It’s always such a pleasure to welcome our wonderful Artis Specialists to training, seeing the familiar faces and getting to know our new Specialists who have recently joined the panel.

As with all our training days, it was a time for reflection, evaluation and development. Last weekend first year Specialists were effortlessly guided through their morning sessions by the superb Ali Parkin (Scrunch). They shared their first experiences in Artis schools and developed their knowledge, skills and understanding of the craft of planning and delivering exciting and creative sessions.

Our continuing Specialists plunged straight into a wide variety of skills sets. Cheryl McChesney (Curve) kicked off the day with a high-energy masterclass on using breakdance. Practising our ‘triple-step’ and ‘top-rock’ helps enhance our balance and coordination, and can be a powerful tool in actively teaching many parts of the primary curriculum.

Holly Kent (Clip-Clop) delivered a spellbinding session on the use of movement to develop language. She shared her vast experience of supporting EAL learners through her imaginative choreography whilst Laura Sanderson (Raa-Raa) gave practical and creative advice on how to make the most of limited space.

We were taken on a journey by Rachel Sears (Slosh) who helped us find ways into teaching drama with KS1 before coming together in the afternoon to explore the use of ICT and film in the classroom, led by the enigmatic duo: Ryan Pritchard (Bungee) and Stuart Barter (Chime).