Nettleham Church of England (Aided) Junior School hqs taken part in a unique and innovative national education programme entitled ‘Sonic Postcards’, which uses the environment as the inspiration for creative arts and ICT activities.

Sonic Postcards is aimed at young people (aged 9-14) in Primary (Year 5 and 6), Secondary Schools (Years 7 and 8) and Special Schools. It involves schools throughout the UK, taking place in contrasting regions and locations each term.

Over the course of the three-year life of the project, approximately 3000 students, 100 schools and 336 teachers will take part in the project. Schools in contrasting settings will be paired with the aim of highlighting the difference between urban, suburban, coastal and rural settings.

Each workshop is led by highly skilled workshop leaders employed by Sonic Arts Network and local to the area.

Each Sonic Postcards project ends in the showing of works for the whole school and the exchange of sonic postcards via the internet.

Run by national sound and technology organisation, ‘Sonic Arts Network’, the project aims to explore and compare the local sound environments of young people right across the UK.

Our students are exploring their local soundscape (comparable to landscape), creating journals, maps and digital videos from sounds they hear around them in their everyday environments – for example on the street, walking through leaves, next to a river or on the bus.

All 64 Year 6 pupils at Nettleham are taking part in the project over November and December which is led by composer Duncan Chapman and film maker Stewart Collinson. Both are artists with a wide range of experience of working within education and their own art form nationally and internationally.

Using digital music technology on computers and digital video, pupils then become sound and image designers themselves - making their own sonic postcards using computer software.

The project then encourages schools to exchange the completed postcards with other schools via broadband internet connections, gaining a unique insight into their own environments and sharing a range of environments with other schools - from the urban inner city to the rural countryside, opening windows on new places, other lives, and different cultures.

Project Co-ordinator Rebecca Laurence, says "Often this is pupils’ first experience of concentrated listening and they surprise themselves with what they hear - suddenly they are tuning in to everyday sounds that are often taken for granted, significantly developing their aural perception of the world. This project is about listening through a partnership of technology and creativity."

Sonic Postcards links a number of curriculum studies at Key Stages 2 and 3, including art, music, geography and ICT, as well as English and citizenship to name but a few and is linked to key government initiatives for e-learning and for the environment.

Headteacher, David Gibbons, says, "This project has developed creativity in so many ways in our school. We have a commitment to developing arts in our school in the widest sense and also a commitment to high quality curriculum provision. With our work on Sonic Postcards we are able to take this to new and exciting levels. The children and staff are experiencing something that really is on the ‘cutting edge’ and levels of creativity and ways of working are emerging that are amazing us all."

The project is supported by £166,190 initial funding from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – the organisation that nurtures UK creativity and innovation.

Sarah Macnee, Learning Director says "At NESTA we are committed to supporting pioneering initiatives that can add real value to the curriculum as well as engaging the public in science, technology and the arts. We are delighted to be supporting the Sonic Postcards project, which has the potential to greatly enhance participants’ learning opportunities in the classroom environment by using ICT in a fresh and imaginative way. It will also encourage greater communication between schools and their communities."