CREATIVE RESONANCE – Connection, Creativity and Education

The series highlights the innovative solutions that exist to address the harm being done to children by the out dated industrial models of education. There are alarming increases in children experiencing anxiety, stress & depression with suicide being the largest cause of deaths of 15 – 24 year olds. The current model of education is not serving our children or their future. Combined with children’s addiction to technology, it has resulted in parents, educators & students feeling bewildered and disempowered.
The series is designed to powerfully counteract this through in-depth accounts of examples of countries and schooling systems that are successfully supporting the wellbeing and resilience of children, along with real life stories of children and families struggling to create a better future. It highlights that we all have a responsibility to act in making children’s wellbeing & their access to a positive new education a priority and that every action, however small, is critical.

The vision of CREATIVE RESONANCE is to
• Change educational policy so that children’s present & future well being & resilience is a key priority.
• Get parents and society to change the way they view education shifting from narrow focus on academics to well being & positive self esteem.
• Enable quality arts education to be available to all children.
Resonance’s impact vision aligns with OECD Pisa’s 2030 Education Vision for wellbeing, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration & innovation.

CREATIVE RESONANCE will increase people and society’s awareness of the need and how to make children’s wellbeing and resilience a priority in both school and in the home.

Short-term outcomes
• Increase in number of children, schools and families accessing the series' Schools Action Toolkits - the ' 'Meaningful Values' Toolkit and 'For Arts Sake 'Toolkit – that will help children to develop wellbeing, resilience and self-esteem.

Medium-term outcomes

• Continued increase in number of children, schools and families accessing the series' Schools Action Toolkits to promote well being and resilience programs and quality arts rich education programs as an integral part of the school curriculum available to all schools.

Long-term outcomes
• New positive roadmaps of education where children, family and society’s well being are key priorities and that parents & society are ongoing advocates for making this a priority.

We have established an extensive network both in Australia and internationally of experts who have helped inform the project and can help access our target audience. In Australia, Jan Owen, Foundation for Young Australian. In UK: Professor Dr Anne Bamford, Strategic Education and Skills Director, Anne oversees 173 schools in the inner London area. Anne has successfully implemented arts rich transformations in all of these schools. Christopher Clouder, Co-founder, Alliance for Childhood, E.U Christopher has established lobbyist at European Parliament. In Finland: Irmeli Halinen, Head of National Curriculum Development, 2004 – 2016, Educational Consultant to OECD, Finland, Anneli Rautiainen, Head of Innovation Unit, Finnish National Agency for Education - Anneli expressed interest both the film series & the toolkits. In the USA Gordon Shukwit, Director, Apple Education Worldwide expressed interest in our meeting in working with the project through the Apple Education Worldwide Network.

The actions the viewers want to take after seeing the film series are

1. Getting more people, advocates and organizations to screen the series – hosting screenings in their school and communities to enable parents and society to change the way they view & offer education.

2. Increase in schools using ‘Meaningful Values’ Toolkit to enable introduce well being and resilience of children to be a key priority.

3. Increase in schools using ‘For Arts Sake’ Toolkit to increase quality arts rich education.

4. Integrate arts education and arts in education practices in curriculums following examples of Finland, UK and Malta. These countries have both increased specific arts education and implemented arts in education practices where pedagogic artists are paired with core subjects teachers of English, Maths and Science to facilitate innovative arts based approaches across the curriculums.

4. Get policy makers and government to see the films & action policy changes.

The indicators for success of CREATIVE RESONANCE
Short term
• Increase in number of people who've seen the film series & support the campaign.
• Increase in number of schools, parents & students who are utilizing the Toolkits. E.g. In the first year we plan to have 50 NSW schools with 4,000 children & families participating in ‘Meaningful Values’ programs. We have already 20 primary & high school principals in the Northern Rivers interested in the program.
Medium Term
• Increase of uptake of schools and students accessing the ‘Meaningful Values' Toolkit e.g. In the second & third years we plan to have 200 schools with 16,000 children & families participating in the programs.
• Increase in schools utilizing & implementing ‘For Art’s Sake’ Action Toolkit e.g in two – three years we plan to have 100 schools transformed by prioritizing arts rich curriculums.
Long-term outcomes
• Wellbeing & quality arts rich education integrated as foundational aspects of educational curriculums.