Digital creativity and 'hard to reach'

Nowadays, technology allows pupils of all ability levels to create music, blogs, animations, podcasts and videos. Technology for digital creativity is now cheap enough for schools to afford it.
New research commissioned by Becta has shown that when learners have the opportunity to work on digital creativity projects, there are benefits for the learners and improved results for the institution.
In this research project we investigated the use of digital creativity with pupils who had extremely challenging behaviour and often displayed a lack of progress at school. These pupils therefore represent some of the most challenging and ‘hard to reach’ learners in the education system.
In these video clips you will see how digital creativity projects transformed the behaviour and attitudes of a wide range of ‘hard to reach’ learners.

1A More investment please

Doug Bone, Headteacher at Wandle Valley School, calls for further investment in the digital creativity approach.

1B Pupils training teachers

Doug Bone, Headteacher at Wandle Valley School argues that there is a role for pupils to train teachers in using the technology

1C Challenging perceptions

Richard Boyle, Principal at Muntham House School explains the school’s focus on the media and why it is important for his pupils.

1D Management view

John Craig, Headteacher at Lady Jane Franklin School, has found that pupils are more engaged when they take part in digital creativity activities.

1E Keeping safe

Be safe near water. Say no to drugs and don’t talk to strangers. These are just some of the messages that came out of an animated movie made by Year 6 pupils at New Rush Hall.

1F Recognising vowels

If you have ever found it hard to recognise a vowel, you will appreciate the Angry Ant animation. This resource, designed by a Year 6 pupil, shows an ant wearing boxing gloves who gets into a fight with the letter ‘a’. Creating this animation helped to improve his reading skills.

1G Bats...What bats?

Pupils at Wandle Valley School have been using a software package which has pre-recordings of music and other sounds. The pupils have seen the possibilities for adding emotional expression to what they had written.

1H The benefits of teamwork

Many of the young people involved in this video have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They spent hours making their models and then filming the models’ movements – one tiny step at a time.

1I Building confidence through music

Students with no particular expertise in music are making their own music in their classroom at New Rush Hall. The opportunity to publish their music to a website and get feedback in the form of votes has been motivating for everyone.

1J Building confidence

This video, Pencil Kid, shows a pupil at Coxlease School, doing some visual illusions with a pencil. He achieved these effects with an animation programme which he taught himself to use.

1K Engaging learners

Creating opportunities for young people to succeed creatively has been a great way to engage reluctant learners at Lady Jane Franklin School. One pupil was inspired to make a movie about Doctor Who using animation software.

1L Building self-esteem

A Year 11 pupil at New Rush Hall Group read ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’, as part of her GCSE history studies. She felt a strong empathy with Anne, who felt alone in her life. The diary inspired her to introduce her thoughts on Anne’s story into a blog that she created for English.

1M Achieving in many different ways

A digital creativity project to engage hard to reach youngsters had a positive impact on one excluded pupil who was given a laptop to work from home. As a result the pupil seemed to come of age and work seven or eight hours a day.