PAC blog

2022 roundup

As our Pupil Art Council completed their year of being Art Councillors, they reflected on the work they have done and what impact that had on the school and community.

What have we done in the last year?

Curating our Art gallery
We pick the pictures that are displayed in the School Art Gallery.

Impact:
Visitors get to see that we do a lot of art.
Makes pupils proud.
Inspires pupils to make their own art and aim to make it good enough for the gallery.

Drawing project
Because we told teachers that our friends didn’t feel confident with drawing we had a whole school drawing project last summer.
Impact:

Everyone in the whole school got new drawing equipment and all got to do more drawing.
The Pupil Voice we collected before and after the drawing project showed that in most year groups, children got more confident with their drawing.

Collect pupil voice
We feedback our ideas, opinions and what we have been learning. Some of the year 6 members also help create google forms then go and collect Pupil Voice.
Impact:

We help find out what other pupils think about the arts, and what they have learned, which helps teachers know what they need to do. We also talk about our ideas of what we could do. For instance, we helped with ideas for the Arts Festival, so there were lots of things we all wanted to do at the festival. We also wanted lots of new clubs. We wrote emails to teachers and Mrs Mulford and now we have lots of clubs.

Art Competition
We planned our Spring Art Competition and helped judge it with local artists. We had over 200 entries from pupils, teachers and families.
Impact:
Lots of people in our community got to make art. Our Year 6s who did the judging found it really interesting and inspiring to work with a local artists.

Drakes Got Talent
We planned Drake’s Got Talent and helped with all the judging.

Impact:
Every pupil had the opportunity to show us their individual talents and interest and it was really fun for everyone.

Thetford Art Gallery

Our Year 6s helped curate an exhibition of our Artwork in Town.

Impact:
We got to show the Town some of the amazing artwork we have been doing. We talked to lots of people about our Humanae project and let them have a go at doing some art.
 

Monitoring the sketchbooks and pupil’s work
Every half term we look at a sample of sketchbooks from across the school. We think about what should be in sketchbooks, then we look to see if it’s there. We use this to tell teachers what they need to do next.

Impact:

Teachers have a target to work on which will help make everybody’s sketchbooks better.

What has had the most impact?
* Drake’s Got Talent – because anyone could be creative in their own way and it was really fun.
* Drawing project – because every child in the school has new drawing things to use and gets to do more drawing.

What hasn’t worked?
* we don’t like missing our lunchtimes
* people remembering to come – that has impacted our work.
Solution – a Council’s board for every classroom, with photos and dates/times. An appointed person in charge of reminding classes.

25^th November, 2021 - Feedback for classes
This week, members of the Pupil Arts Council (PAC) reported back what their classmates think about clubs. They found out that in every year group, there are lots of children who would like to be able to attend a lunchtime art club. There were also some requests for drama, crafts and dance clubs. Our Wellbeing Champions proposed that our year 6s should have a regular wellbeing/chill out drawing club which the council thought was a good idea and should be made a priority. Our crafting champions are also still keen to run a cardboard club for year 2.
As there is so much demand for clubs, but not enough lunchtimes, we’ve decided we’ll have a rota of clubs. Year 6 and Year 2 will have fortnightly clubs then other year groups will get a regular turns through the year.

Our wellbeing team also started thinking about next steps for Sophia’s garden. It was suggested that everyone in the school should plant a bulb. We’ll check its not too late for this year, and if it will be ok, we’ll write a letter to local garden centers to ask for a donation of bulbs.
We have had a Christmas Tree donated to us by Blackthorpe Barn. So we thought about how we could create a memorial Christmas Tree where we can hang decorations to remember loved ones this Christmas. We decided that families could send in a Christmas decoration - maybe one they have already, or one they have made. They might like to attach a tag with a message but they won’t have to. Children can then come out to the garden to hang their decoration and have a quiet moment remember their loved one.

Nov 2021 – Filming visit
We had a visit from Artsmark this month who were making a film about all the Arts we do at Drake. Some of the Pupil Arts Council were interviewed about their role. Then they turned the tables on the film crew and interviewed them for the School Radio Station!

Nov 2^nd 2021 - Feedback for classes
The Arts Council got back together this week and we looked over the targets that each of our teams have made. We have noticed that everyone would like to have opportunities to try out Arts clubs so we are going to make that our first focus.
Art Council members are all going to talk to their classmates and find out what clubs they would like:
What kind of clubs do you want?
What would you like to do in that club?
When would you like the club to be? If there was an afterschool club, would you be able to come?
Would you like a club that you sign up to go to every week, or would you like one that you can to now and then?
Would you like to be able to try lots of different types of crat or art? Or keep doing the same thing?

If you have any ideas about clubs, make sure you talk to your PAC representative and they will pass it on to the rest of the council.

Oct 2021 – Art Gallery
One of the first actions our Art Champions wanted to achieve was a school Art Gallery. They thought we had too many white walls!
So here it is!

Oct 2021 - Feedback for classes from PAC’s first set of meetings
We now have a new Pupil Arts Council (PAC) for this year. It was fantastic to see that so many of you were interested in being part of the council and keen to help support the Arts work we do at Drake.
Our new Council includes members interested in a wide range of creative activities, so we have split the Council into teams, each championing an area of the Arts. You can find out more about who is on which team by looking at our main Pupil Arts Council Page.

Each of the teams has had a meeting to think about what they would like to do to support their area of the Arts this term.
This is what they have decided:

* Our Drama Champions think it would be good to have more opportunities to watch and to perform in plays. The first thing they’d like to do is see if we can have a drama club, so they are going to arrange a meeting with Mr Hughes to talk about that.
* Our Dance Champions would like to bring back Drake’s Got Talent, so that will be something for PAC to look at in the Summer term. They would also like opportunities for pupils to watch live dance performances and for there to be a dance club run by a professional dance teacher. The first thing they are going to do is hold a meeting with the PE lead to talk about dance clubs.
* Our Music Champions think that our pupils are very lucky to have so many opportunities to play instruments and join clubs at our school. The would like to find ways to encourage more children to join these clubs, so they are going to talk to pupils at school and think about ways to promote the clubs. They’d also like to talk to Mr Fox to see how we can use the radio station to regularly feature performances by our musicians.
* Our Art Champions think we do lots of good Art at school but would like opportunities to work with real artists – even if it’s on zoom. They are going to talk to the children in their classes to see what their classmates would like them to do for art and what kind of clubs they might like. They would also like to make sure our Art Gallery gets started – we have too many white walls!
*  Poetry Champion thinks its great how much poetry we do at school. She would like us to have the opportunity to work with a professional poet as that will be really inspiring. The first thing she’d like to do is meet with Mr Hughes about having a Poem of the Week.
* Our Craft and Design Champions are really keen for everyone to get to try out different crafts and to work with craft experts. They’d also like to help run a crafting and junk modelling club for KS1 where they get to make things from cardboard and reuse materials that would otherwise be thrown away. The first thing they are going to do is see if they can set up the club.
* Our Photography Champion thinks that everyone the opportunity to learn to use a real camera and not just an ipad. The first thing she is going to do is find out from other pupils what they think about photography and what they’d like to do at school.

As you can see, our Council are very keen to make sure everyone has the opportunity to access the Arts at Drake. If you have any ideas of your own, talk to the representative in your class. If you are in KS1, you can tell your teacher and they will pass your ideas on.