Transform - National Theatre of Scotland

Last year, during October 2005 and June 2006, the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) delivered the Transform project which worked with over 5000 participants, including primary schools, secondary schools, local communities and businesses, to transform people's perceptions of theatre and their local area. This was done in partnership with four local authorities (North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, East Lothian and Fife), Visible Fictions Theatre Company and Scottish Power Learning.  

Transform allowed schools of ambition to transform their approaches to both creative and enterprising learning.

Planning the project involved consultation with stakeholders, training and development days with NTS creative teams as well as relevant contacts within each local authority. Teachers, pupils and communities were also involved in the planning through the weekly contact sessions.

By bringing these schools together with theatre professionals, communities and local primary schools, the partnerships produce high impact theatre events across Scotland, using the local environment as a backdrop to tell compelling stories.

In each area, a team of four arts professionals, each a specialist in a different art form, planned and delivered a series of workshops. Using East Ayrshire Transform as an example, artists took up residency in a variety of departments through out the project, working with the entire school through the P.E department, English department and drama, opening its doors to the entire community throughout the duration of the project and allowing departments to work together in a way that had not been possible before.

Teachers were able to engage with professional artists and learn directly from them as well as being able to be involved in the entire management and organisation of the project, which in turn gave both pupils and teachers the ownership and the opportunity to:

• Develop confidence and self esteem
• Develop ability and behaviour to lead and operate within teams
• Develop critical and aesthetic abilities and appreciation
• Apply learning in a live and immediate context
• Enthuse and inspire individuals and communities in order to effect positive change.

The funding for each Transform event came from the individual local authorities where a Transform event took place, Scottish Power Learning and the NTS Learn budget.

Costs varied depending on levels of partnership, the ambition, the geographic spread and numbers involved. On average a Transform event cost £60, 708 with local authorities being asked to put in £20,000 and this would cover production material and production staff, resident artist fees, project management, marketing and filming of the event.

Placing arts and creativty at the heart of this learning opportunity, Transform encouraged children and young people to develop the four capacities as described in A Curriculum for Excellence. Transform created enthusiasm and motivation and learning, showed pupils how to communicate in different ways and in different settings, used creativity and developed ideas.

'It was great watching the children free themselves up and then explore and develop in front of us' - Teacher, West Kilbride Priimary School North Ayrshire 'I have learned a lot of things, so many I can't count' - Pupil, West Kilbride Primary School, North Ayrshire

Transform is a learning opportunity from start to finish for all involved and is not just about the end product or performance. For this reason Transform connects directly with young enterprise and entrepreneurial initiatives within schools. Transforming schools, transforming communities, transforming lives.

 

For more information about the Transform events, email Gillian Gourlay, Learning and Outreach Manager at the National Theatre of Scotland or telephone on 0141 227 9231.