Food for Thought Dinner

On 1st January 2019 a dinner was held at St Helen's for teachers in the maintained and independent sector, St Helen's alumnae, parents who have jobs in the creative sectors, professionals in the creative arts fields and St Helen's art scholars.

Aims

To gain an understanding of possible openings in the world of work in the creative sector.

Background

A one off event as a staring point to bring together professionals in the field of education and the creative arts with students and alumnae.

Resources

The meal was provided by the St Helen's Executive Chef and the catering team.

The school science atrium, long gallery and atrium were used as the venue.

Impact

After the evening there was a lot of very positive feedback from parents, creative professionals and alumnae.

From a parent: "It's easy to rush through every day from activity to activity, with so much to do and challenges to tackle. But every so often it's lovely to be reminded to stop, think and ponder on questions that might not have occured otherwise-and that's exactly what your evening did for me."

Spins offs from the dinner:

-Currently there are discussions with local schools careers and HE depts about a conference in 2021 for Y10 and L6 students in the maintained and independent schools in and around Abingdon on 'Creative opportunites in new and emerging digital fields'

-Discussions have been held with Roche Court on how art history can be brought into the classroom for pupils in Y5/6.

-A follow up Food for Thought dinner is in the planning for 2021 to bring together many of the threads from 2019.

Pupil Involvement

50 pupils from independent and maintained sector

Frequency

A bi-annual event