With schools closed across the UK and vast swathes of the workforce at home due to lockdown, home schooling has turned parents into teachers and created a new normal that has people juggling home, work and studying to new levels.
With this in mind, creative communications agency DRPG has repurposed a school targeted educational programme that it launched earlier in the year to support parents in their new roles as at-home educators.
In January the DRPG Academy launched its SPARKS campaign to encourage students to engage with the creative industries. DRPG SPARKS offers free teacher lesson plans, worksheets, videos and presentations to bring the world of the creative agency to life through curriculum-aligned educational content. The SPARKS programme was designed to help pupils aged 11-16 discover how they can use their school skills to deliver exciting communications projects and explore the creative industry.
Local schools have been using the online material to provide an understanding of the creative industry for the past few months. Now, during these challenging times, the Academy team at DRPG has repurposed the support material to make it available to clients and a wider audience, so parents can use it at home as part of the new home-schooling wave.
For the launch the team has created films of creative director and ex-teacher Tommy Moore, providing students with a full lesson to work through from home. The videos have been created to allow time to pause and complete tasks and extension activities and lesson plans are provided to parents to further support their children to complete each lesson.
Moore said: "We crafted SPARKS to help pupils realise that their school skills can open the door to amazing careers in industries they love - such as music festivals, vlogging, branding or app building. Our job in the programme is to deliver that lightbulb moment where pupils realise their own unlimited potential. Having worked with pupils with behaviour difficulties and those falling through the gaps in education, I know that Sparks offers the chance to recapture those pupil's attention and help theming their own creative spark."
Each of the six lesson plans is based around the creative work carried out at DRPG and helps pupils see the full potential of their skills in Maths, English, Media, Business, Design and IT.
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
