Press Releases

Serious Play

An evaluation of arts activities in Pupil Referral Units and Learning Support Units

by Anne Wilkin, Caroline Gulliver and Kay Kinder
National Foundation for Educational Research

Published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Price: £8.50 | Paperback | 96 pp | ISBN: 1 903080 04 5

Publication Date: 14 June 2005

Phil Hope MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills, launched Serious Play, a new report from the Gulbenkian Foundation about the importance of arts education for excluded and disengaged pupils, on 14th June at the Commonwealth Club in London.

He said:‘The Foundation has taken a real lead in this, and since they first got involved in promoting these artistic activities back in 1997, this is an initiative which has really taken off across the country. It’s clear that art has an amazing capacity to break down barriers; it can connect with children who often find any kind of learning difficult.’

Serious Play shows how working with professional artists can help to bring excluded pupils back to education. Although education is one of the government’s top priorities, each year over 9,000 children in England alone are permanently excluded from school. Many thousands more are temporarily excluded or at risk, filling Pupil Referral Units and Learning Support Units across the country. Children with a disrupted education are more likely to drop out of the system and have fewer life chances: the challenge for teachers is to re-engage them in learning. Serious Play is the first study to provide in-depth, qualitative evidence of the value of the arts in achieving this. ‘I think any type of arts intervention for our type of student is imperative. I think we need it more than anything…’, claims a PRU teacher.

Why are artists successful with hard to reach children? Because their approach is informal, relaxed and positive and the pupils respect them for being ‘on their wavelength’. Artists are also prepared to listen to the pupils’ ideas. ‘If you have got points of view, they listen to it more, they kind of hear what you are saying and they like take it in and help you,’ explains a pupil. And the arts are different – practical rather than academic, contemporary, allowing children to achieve where before they have always failed. ‘There was no right or wrong, there wasn’t an ideal that they all had to meet, so there were lots of ways they could enter into it and they did,’ says a teacher.

Twelve-year-old ‘Andrew’ is a case in point. Excluded from school for a year, he became involved in his PRU arts project and discovered that he had a real talent for dance. ‘I reckon I have got some talent … when most people do it first time, not many people can do it, but it takes me once or twice to get it right,’ he says proudly. Enthusiastic and confident about his new-found skills, he is mixing more with other pupils in his group, even helping them ‘do the warm ups and stuff’, and his attendance improved for the term of the project.

Or there is ‘Adam’, a Year 8 pupil attending an LSU for self-esteem and anger-management issues, whose involvement in a music and drama project gave him the opportunity to express himself and realise his potential. ‘He really just absolutely shone that weekend,’ his teachers commented. This had a significant impact on his attitude and behaviour at school: ‘he has the ability to sit and talk things through more now, he’s not been in trouble for ages.’

Teachers were unanimous in their belief in the cost-effectiveness of arts projects. As the head of an arts organisation said: ‘For three hours the artist is £100. To put one person in prison costs £300 a day. I think the pupils gained so much out of the project that it will have inspired them not to go down that route and that they have the ability and the skills to do other things than stealing, or getting into drugs, or whatever.’ But it’s not always easy. The research – carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) – highlights the challenging behaviour teachers face: ‘Each time that they come in they are in a different emotional state of mind, so some days you can achieve a tremendous amount with all of them, or there will be one young person who has got their own problem and will impede their progress during that session.’

Simon Richey, Assistant Director, Education, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, comments: ‘Young people in PRUs and LSUs often experience difficulties that are not easily remedied in the short term. For many of them, ‘short-termism’ – the movement from one institution to another, interrupted relationships – may quickly become a way of life. An arts intervention can serve as a counterweight to this and provide constancy and continuity for those young people who are most in need of it.’

