On Thursday 11th December, the Arts Faculty at Tallis hosted an evening of exhibitions and performances by Year 7 students on the theme of Identity. Amongst the exhibits was an interactive display (pictured above) in which visitors were encouraged to create overlapping compositions of acetate drawings projected on the walls to the accompaniment of a stereo sound collage of students describing their personal likes and dislikes. Parents were invited to the event to celebrate their children's creativity in a range of disciplines including music, dance, ICT, 3D, photography and fine art. The Amygdala Book was displayed and the 5 prize winners were announced. This work by the Arts Faculty forms part of an ongoing exploration of new ways of delivering the Key Stage 3 curriculum to encourage inter-disciplinary links.
Identity
The Amygdala Project 2008
We have been the lucky recipients of the model for Helen Storey's Amygdala installation at Tallis. It now has pride of place in the school library. We decided this year, as part of a cross-curricular arts project on "Identity", to use the book as inspiration for an activity with our current Year 7 students designed to encourage them to reflect on a time when their amygdalas were probably working overtime - the transition from Year 6 to Year 7. We have published these responses as an interactive online book using the fantastic Issuu.
The "Big Wicked Awesome Draw" at Columbia
What a successful Big Draw.
One pupil described it as "the big wicked awesome draw"!
Pupils came in year groups throughout the day to visit a huge urban themed still life set up in our middle hall.
The children worked in a variety of different scales; small sketch books, A4 sugar paper, easels, large display screens.
The work now adorns the walls and boards in unexpected places all around the school
Creative Manifesto Launch
Four members of staff and eight students, aged 11 to 18, attended the launch of the Manifesto for a Creative Britain today at Tate Modern. Following speeches by Nick Serota and Paul Collard, young people from across the country presented the first ten manifesto points. We were all then invited to vote for two additional points. Here is the initial list of ten points:
1. We want less formality in schools and more creativity in the classroom
2. Change the curriculum so that our subjects reflect our lives
3. Create spaces where we can vent our creativity
4. Let us have opportunities to take risks so that we are not afraid to try new things
5. We need mentoring to help us get into the creative industries. We don't know how it works
6. We need to gain confidence in ourselves
7. Allow us to learn from each other, to get fresh ideas from cultures other than just our own. We want to mix it up
8. We need it to be easier to use the internet in school
9. Invest money in us because we are the future
10. We are prepared to start at the bottom to make our way up
The two additional points were (as far as I can remember):
11. We want to have the choice between coursework and exams
12. We want to have the things we do outside school accredited
Andy Burnham, minister for Culture, responded to the manifesto and answered questions from the floor. He was keen to give the impression that the government took the ideas seriously and made a commitment to providing formal feedback. He was a little lost for words a couple of times in the face of fairly direct questions. One person asked him why the government was persisting with a national curriculum which was felt by many to restrict creativity. Surprisingly, he didn't seem aware of the new national curriculum framework which actively promotes creative thinking both in the PLTS (Personal Learning and Thinking Skills) and the curriculum dimensions.
We came away feeling that the new manifesto might provide us with an opportunity to undertake a similar exercise in school. Our aim now is to get the young people to report back at a staff meeting about creativity next week and announce a plan to create a Manifesto for a Creative Tallis over the coming months. Hopefully this will have a direct impact on our thinking about Key Stage 3 reforms.
Creative Manifesto
Creative Ambassadors from 10 schools have written a ten point manifesto as a mandate for action from the government. 
On Wednesday 26th November from 1-3pm, Tallis students will join 500 young people from across the country in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern to present and debate their Creative Manifesto to a government minister. Over the last two years pupils from 20 Creative Partnerships schools have been discussing what they need in order to enjoy creative and successful futures. 2500 young people have been polled to support these findings.