantastic opportunity for us to continue our research and collaborative relationships in school settings, expanding where and how dance, movement and creativity can further enrich learning in the curriculum and across the school day. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to embed care and wellbeing at the heart of our decision making, delivery and embedding of practice, supporting Artists and Teachers to gain more resilience, self awareness and self-management in the role of facilitator in these complex, busy and ever-evolving environments.
Leading on from our initial ‘From HEAD to TOE‘ work, we have learnt lots about relationship development and fostering spaces for genuine collaboration, which we feel was the core reason we were able to produce value resources, training programmes for new schools and embedded practice from our previous teacher partners and their school settings. We aim to continue and grow this approach and share our learning along the way.
As part of the Teacher Development Fund we also get to take part in a Cohort Learning Programme, connecting with the other seven funded projects across the four nations to share learning, challenge our practice and celebrate arts-based learning in schools.
Follow us to see our TDF journey!