For further information, review copies and/or photographs please contact: Felicity Luard or Louisa Hooper
Tel: 020 7908 7604, Fax: 020 7908 7580
E-mail: info@gulbenkian.org.uk

Serious Play is available through booksellers in the UK or can be ordered from Central Books:
E-mail: orders@centralbooks.com
Website: www.centralbooks.co.uk

Key Findings from Serious Play

Arts projects provide pupils with a positive experience of schooling. They get a ‘buzz’ from participating, which has a positive impact on behaviour and application.
'I think it is a very important way of working with these young people, it doesn’t matter how you are doing it, it is about tapping into what they are interested in. If you can find something that they are interested in and you can hold their attention span, you can hold them and their interest and their motivation, and then you can move them forward' (teacher, PRU project).

Arts-based projects work because they are practical rather than academic; contemporary and relevant to pupils’ own interests; allow pupils to express themselves; and focus on developing the whole child, particularly his/her sense of self.
‘It’s the sort of thing these kids need. They’ve failed in other ways and they haven’t got the support that some of us have got at home and, from that angle, they can do their own thing and produce something that they are proud of’ (teacher, PRU project).

Artists rarely talk down to pupils – they value their ideas and achievements. This has a significant impact on pupils’ self-confidence and self-esteem.
‘I would say where young people felt valued … so their behaviour and their whole attitude towards [the arts activity] were very different from how their behaviour would be in school’ (arts coordinator, LSU project).

Participation in arts projects helps with communication skills (particularly listening) and pupils learn to interact better with each other and their teachers.
'Letting us work together and all that and we could talk – being let loose if you know what I mean, whereas at school you all just sit there and listen' (pupil, LSU project).

The knowledge, skills and attitudes that pupils develop through participation in arts projects are transferable to other areas of the curriculum and can help with a general re-engagement with learning.
'For some of them, it actually exhilarated them and lifted them up out of the stupor or the tawdriness of everyday life and let them think about what they could possibly be – it let them dream' (teacher, LSU project).

Short-term projects provide undoubted benefits, but they cannot provide evidence of long-term effect. To assess any lasting influence on pupils’ lives, arts activities would need to be a regular part of the curriculum and be properly funded.
'If you are actually targeting young people at risk and you are trying to make a difference, then I think we are talking about small numbers and probably lots of money … but, in terms of cost-effectiveness, if you are actually looking at being able to turn a young person’s life around, then it’s very valuable to promote that approach' (head of arts organisation, LSU project).

Notes to Editors

1. Also published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation:
   Creating Chances: Arts interventions in Pupil Referral Units and Learning Support Units by Richard Ings (2004). This series of impressionistic accounts conveying the day-to-day realities of arts residencies, has had an excellent response from the education and arts communities: ‘We found this report to be extremely informative.’ Creative Partnerships; ‘A joy to read… I am taking some of the ideas from Creating Chances for some of our artwork…’ Headteacher, PRU.

2. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) has advocated the development of arts projects in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and Learning Support Units (LSUs) through its Education Programme since 1997 – by funding a range of arts projects and by supporting strategic initiatives with a focus on training, networks, evaluation and dissemination. Its First Time Projects Scheme (in partnership with Arts Council England and with support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) has attracted a total of 350 applications, dispensed £135,000 in grant aid and assisted nearly 50 projects throughout England.

3. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is the leading independent educational research institute in the UK. Its overall mission is to contribute to the improvement of education and training nationally and internationally by undertaking research, development and dissemination activities and by providing information services. Its work is especially geared to meeting the needs of policy-makers, managers and practitioners within the public system. For more information visit www.nfer.ac.uk.

4. Anne Wilkin is a Senior Research Officer with the Northern Office of NFER. She has worked on projects involving research into pupil disaffection, family and adult literacy, special educational needs and professional development. Caroline Gulliver is a Research Officer at the NFER’s Northern Office. She has contributed to studies on pupil disaffection and vulnerability, as well as school funding. Kay Kinder is a Principal Research Officer and deputy head of the NFER’s Northern Office. Formerly a primary teacher, she has extensive experience of research into pupil disaffection, the arts and professional development.

5. Serious Play is published by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on 14 June 2005 in paperback, priced at £8.50.

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