Starcatchers’ Creative Skills Training Programme (commissioned training)

Develop your creative confidence to put expressive arts at the heart of early years practice and create inspirational learning spaces for babies and children.

Our energetic, colourful and fun artist-led sessions will demonstrate how creativity is central to every child’s healthy development and how you can use expressive arts such as music, drama, puppetry, visual art, multi-sensory storytelling and creative movement to:

Facilitate deep learning
Encourage exploration
Develop curiosity, imagination and decision-making skills
Stimulate dialogue, connection and empathy
Enable self-expression (particularly in children who are pre or non-verbal or struggling with difficult emotions)
Support delivery of key policies including Pre-birth to Three and early level Curriculum for Excellence
Improve parental engagement

Starcatchers’ Creative Skills commissioned training can be adapted meet the needs of individual settings. It is generally made up of an introductory session followed by sessions with a practical focus on all or a combination of music, drama, puppetry, visual art, story-telling and creative movement.

Contact heather.armstrong@starcatchers.org.uk for further information.

Starcatchers is Scotland’s National Arts and Early Years Organisation. Our unique artist-led training programme and SQA – Creative Skills – give early years practitioners, educators, students and others who work with babies and young children the confidence and skills to put expressive arts at the heart of practice. Our artists will challenge you to explore your own creativity and demonstrate how music, drama, puppetry, visual art, storytelling, and creative movement can transform learning environments. We build capacity by focusing on: Your own creative confidence – everyone is creative; everyone is an artist. You can inspire, create wonder and introduce new ideas without leading or dominating the creative process. Theory – why creativity is central to every child’s healthy development and how the expressive arts are a vehicle for nurturing and developing this innate capacity to help every child reach their full potential. And practice – how to put expressive arts at the heart of your day-to-day practice and create inspirational learning spaces for babies and children. The Creative Skills core training programme, funded by the Scottish Government, is delivered in Midlothian, Aberdeen, Dundee, North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, and for students in Kelvin College, Glasgow. Creative Skills bespoke, commissioned training can be delivered in any location. For those who complete the Creative Skills training programme, we also offer an SQA-approved level 7 qualification.

Provider Title:
Starcatchers

Contact Number:
0131 2902560

Contact Email:
Catherine.wilson@starcatchers.org.uk

Website:
http://www.starcatchers.org.uk/professional-development

Practical training is delivered by artists specialising in Early Years. Our artists undergo annual training exploring child development, current Scottish ELC policy and workforce developments. Following artists development sessions, Starcatchers has developed a Creative Skills Ethos document to ensure all Creative Skills training sessions take the same high quality approach to the expressive arts in early years practice. As the majority of our training is practical, sessions are visited regularly by Starcatchers core staff to ensure high quality is maintained. Artists also provide lesson plans, and discuss any changes to the content of delivery with the Creative Skills Manager. Participants fill in evaluation/ffedback forms after our shorter training courses, and complete baseline and evaluation questionnaires when taking part in our longer training programmes to ensure the effectiveness of the training. In addition, the SQA qualification is delivered by professional artists and educators, and all coursework and practical assessments are moderated by the Creative Skills Manager as per relevant SQA guidelines.