“All my life people have been telling me I was unique and then I saw myself on camera and realised I was – there is only one me! The film was a great achievement.”

Participants: 20 Year 4 students from Southwark Park Primary School.

Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator)

The Investigators followed a group of Year Four children and their teacher through their science studies for an entire school year.

Michael Szpakowski and Furtherfield made a documentary film with the children from Southwark Park Primary that examines the investigative skills in Science. The project focused on developing the use of digital media within the classroom, and as a tool for learning that the children can use themselves. Around a framework of footage shot in lesson time and on trips out is assembled other material – creative writing and artwork by the young people as well as re-enactments and discussion of the lessons.

Partners: Creative Partnerships, A New Direction, Southwark Park Primary School

Participants: 20 Year 4 students from Southwark Park Primary School.

Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator)

In a series of workshops to promote enthusiasm for maths within the school, a class of children aged 8-9 years old created Mad About Maths, a CDROM of 8 maths games, which encouraged them to test their ideas, use their own words, and try new approaches. The games were presented in a school event in which the pupils demonstrated the games to their family members and teachers. The pupils were able to share their learning and knowledge of calculation with their siblings and families in an engaging and fun way.
The CDRoms continue to be used in the home and in school with other classes to support enthusiasm and skills in maths.

Partners: Creative Partnerships, A New Direction, Southwark Park Primary School

Musical workshops inspiring a sense of wonder in the endless combinations of sounds and rhythms in poetry, song and nature.

Participants: 90 students between the ages of 10 and 14 from Horsenden Primary School.

Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator)

90 students between the ages of 10 and 14 from Horsenden Primary School engaged in an exploration of the seasons through spoken/sung words and rhymes, and collaborated to create a collection of musical pieces using a variety of musical instruments. This project supported children’s reading ability by exploring rhythm through music, as well as the creation of a permanent sound artwork for the school garden that changed with the seasons to inspire a sense of wonder in the endless combinations of sounds and rhythms in poetry, song and nature.

The artist Michael Szpakowski worked with 14 small groups of pupils doing music and sound drawing on quotes from nursery rhymes and using a range of stimulating and unusual ways of making sounds. The work was digitally recorded in order to create a “generative” piece of music and sound-scape. Generative means that the computer is programmed to play back the fragments of the sound in a semi-random order so that they would constantly unfold and combine in different ways, like a kind of musical kaleidoscope.

Partners:Creative Partnerships, Horsenden Primary School.

Inclusive filmmaking workshops to create a documentary challenging community perceptions of Grove Park Special School.

Participants: 20 students between the ages of 10 and 14 from Grove Park Special School in Brent

Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator)

20 students between the ages of 10 and 14 from Grove Park Special School in Brent explored and challenged community perceptions of the school in a series of visits and interviews with leading figures in the local community. The students, teachers, learning support assistants and Michael Szpakowski worked collaboratively in small groups to make a documentary film about the Borough of Brent, and the people who live and work there. Visits were made to 3 locations over 10 weeks: Brent Town Hall, Fryent Country Park and the nearby IKEA superstore. They were chosen because of their significance as providers of essential local community services. During these visits and interviews the students were encouraged to look outward and find their voices in the local community and throughout this process students and staff had the opportunity to learn valuable filmmaking and editing skills. The project has culminated in a DVD film, for distribution to all participants.

Partners: Creative Partnerships, Grove Park Special School

Workshops to create and film a drama promoting an enthusiasm for maths at Mayfield Primary School.

Participants: 28 children aged 8-9 years old from Mayfield Primary School

Artist: Michael Szpakowski (video artist, composer and facilitator)

In a series of workshops to promote an enthusiasm for maths within the school, a class of children aged 8-9 years old created and filmed a drama in 9 parts in which they cracked a series of knotty maths problems that they encountered during a school day. Pupils puzzle and ponder over how many minutes they have before they have to leave for school, how to organise rows and columns for school assembly, how it feels to crack a hard Maths problem. These short films, where we see the pupils trying to work out maths problems together, continue to serve as playful teaching tools within the school.

Partners:Creative Partnerships, Mayfield Primary School.