Evaluation Report Gareth Morgan | Hoodwinked Education Coordinator November 2018 [DOCUMENT TITLE] [Document subtitle] Robin’s Tales Education Programme Evaluation Executive Summary Over the course of the summer term (May-July 2018) over 13000 children aged 5-11 in 53 Nottingham City Primary Schools participated in a city-wide arts and literacy programme both in and out of school. This has seen the creation of 56 amazing BookBenches which the schools designed, decorated and incorporated into their curriculum throughout the first half of the term. These BookBenches were then displayed across Nottingham and its neighbourhoods for the second half of the summer term and over the summer holiday break. As part of the programme, the project’s partners also supported and engaged schools, their pupils and staff in a renewed push to create a culture of “reading for pleasure” in their everyday learning. This has been hugely and generously supported by Boots UK, Browne Jacobson, Nottingham City Council Library Service and Education Department, Wild in Art, Nottinghamshire Hospice and others. Key Markers • Over 13000 children Nottingham taking part in designing, decorating and engaging with their school’s BookBench. Almost a quarter of all children in the city. • 1.33% increase in children completing their Summer Reading Challenge city-wide against a national downward trend in participation, and 3487 more children’s books issued in the summer holidays. • 26 schools trained in new literacy approaches by National Literacy Trust; 5 schools trained and taken through their Arts Award by ChalleNGe/The Mighty Creatives. • 5304 individual app “check-ins” at BookBench locations plus thousands more using paper maps or encountering the art-work by chance. • 86% of schools involved said they would use local library services more because of Hoodwinked. Storyteller Sarah West tells Robin Hood stories to children from Our Lady St Edwards and Sycamore Primaries at the launch of the St Ann’s Valley Library BookBenches. (Photo: Gareth Morgan). 1 Robin’s Tales Education Programme Evaluation Full Report What was Hoodwinked: Robin’s Tales Education Programme? Hoodwinked: Robin’s Tales was a bespoke programme for Nottingham City primary schools created by Wild in Art and Nottingham City Council with Nottinghamshire Hospice, supported by Boots UK, Browne Jacobson and Nottingham City councillors. The programme was targeted at developing arts, literacy, local history and PSHE curriculum and knowledge. This culminated in the schools designing, decorating and displaying a “BookBench” as part of the wider Hoodwinked trail in both city centre and community locations. Fifty-six beautiful BookBenches were created during the first part of the summer term of 2018 and displayed across Nottingham from 9th July – 30th September 2018. Schools were also given, as part of the project, an education guide looking at the programme topics, training and support opportunities for school staff. Schools were able to visit and see their BookBench in its community, which included further opportunity for workshops, storytelling and receiving information about summer programmes in the city like the Summer Reading Challenge. The BookBenches have now all returned to school as a lasting legacy for a great summer for arts and literacy in Nottingham. Pupils painting their BookBench at Highbank Primary, Clifton. (Image: Shawn Ryan) Rationale for the Project and its Focus on Literacy & Arts Nottingham has issues with low attainment in literacy in Key Stage 2 with only 61% of children in the city achieving expected standards in reading in 2016. This drops further to 58% for children with English as a second language, to 53% for children identified as disadvantaged and to 50% for children eligible for free school meals. In a 2017 report from the National Literacy Trust every single electoral ward and parliamentary constituency in England were given a literacy vulnerability score. 2 Nottingham North was ranked the constituency with the 8th greatest literacy need, with Nottingham East 14th and Nottingham South is 116th out of 533 constituencies. Nottingham is also one of 4 UNESCO Cities of Literature in the UK, along with Edinburgh, Norwich and now Manchester. The literacy focus was designed to celebrate this designation which the city was awarded in 2015, and show every child in Nottingham that literature, reading and being creative is part of their city’s DNA. Schools are a vital cog in children’s learning journey in cultural education. In Nottingham, participation in and access to culture is lower than in other cities. Only 3% of schools in Nottingham have the Artsmark kite-mark (given to schools with high-quality consistent cultural provision) and only 1% of young people in the city have achieved Arts Award. Support for schools in both literacy and arts will deliver a clear benefit for children, staff and the city. Research shows that self- expression relieves stress and anxiety and reading for pleasure builds empathy and improves our wellbeing. At a time when we are