Comments for James Aldridge

Comment on All Framed up & Ready to Go by James

James — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:35:00 +0000

Thanks Gemma, will be good to see you again. I’m going to try and make the artwork as accessible as possible in terms of the high its mounted at. Look forward to getting their feedback!

Comment on All Framed up & Ready to Go by Jemma

Jemma — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:45:16 +0000

Great to see the finished artwork, looking forward to seeing it installed in the bird hides. We are hoping to bring some children along to the launch next week. So it will be interesting to hear their reactions and comments about the artwork, especially as there seem to be some parallels with their interests around collecting in boxes and bags and exploring their own and pre-drawn maps during the project.

Comment on Creative Outdoor Learning - How? Why? and What Next? by James

James — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:55:40 +0000

Hi Jenny, thanks for your feedback, I really enjoy keeping up with your work & play with the children through twitter and your blog.

This school is in a more urban area but has some great school grounds which apparently don’t get used as much as some of the teachers would like. So after an initial provocation of a trip to the College Lake nature reserve for staff and children, we spent these follow up sessions working outside back at school amongst an area of trees and bushes.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you talk about the children at first just wanting/needing to be in the environment, touching and exploring - they need that time don’t they, before they can, as you say, become more focused and purposeful in their investigations.

Unfortunately as an artist working in partnership with schools and pre-schools, you often don’t get the chance to go beyond that initial stage with the children, because of time and money issues and the pressure to create an end product.

Which is why its great to have a continuing relationship with this group of staff and children, and for them to be signed up to more child-initiated ways of working, valuing the process of exploring and learning creatively over time.

Comment on Creative Outdoor Learning - How? Why? and What Next? by James

James — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:45:15 +0000

Thanks for your comments Juliet.
I know that the staff do look at the blog, so I hope that they'll feel free to reply to your question too, it would be good to have their voice here rather than me putting words into their mouths!

Having said that, I know that on days I've not been in school, that the teachers have asked children who were directly involved in these sessions to share their work with their friends by walking with them around the outdoor space and talking about what they have done/explored/made there.

I also know that the teachers collect comments that lead on from sessions, to document any threads running through, for instance when children talk about the initial visits to College Lake or what they saw or did there and how that links or relates to other activities back at school.

We've also had discussions with individual teachers who may want to take time to work with smaller groups of children over a few sessions themselves, to follow up on particular lines of enquiry or interests observed in the children.

One of the teachers commented that for her a lot of the impact hasn't so much been on the children but on her own professional development, in exploring how to work in a more child-initiated way, to step back a little more and observe.

Comment on Creative Outdoor Learning - How? Why? and What Next? by jenny @ let the children play

jenny @ let the children play — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:55:54 +0000

I found this post really interesting to read - I’m always on the lookout for schools and preschools that incorporate the natural environment into their program - I teach 3-5 year olds and we are lucky enough to have a preschool surrounded by beautiful bush that we take the children out into most days. We find that as the year progresses and the children become more and more familiar with the environment that their play becomes more focused and purposefully and branches out in ways that it doesn’t at the beginning of the year. It is like they move from “what is this place?” to “what can I do in this space?”.

Comment on Creative Outdoor Learning - How? Why? and What Next? by Juliet (aka CreativeSTAR)

Juliet (aka CreativeSTAR) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:07:53 +0000

Thanks for an interesting blog post. It sounds like an interesting project that’s worth following. I’m wondering how the teachers are getting on between your visits in terms of building and expanding upon what happens when you are there.

Comment on Ashmead Explorers at College Lake by James

James — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:55:59 +0000

Hi Cheryl, thanks very much for your comments, hope to meet you in person soon…

Comment on Ashmead Explorers at College Lake by Cheryl

Cheryl — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:10:44 +0000

Lovely to see what the children are experiencing in the Early years at my school. I work as the KS1 team leader so it is wonderful to see the opportunities creative partners are providing for the children.

Comment on Ashmead Explorers at College Lake by James

James — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:32:16 +0000

Hi Cat, its always hard to tell exactly what causes differences in behaviour isn’t it? It will be interesting to see how the other two days of sessions pan out with the slightly younger/older children.
The children all had slightly different preferences in terms of ‘tools’ - some were intent on collecting as many stones as possible, others were fascinated by magnifying glasses, and the binoculars were always popular, although I don’t think its not always about using them as we might, as a tool to see things better, but sometimes just to explore a new piece of equipment or to play a specific role within a group… interesting!

Comment on Ashmead Explorers at College Lake by James

James — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:28:30 +0000

Thank you Katie, I really appreciate the feedback, and am pleased to have been of use for your project!