From the residential programme to the PGCert: Anna’s Story
Hear from a member of our community, Anna Wallace, about how the residential programme transformed her thinking and led her to pursue our Postgraduate Certificate.
Participating in Plan, Prepare, Provide (the art teachers’ residential) and later the PGCert was, for me, a transformative experience. Having the opportunity to foster creativity and collaboration with a community of like-minded educators, firstly reignited my passion for teaching and the arts and secondly helped me to silence the voice of ‘imposter syndrome’ that haunts most of us.
I live in Yorkshire, but I am from Staffordshire (the creative county) my background is from a small pit village in Stoke-on-Trent, this is where I spent the first 20 years of my life. My family history is working-class who, like most families in Stoke, were factory workers in the ceramics industry.
In 2000 I attended the University of Wolverhampton where I studied a BA in Three-Dimensional Design with a focus upon Ceramics. Having always had a love of art and creating, this seemed a natural progression, or perhaps it was in my blood?
My career started in 2003 as a secondary school teacher of Art and Design and so, for the last 21 years I have worked as a teacher and senior leader in secondary schools across West Yorkshire.
The contexts of the schools I have worked in are areas of high deprivation, low social mobility, poor housing, and areas where greatly relied upon services, such as Sure Start, were terminated. Families of many young people live in polluted environments, poor housing conditions and in areas where crime is on the increase (notably violence and sexual offences).
Improving their lives and supporting these young people has been the driver for me in my career. But somewhere along the way my confidence had declined, not as a teacher but as someone who could stand up (in front of peers) to share activism and challenge imbedded ways of working – who do I think I am? Perhaps this was due to my working-class guilt, I have always internalised social-biases and doubted my potential. As someone once described me – like a duck floating across the water, with its legs paddling furiously beneath. Or, perhaps I had finally felt deflated from spending so many years seeing societies most vulnerable, and most precious, stuck in the cycle of deprivation (particularly after covid). The opportunity to apply for the Plan, Prepare, Provide residential came at just the right time for me in my career – Gosh this is all a bit bleak! Things can only get better……..
I remember on day 2 of the residential, we were challenged to consider what an art-based curriculum would look like? Anne-Louise and Abigail had sparked the call to Art activism on the first day and everyone in the room was already buzzing with ideas.
Then, the above question flies in from Anne-Louise ….. and blew my mind! Are they suggesting that Art could be ‘whole school’? Can you imagine, what would an art-based curriculum look like? This led to so many questions; How could art be used as a catalyst for curriculum change and challenge content delivery? How could Art support students (whose cognitive load is already overloaded before they step a foot over the school threshold) in an education system that is built upon a child’s ability to remember? How could Art improve memory & retention?
And so, my PGCert project was born – I just didn’t know it yet.