seeing unprecedented demand for children and young people’s mental health services, supporting children to enjoy reading, express themselves creatively and develop emotional skills can only be a good thing. Number of Schools and which Pupils Participated 53 primary phase learning settings (schools, SEND schools, pupil referral units and hospital schools) were involved in Hoodwinked and the creating of their individual BookBenches. A further 3 were designed to go on display as a result of associated partnerships including one created by a professional artist on behalf of the city council to support the literacy charity, The Dolly Parton Imagination Library. A school in every City ward took part (Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey ward contains no school settings). Children from Ambleside and Rosslyn Park Primary Schools, Aspley, at their launch at Aspley Library. (Image Gareth Morgan) Based on the evaluation data, scaled to cover all schools involved, we believe approximately 13113 children in Nottingham City were involved directly through their school with the design and decoration of a BookBench. This equates to roughly 58% of children of primary school age and 22% 3 of all children and young people (under 16) living in Nottingham City. This data is scaled as not all schools employed a whole school approach and, instead, worked with a specific year group, class or extra-curricular club like an after-school art club. Number of Staff Receiving Training around Literacy and Arts Award All schools were invited to two project briefing sessions to talk through the programme, what it entailed and how to make the most of their participation in it. 26 Hoodwinked schools took up the opportunity to receive 2 days of reading support CPD for one member of staff from the National Literacy Trust. These schools were: Blessed Robert Widmerpool, Blue Bell Hill, Bulwell St Mary's, Cantrell, Crabtree Farm, Denewood, Djanogly Northgate, Dovecote, Edna G. Olds, Fernwood, Glade Hill, Glenbrook, Melbury, Old Basford, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Radford, Rosslyn Park, Rufford, Scotholme, Sneinton CofE, South Wilford, Southwark, Southwold and Whitemoor primaries. 5 schools took up the opportunity to receive a half-day Arts Award training from the Mighty Creatives and ChalleNGe. These schools were: Blue Bell Hill, Cantrell, Glapton, Snapewood and Southwark primaries. One class at each of these schools (150 children) also completed their Arts Award Discover or Explore around their school’s Hoodwinked project. 6 students from Nottingham Children’s Hospital School also achieved their Arts Award Discover – the first ever from the Hospital School. School Approach to the Design of the Sculpture The design process differed school to school, but overwhelmingly teachers chose to run competitions within their participant group and then had pupils vote on their favourites, this usually undertaken by the school’s pupil council. This would then either be adopted as the whole design or favourite elements combined to create a composite. Sneinton Primary’s school council meet to decide their winning design. (Photo: Julie Doyle) 4 The BookBenches were decorated in a huge range of different designs – from favourite books, authors and illustrators to celebrating our city. Several schools tied this to International Children’s Book Day, World Book Night and National Share-a-Story month. Schools commented that the schools pack and the guide video on the Hoodwinked website from Wild in Art were helpful in this. Schools often chose themes before the design process such as each class picking a specific author or the idea of “today a reader, tomorrow a leader”. Milford Academy in Clifton documented their design process with the school art club on their blog. Some schools used the project to engage with the diverse communities their pupils come from and in their school’s neighbourhood. Mellers Primary in Radford, in which 89% of the children come from ethnic minority families and where 37 languages other than English are spoken, decorated their bench with favourite characters from traditional stories of families' home countries. They commented that all at school are now “more aware of stories which are told at home to our children”. Other schools chose to have an international focus: Edna G Olds Academy in Lenton’s bench looks at the global issue of pollution in our oceans, whilst the bench of Blessed Robert Widmerpool Primary in Clifton looked at their twinning friendship with a school in Bunkpurugu, Ghana. All BookBenches were painted by the school’s pupils, with varying support from school staff or invited artists. Some schools ensured every child was involved in this process by having a “painting line”, where each child completed a certain section, or every child created a book cover mosaic tile, Nottingham scene or African mask design to be pasted to the finished bench. Whitemoor Academy in Basford commented: The Hoodwinked BookBench project was an incredible experience for my pupils and their families.