Priorities for arts in education
The Scottish Arts Council Business Plan identifies priorities for 2009/10 and we will work within these priorities to achieve vibrant and sustainable arts education provision in Scotland. We have a particular focus on securing the foundation of Scotland’s artistic development and increasing participation in the arts.
Our priorities for 2009/10 will be to develop quality across three key sectors, and to increase the opportunities for collaboration between them:
- arts and cultural organisations
- the formal education sector (schools and teacher training)
- the informal education sector (eg community learning and development and national young people’s service organisations).
We will:
- map existing professional development opportunities for arts educators across all artforms, identify gaps and consider next steps towards creating a sustainable framework of provision.
- support the evaluation of the 'Arts Education in Practice' SQA accredited course.
- in partnership with artform colleagues and umbrella organisations, support networking opportunities for arts educators in and across artforms.
- in partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), explore the possibility of establishing a cross professional mentoring/buddy programme for teachers and artists using GLOW - the national education intranet
- gather and disseminate examples of best practice in evaluating arts education projects in arts organisations.
- explore the possibilities for incorporating creative and cultural skills development into the emerging national Skills strategy.
We will:
- implement, support and develop the education elements of the Quality Framework, enabling Foundation Organisations to drive up the quality of their arts education provision
- monitor the LEARN Fund projects which support strategic development of education in arts organisations
- disseminate best practice in evaluating education work in arts organisations (Foundation and Flexibly funded organisations).
We will work with Flexibly Funded organisations as with Foundation Organisations above.
The Cultural Co-ordinators in Scottish Schools (CCiSS) programme has been a major three way partnership between ourselves, the Scottish Government and local authorities. Scottish Government funding for the programme finishes in March 2010 but we are working closely with our local authority partners to mainstream the activity. The 2009/10 funding round will take account of the importance of the links to Curriculum for Excellence, Community Planning and the National Performance Framework.
Our targets for the coming year are to:
- encourage participation by, and disseminate CCiSS programme funding to, all 32 Local Authorities
- disseminate data collected through the monitoring of the programme and publish a selection of case studies from local authorities
- contribute to the evaluation of the CCiSS programme
- facilitate the National Arts Education Network
- support Creative Links posts in four national learning organisations.
As the boundaries between formal and informal education erode we will continue to facilitate networking opportunities between the two sectors primarily through the National Arts Education Network and the Creative Links posts in national umbrella bodies.
In addition, we will:
- manage and develop our partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland, particularly around our joint project and post within GLOW, establishing five demonstration projects exploring how the combined expertise of artists and learning professionals can use the technology available in GLOW to reshape the content of and access to cultural resources
- publish a résumé and good practice examples from the Arts Across the Curriculum project and disseminate to all schools
- support Scottish Learning Partnership Adult Learners awards
- devolve a £20,000 fund to Young Scot for grants to young people
- work with Moray House, Stirling University and Aberdeen University to develop Arts Across the Curriculum models of practice with trainee teachers
- contribute to policy development through Board membership in Young Scot, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Scottish Learning Partnership and Children in Scotland
- work with Children in Scotland to advocate for the arts in the context of the ’Early Years Framework’
- advocate through talks, seminars, etc at partner led events with organisations such as Her Majesty’s Inspectors in Education (HMIE), Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES), Local Authorities, Young Scot, Youth Link, Children in Scotland, Higher and Further Education
- work with Scottish Screen to deliver ‘Creative Identities’, a £1.2 million Scottish Government funded cash back programme focussed on arts and media projects with young people.
The formal process of merging our roles and responsibilities with those of Scottish Screen began in January 2007, with the formation of a new board, whose members were drawn from the two existing bodies. In January 2009, a new company, Creative Scotland 2009 Ltd, was established and, subject to legislation in 2009 (the Public Service Reform Bill), Creative Scotland will become the new lead body for arts and screen industries in Scotland in 2010, replacing the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen.
|