Chance to See Grants Fund Open
June 28, 2024
Callout for Poets: Rhyme & Reason
September 6, 2024
A poetry and mental health project for secondary schools
We are looking for 5 secondary schools to join an innovative project exploring how the power of poetry can be harnessed to boost wellbeing in young people.
About this project
Recent years have seen turbulent times. A global pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis, coupled with exam and social pressures, have compounded a growing youth mental health crisis.Schools are increasingly being relied upon to provide effective mental health and wellbeing support, and many settings are turning to arts and creativity to address this need.
The Rhyme and Reason project has been created to respond to this demand.
*Steph Lampl Foundation
This opportunity and its benefits
We are looking for 5 secondary schools to take this exciting journey with us. For logistical reasons we are prioritising applications from schools in Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire but any secondary school in North West England is invited to express their interest.
Participating schools will be supported to work alongside creative practitioners and deploy the tried and tested Arts For the Blues* toolkit in non-clinical settings.
Your young people will experience a series of innovative workshops and activities that harness the power of poetry to promote positive mental health; through reading, writing and spoken word. Drawing on the work of inspirational poets, they’ll explore existing pieces which resonate with and give expression to their feelings, hopes, and dreams. They’ll also draw on their own experiences and unique points of view to articulate their thoughts and emotions and unleash their creative and human potential.
A teacher from each of the 5 schools will receive a funded package of specialist training and support from Curious Minds and expert partners. They will work with an early career poet to plan and deliver impactful and fun poetry-led activity for whole class of Key Stage 3 (KS3) and a whole class of Key Stage 4 (KS4) pupils each week over Spring Term 2025.
We are particularly keen to engage with schools who have existing pathways for pupil mental health support, to ensure that pupils can quickly access suitable, specialist assistance if the programme raises issues that cannot be dealt with in a class situation.
*Arts for the Blues
Key elements of the project
This project will take an approach influenced by action research*, and will explore the following question:How can poetry best support and promote the positive mental health and emotional wellbeing of students?
- Arts for the Blues
- Trauma Informed Practice
- Exploring the research question
- Approaches to creative evaluation
The training will take place over a series of individual days plus one overnight residential (for which dates are listed below).
During the second phase of the project, participating schools will work with their assigned poet to plan and deliver poetry activity for their selected cohort of young people.
Schools will receive ongoing support from Curious Minds throughout activity delivery, via both online and in-person sessions. There will also be a minimum of 2 mental health specialist supervision sessions for the teachers and creative practitioners to provide a 'safe space' where teachers and practitioners can share, discuss and think about the work in a confidential, ethical setting.
All participating schools will reconvene during the final phase of the project to reflect on learning and outcomes to develop case studies, which will be disseminated through Curious Minds’ networks, Arts for the Blues and The Steph Lampl Foundation.
*Action Research
Participant schools' commitment
To be eligible to participate in this project, schools must be secondary phase and must be able to commit to planning and delivering poetry-based activity in collaboration with a professional poet practitioner (through action research) that will positively impact the mental health and wellbeing of participating pupils.The poet will spend a half-day each week, during the Spring Term, working alongside the trained teacher to deliver activity to two full classes, one of which will ideally be Year 10.
In addition, schools will be expected to:
- Join Curious Minds for an online half-day induction session. This will bring together participating schools and key partners to provide an overview of the project and introduce action-research based working.
- Attend a full day of Arts for the Blues Training (likely to take place at Salford University).
- Attend at half-day of trauma informed practice training (delivered online).
- Attend a 2-day overnight residential at which the lead teachers and creative practitioners will be up-skilled in trauma-informed practice, and the action research methodology, as well as to allow planning time in their pairings.
- Join Curious Minds at support sessions to check-in on progress through the activity phase.
- Attend a group Evaluation Day to reflect on delivery, outcomes and learning.
- Complete and submit associated evaluation and case study materials.
2024
Online via Zoom
Online via Zoom
Venue: TBC (likely Salford University)
Venue: TBC
2025
Online via Zoom
Online via Zoom
Venue: TBC
Online via Zoom
Venue: TBC
How to get involved
We are delighted to invite expressions of interest from schools keen to join us on this exciting journey.If your setting wished to get involved and can commit to all the compulsory dates outlined above, please complete the online Expression of Interest Form at the link below.
The deadline for submissions is Monday 30 September 2024 at 5:00pm.
Still got questions?
Perhaps your school is outside our geographical area of focus, or you have other questions about this project that you'd like to ask.You're welcome to get in touch with us for a conversation. Email hanna.lambert@curiousminds.org.uk.
