Art is for All Erasmus Project

Project Title

Art is for All

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

‘Art is for All’ (AIFA) is a project based on the use of performing arts, visual arts/design and craft, literature, culture, and online, digital and electronic arts to improve the health and wellbeing of all staff and pupils in our schools.

The project is inspired by a Health Evidence Network synthesis report on arts and health, published by the WHO in November 2019. The study collected data from 900 different publications over a 19-year span and found that art has positive overall effects for mental and physical health at all stages of life: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/412535/WHO_2pp_Arts_Factsheet_v6a.pdf?ua=1

Plascrug School – Wales, C.P. “Atalía” – Spain and Kleeblattschule Wehretal – Germany have been working together on ‘Run, Jump, learn’, a successful Erasmus+ project which focusses on developing health and wellbeing through incorporating physical activity across the curriculum. They are joined in AIFA by Salaskóli – Iceland. All partners identified a shared need to further develop the health and wellbeing of pupils, particularly in light of increasing bullying and other anti-social behaviour, increased use of ‘screen-time’ and pupils’ inability to deal with external factors. They recognised that this can have a negative effect upon pupils’ health and wellbeing and often leads to an inability to engage with mainstream education effectively.

By the end of the two-year project, our objective is that ‘all members of teaching staff in our schools will have the confidence and skills to provide a range of creative and cultural opportunities to support the development of health and wellbeing health in our pupils.’ Progress towards this objective will be measured by staff questionnaires throughout the project.

Each partner school will host a Learning, Teaching and Training event and provide training in their area of expertise in relation to the five areas of art identified by the WHO report. Visiting schools will also participate in classroom observations, assemblies and conduct small art activities with pupils. Activities have also been planned throughout the year to coincide with the five areas of art and will include pupils, staff, parents and the wider community. Results will be shared on a public blog. For example, each school will hold a European Art Exhibition and a collaborative ‘catalogue’ will be posted on the blog. Schools will also engage in an arts project with a local group in the community and will create products to sell at an entrepreneurship fair. Pupils will use ICT to create videos of songs in different languages and animations. We will hold a creative writing competition and share book reviews with a focus on empathy.

Examples of good practice will be shared on the blog, resulting from LTTs or other, relevant projects in schools. Plascrug School is a Lead Creative School working with the Welsh Arts Council on a number of projects and is a Pioneer school in the development of the Health and Wellbeing area of learning in the new Welsh curriculum. C.P. “Atalía is a British Council school and is working on a Kandinsky project to link art, music and mood. They also use performing art in the teaching of language. Kleeblattschule Wehretal is involved in a project with the Hessia state music academy and pupils take part in circus school. Salaskóli follows a health programme based on the Ottawa Charter of the WHO and is a Google and Unesco school.

Approximately 1,600 pupils will be involved in our project, aged 3 – 11. All members of staff in our schools will take part, with approximately 60 different members of staff attending learning and training events.

Expected results from our project meet three of the ET2020 objectives: ‘improving the quality and efficiency of education and training’; ”promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship’; ”enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training’. Pupils will be more engaged in their learning, thus developing key competencies including ICT. Activities will address issues of social inclusion, will be undertaken collaboratively with other groups in the community and will be accessible to all pupils. Working cross-nationally will result in participants developing a stronger sense of European Identity.

The impact of our cooperation will have long lasting effect. Practices will be embedded in school routine and ethos, positively impacting health and wellbeing of pupils and staff in our schools long after the current pupils and staff have moved on. Participants will gain an appreciation of the impact of art on health and wellbeing and this, together with the acquisition and development of key competences and higher awareness of a European identity, will have long lasting effects upon their future educational and working life. This is in line with the Europe 2020 strategy and the Erasmus+ programme objective.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 82330 Eur

Project Coordinator

Plascrug Community School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Salaskóli
• C.P. “Atalía”
• Kleeblattschule Wehretal