UP Educators
We understand that each education setting, your staff and your children are unique and we’d love to work with you to tailor our professional offering to your needs. Our offering is both unique and bespoke. Yet, affordable and accessible for you.
Our steering group of handpicked UP Educators meets monthly to discuss differing needs of the sector and our local children. We are a group of mixed ability, mixed demographic, experienced people who have worked with children at the heart of our learning programmes. UP Educators have attracted some of the UKs leading professionals in Early Years and those with decades of textile art experience in Higher Education to form a committee of advisors who can consult creatively to really get the best from and for your children.
We meet like no other group, with an activity and purpose to discuss the immediate and long term needs of our children, parents and teaching staff. Our current educators have both an overarching view of the National Curriculum at differing levels and age groups and an immediately relevant team of educators currently in a variety of education settings.
“The UP Educator Programme principle focus is People and Planet.
We empower young people using tangible life skills in a sustainable way.“
If you are in active service in an educational setting, retired with experience or looking for a career in eductaion, you can apply to join the committee or extended membership for access to meetings online. Please complete a volunteer form stating your interest in UP Educators.
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ACTIVITY BASED WORKSHOPS
Our network of fully trained, insured and DBS checked facilitators have a vast skill set and wealth of experience upon which to draw. Our collaborators have been chosen as such because they combine both the artistic talents and the ability to offer the patience, imagination and dynamism required to make all arts accessible to all people.
Capable of thinking on our feet, we have handpicked artists who can be versatile in our approach and are able alternate activities to suit the group before us. We prefer to keep workshops at a small enough ratio of artist to pupil so we are really able to respond to the reactions of the pupil, tailoring the activity to individual needs and getting the best possible impact from everyone in the room.
Workshops are absolutely planned to your needs.
You may be a traditional school setting, young people youth group, a charity or organisation working with young people, a parent wanting to expand your child’s interaction with the environment. We have experience of and developing relationships with all kinds of wonderful alternatives to the norm and excel in bringing out the best in all abilities. Your artist provider will be chosen to suit you, your needs and your project vision.
Workshops can be indoor or outdoor, online or in person.
They can be a one off or a three year programme.
We can send resource packs in advance or pre learning information for your preparation and set a series of projects after ward. We would like you to think of us as creative inspiration.
We have the upcycled resources and volunteers to determine your needs and develop the programme to fulfil them.
We have experience of running workshops alongside;
- Elderly service users from DeafBlind UK with varying ability to see and hear.
- Vulnerable adults and children with multiple complex needs.
- Children on Special Education Needs Register.
- Children with additional support needs.
We currently have bookings for a Multiple Session Key Stage 2 Schools Programme including visit with local schools and can facilitate more in the Academic Year 20/21.
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MINWORTH JUNIOR AND INFANT SCHOOL CASE STUDY
YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR PLANET
It is often said that humans are the virus upon the Earth. We need to respect our home and the key to this is individual habitual change. You can learn more in our UPLab who concentrate on sustainable development for the arts and textile industries.
We have a duty to protect our home for our children. Our young people will currently inherit a huge environmental burden and we should acknowledge and inform them of that so they can be the change we need to see.
We would love to develop a network of Eco and Creative Councils could you help us make this a reality? We have a network of local schools interested in running for a place on our Eco Schools Creative Council and it can be tied in with your Eco School and Green Charter agendas to reinforce what we do on a practical level in Birmingham.
How do we get started?
- We can provide you with a session online or in person to engage with the reality of fast fashion and what it is doing to our planet.
- Interested students will be invited to create their own report/video/presentation addressing what they think is the biggest issue for the environment they live in and how they would deal with it.
- UP Educators will come together virtually to evaluate.
- We will choose two children from each school to represent the Eco Schools Creative Council.
- We will engage in a series of virtual meets where we can agree with the children which to tackle and in which priority order.
- We will put together resources and instruction video tutorials alongside the UP educators team and children.
- The resources will be rolled out to the schools.
- Celebration and IMPACT outcomes.
This is a fabulous way of engaging the children in out of school learning. Every online purchase, birthday gift or walk can be planet conscious and tied in with the national curriculum.
We also work with non-traditional school and education settings, including home schooling networks locally and non-mainstream schools. Please take a look at UP Greenspaces for more information about Forest Schools.
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INTERGENERATIONAL SKILL SHARING
We are an approved service in the directory for Age Concern Birmingham and would love to join the dots to connect young people with older generations as families are growing apart geographically the art of respecting our elders is dwindling. Older people are stating they are alone, lonely and in need of company. Young people have the energy and can learn much from those who have seen it before them. There is a natural need for both sets of people to be brought together and we can facilitate that through art.
We work with charities with a huge variety of service users, old and young, we are looking into intergenerational skills sharing!
We can engage you with the arts, the environment, history, science and all while promoting sustainable fashion through upcycling. Be it making useful pieces for themselves which they will actually use or as part of a united effort to make our living environments a little more beautiful.
If you would like to discuss your needs please contact us at info@theupcreativecommunity.org