Government Schools
Government schools are a great starting point to mainstream inclusion as there is evident acceptance of diversity in learning. Working with them has allowed us to further our efforts of taking creative interventions into schools and touch the lives of a vast spectrum of children.
Given the limited availability of resources and budget allocations, our direct interventions with government schools are largely self funded.
Through Visthar we reached out to the children and educators of Bandhavi, at Koppal where the daughters of Devadasis receive a holistic education. We flagged off impART’s programme for the children and educators of Bandhavi, with a monthly workshop series on Facilitation through the Arts from December 2018 to February 2019. The sessions saw 27 children and 7 facilitators gather and re-imagine their worlds, aspirations and acknowledged their own power to be the change in the Universe. They explored the use of the arts to express their inner landscapes.
We began a programme association with Riddhi Foundation, to focus on using multi-art forms and technology to enrich learning within classrooms for children at the Hulimavu Government School, Bangalore. The various artistic tools to be used include: Music – Voice and Rhythm, Dance and movement, Stories – sharing and creating, Visual arts, Theatre and drama, puppetry and role plays. The aim was to create a platform for peer and socio-cognitive learning.
In 2015-16 the focus was on Class 6. The objective of our work was: To draw Content from English and Science textbooks for Class VI and deliver them using multi-art forms. In 2016-17 the objective of our work was to draw content from English curriculum. We facilitated 20 contact sessions each in English with Grades 6th, 7th and 8th. Sessions were explored using artistic processes like storytelling, dance and movement, and music and theatre to address the language needs.
As a part of this year long program we worked with the Puttenhalli School redesigning a part of their science textbook content artistically. The aim was to address gaps in the language and social domain. The concepts of water cycle, conservation and eco systems were brought to the classroom through movement, voice, visual arts and play. This program was supported by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA).
This program focused on building English language and social domain skills in children (who study through Kannada medium ) at this government school through art and play. It focused on improving confidence and articulation skills among this group of seventh graders.