The CASS Foundation will continue to offer grants of up to $20,000.00 to primary schools for innovative, curriculum-based Creative Arts projects in 2010.
The application process was divided into 2 stages:
1. Schools were invited to submit Expressions of Interest for preliminary assessment by the CASS Foundation, not later than 28 August 2009.
2. From the Expressions of Interest received, the Foundation selected a small number of schools and invited them to submit a more detailed applications.
Final selection of the projects to be funded has been made.
CREATIVE ARTS 2009
In 2009, the CASS Foundation awarded six grants totaling $109,588.00 for curriculum-related creative arts projects in schools. The 2009 grant recipients and their projects are:
Benalla East Primary School, ‘Bentuk Pasir’ (Gargoyles and Dragons); sand sculpture activities linked to the school’s bi-lingual Indonesian program.
Clunes Primary School cluster, ‘Ripon Yarns’; local history interviews and collaborative film making.
Echuca South Primary School, ‘South Animation’; hand-drawn animation and soundtrack presenting the history of Echuca.
Maryborough Education Centre, ‘Rhyme, rhythm and song’; oral language challenges in Prep to Grade 4 through participative music, songs and rhymes.
Migrant Information Centre (Eastern Melbourne), ‘Art Journeys’; art-making on the theme of journeys and cultural identity.
Poowong Consolidated School, ‘Film making’; visual showcase of students’ music, songs and performance.
The Foundation has spent in excess of $1,000,000.00 over the period 2007-2009 to assist several Victorian primary schools to develop and implement programs to address the issues of student engagement.
The report which was the genesis of this funding initiative, "Student Disengagement from Primary Schooling (2004)" was commissioned by the Foundation from Monash University and is available from this website, under "Research Reports".
SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT GRANTS 2007 – 2009
In February 2007, the CASS Foundation awarded a series of substantial three-year grants to Victorian primary schools to support projects devised by the schools to address issues of engagement in schooling.
The project proposals included school residencies by artists, writers and scientists, enrichment programs and buddy schemes focussing on early years’ development, professional mentoring for teachers, and research by student action teams into the reasons why children become ‘switched off’ at primary school. The common emphasis across the projects is on improving student engagement and enhancing learning outcomes.
The participating schools and their projects are:
Dinjerra Primary School, Braybrook ‘Engaging the early years for engagement in the later years’
This project addresses the barriers and learning needs that many students encounter when starting school, and is designed to prevent them becoming alienated and disengaged from schooling at an early stage. A qualified Kindergarten teacher has been appointed to work in collaboration with Prep teachers in a double Prep classroom to identify the developmental needs of each student and to devise appropriate learning strategies. The goal is to create a classroom learning environment that enables students to learn by recognising their physical, social, cognitive and health needs in a comprehensive and integrated manner. The project also features a Year 4-Prep Buddy scheme aimed at integrating the diverse cultures in the school community and building parent involvement.
Keon Park Primary School, Reservoir ‘School Experience Enrichment Program (SEEP)’
In 2007, Keon Park PS revitalised their school climate and curriculum by organising three intensive incursions by Art, Literature and Science specialists. Each visiting specialist conducted activity programs for the whole school which engaged students in enriched learning experiences and expanded their cultural and scientific horizons. Parents were invited to become involved in the life of the school through celebratory events. In Term 2, 2007 ceramic artist, Jane Annois worked with students to create colourful ceramic murals based on classroom topics and themes. In Term 3, popular children’s author, Mini Goss, collaborated with students to write and produce their own high-quality story books. In Term 4, the school hosted science educator, Jenny Arnold, who introduced students to scientific methods of enquiry through an array of interesting experiments using household substances and basic electronic equipment. The school will continue these productive curriculum partnerships with the specialists in 2008 and 2009, withe teachers using the sessions as periods of professional development which has improved their own skills ansd enabled them to undertake the specialist roles.
Lalor Park Primary School, Lalor ‘Giving Students a Voice’
The school engagement project at Lalor Park is based on co-ordinated professional development activities to increase teachers’ skills in curriculum development and delivery using Quality Tools, Multiple Intelligences, ESL, Multi-Literacies and Thinking Curriculum approaches; and to support the classroom implementation of Quality and Thinking tools, the You Can Do It program, Peer Mediation and IT strategies, with the goal of re-shaping the learning environment and providing more individual autonomy for students.
Pender’s Grove Primary School, Thornbury & Preston South Primary School ‘Student Initiatives in Student Engagement –SISE’
This collaborative project between two neighbouring schools is guided by the investigations of a Student Action Team (or ‘SAT’) in each school, comprising a dozen students from Years 4-6. The team conducts research into local issues around engagement and builds an understanding of the concept of engagement from the students’ point of view, and they report their findings back to their grade levels.
In 2007, students developed descriptions of what it means to be ‘switched on’ and ‘switched off’ at school through role plays and they devised a calibrated ‘engage-o-meter’ to measure personal rates of engagement. The respective teams also monitored and graphed rates of engagement across the school day and conducted student surveys about the personal factors influencing engagement which they shared at two joint school workshops. In 2008 and 2009, the student action teams continued to investigate engagement and disengagement in schooling and to develop practical remedies and solutions which they reported back to their peers. At the end of the third year the students compiled and published a booklet including their views and experiences in a novel cartoon format to highlight what they had learned about becoming engaged in their educational program.
St Peter Chanel School, Deer Park ‘ChanelKidsConnect’
ChanelKidsConnect (or ‘KidsCo’) is a co-ordinated activity program designed to build positive relationships between students and a sense of engagement, ownership and connectedness within the St Peter Chanel School community of over 500 students through lunchtime activity classes in areas of interest like dancing, gardening, sewing, scrapbooking, computers, chess, cooking and karate. The project also involves cross-age mentoring activities including a Grade 5-Prep Buddy system; Storytime, a Grade 4-Prep reading scheme; as well as Peer Mediation and leadership training for older students. Teachers are also participating in ongoing professional development in VELS, Inquiry Learning, Assertive Discipline and Thinking Skills.
Further information about the projects is available from the Project Manager, Lyndall Jones.
