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Impact

The SHAPE in Schools pilot worked with almost a thousand learners in secondary schools across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England from November 2020 to June 2022. Evaluations from each year detail both the baseline learner attitudes to SHAPE subjects and the positive impact of engaging learners aged 12-14 in workshops designed to increase the visibility of SHAPE and highlight the connectivity between SHAPE subjects and their daily lives.

59% of learners said they found the workshop/s interesting.
42% of learners said the workshop/s increased their enjoyment of SHAPE subjects at school.
44% of learners said the workshop/s had helped them understand how connected SHAPE subjects are connected to each other.
29% of learners said the workshop/s alone had made them more likely to take SHAPE subjects for Nationals of GCSE.

Testimonials

"SHAPE Workshops has been an eye opening and enjoyable experience for our learners; it has allowed them to link subjects together and express their understanding through creative discussions and expressive tasks. The workshops have created an awareness of arts/social-science-based subjects in our school and encouraged pupils to explore subjects from different perspective.”
Meghan Carey, Geography and Modern Studies Teacher Fraserburgh Academy, Scotland
“The workshops developed by SHAPE have enabled our students to explore everyday objects through a synoptic lens and to learn how they connect across different cultures and subjects to develop their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. It has been a privilege to be part of SHAPE and to work in new and creative ways to promote the value and importance of SHAPE subjects in the curriculum.”
Anne Dunkerley, Faculty Lead for Drama and Artsmark Guiseley School, England
“The SHAPE project allowed us to trial some really exciting cross curricular teaching resources. The lessons gave the pupils a completely new starting point that worked across all SHAPE subjects and made them look at these subjects in a completely different way. The object-based learning was particularly of interest to us as a school and we plan to implement it across our subjects to link into our new Curriculum for Wales.”
Henriette Bertheux, Leader of Learning, History Whitmore High School, Wales
“Pupils made masks and were able to connect skills-based learning in the study of English, such as Romeo and Juliet. They remarked it brought the topic to life. Staff were able to link to careers and show how skills are transferable throughout the world. Other pupils engaged on a trip around the world by train and became excited using IT to visit places of interest using Google maps. A very worthwhile project.”
Marguerite Tierney, Director of Curriculum and Creative Development St. Ronan’s College Community, Northern Ireland

Evaluations

SHAPE in Schools – Executive Summary – 2021-22

Conducted by Lucy Jenkins and Tallulah Holley

1.23MB | PDF
SHAPE in Schools – Internal Evaluation – 2021-22

Conducted by Lucy Jenkins and Tallulah Holley

2.35MB | PDF
SHAPE in Schools – External Evaluation – 2020-21

Conducted by  Ondata Research

1.07MB | PDF