Earlyarts E-Bulletin No 1 - Spring 2003
Hello to everyone who has signed up to the e-bulletin group, and welcome to our first edition of the monthly briefing. The aim of this briefing is to share ideas and examples of good practise where arts and early years activity is happening across the region, and in particular cases across the country. It is hopefully going to be short and concise as I know you are all extremely busy, and will provide contacts for potential partnerships you may be looking for in the future.
Information Sharing
As you will be aware, Isaacs UK were commissioned by North West Arts Board (now called Arts Council England, North West) to establish an arts and early years network across the north west region. Well, things have come on a pace and we will endeavour to give you a brief overview of the activities to date, and future events being planned, through this bulletin.
We will eventually have a facility on the web site for you to post your own bulletin in real time, but it is simple email technology for now. Please note that we don't want to overwhelm anyone with unnecessary information or burden anyone with ‘junk mail' so members should use the bulletin group with discretion and sensitivity.
News in brief
In 2002, Isaacs UK carried out research into the pockets of arts and early years activity across the region, mapping the key players, the partnerships delivering activity on the ground, the existing or emerging strategies and policy drivers, and the main issues for those involved in both delivery and policy development. The aim of this research was to build on the research carried out by the Thomas Coram Foundation (funded by Arts Council England) into arts and early years provision across the country and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues for this region.
The context and structure for the North West Arts commission can be found here: http://www.artsednews.co.uk/Resources/early%20years.pdf
Whilst it was widely acknowledged that working with artists in early years settings was valuable and encouraged creativity throughout learning as a whole, one of the main issues raised throughout the research was the lack of clear routes into, and through, the maze of early years and arts networks, information and partnerships - a real barrier to both sectors.
As a result of this and several other issues, Isaacs recommended a four-fold approach to the North West network:
Establishing an online presence for the network which would overcome the huge geographic boundaries of this region, enable research to be collated and catalogued in one place, enable information about the myriad of local initiatives to be shared from one source, and enable interaction and good practice to be shared between artists and early years practitioners and policy makers.
Setting up a Champions Group to steer the network development, raise awareness of the issues pertinent to their area, influence emerging policy on arts and early years at national and regional level, and champion the network with their own constituents and partners.
Running an e-bulletin to bring current and developing projects to the attention of the many people involved in arts and early years across the region. This also has the potential to house information from practitioners across other regions who are eager to develop their own networks without re-inventing the wheel.
Organising or contributing to an early years conference for the North of England which addresses some of the critical issues raised in the research, which cannot be addressed other than by face to face work with policy makers and key stakeholders.
These may be issues such as tackling the proportion of arts in the Foundation Stage curriculum, or the emerging role of the Reggio Emilia approach in settings' delivery of the curriculum.
Action to Date
A brief was drawn up for the developers of the web site (sometimes referred to as the Arts and Early Years (AEY) Virtual Learning network), with an emphasis on the need to understand online learning issues, accessibility in web design and content, cross-sectoral languages in arts and education, and information currency. Interviews were held before Christmas and the tender was won by Metier, a national company with a track record of developing multi-partnership online learning environments for the arts and education sectors. The branding for the site is currently being designed by children at a Nursery School and an Early Excellence Centre in Bury, and the outline structure and content should be ready for publishing by summer 2003.
Another barrier to practitioners and partnerships wishing to work with artists was about how to find artists with early years experience available to work in the region, and the bureaucracy surrounding secondary disclosure procedures. Isaacs teamed up with AXIS who currently supply an online database of artists suitable to work in educational settings to help deliver the national curriculum. AXIS had recently won New Opportunities Funding to completely refurbish their online services and we were just in time to persuade them to include an additional database in the refurbishments to cover early years artists. The structure for this database is currently being designed and will have the same branding as the AEY Virtual Learning network (no. 1) so that, although the two sites will be in separate places, they will be directly linked to each other's pages and will appear as one to the user.
January saw the coming together of the first Champions Group forum to build an overview of the project across the region and steer its development, whilst influencing policy development at the highest levels. We are thrilled to have so much regional and national expertise on the group, and a chance to have an insight into (and hopefully influence upon) national policy development. Group membership will be published in the next e-bulletin.
The E-Bulletin has been slightly longer in coming than anticipated, but has amassed a huge spectrum of interest en route as Isaacs has been promoting the network across many organisations and umbrella bodies. This first edition is going out to over 100 organisations across the region and several others outside of the region.
Arts Council England, North East will be co-ordinating an under 5's conference in October 2003 to which this North West network will be offering various contributions highlighting the work within the region. This will include progress on this network, discussions and workshops on some of the issues and key milestones reached by regional organisations working with early years and arts, and a chance for practitioners and policy makers from both sectors to network and share information on their own activities. More detail in the next bulletin.
Enclosed is a brief summary of the issues raised in the research, and the approach being taken by the North West to developing an arts and early years learning network. Please feel free to distribute as appropriate to anyone who you feel might be interested in being a part of the bulletin group, may wish to take advantage of the online network, or attend the conference. Next bulletin will have news of the structure and content planned for the virtual learning environment, and more details on the under 5's conference.
Until next month, with all best wishes
Ruth Churchill Dower
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