With schools closed across the UK and vast swathes of the workforce at home due to lockdown, home schooling has become the new norm turning parents in to teachers and creating a new normal that has people juggling homelife, work and studying to new levels.
With this in mind, creative communications agency DRPG has repurposed a school targeted educational programme that they launched earlier in the year, to support parents in their new roles as at home educators.
DRPG has always believed in nurturing the next generation of talent, whether it be through work experience, educational talks, apprenticeships or even charitable giving via sponsorships. Learning and development is embedded in their company culture and in January 2020, the DRPG Academy launched their 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 exciting 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 amazing and exciting communications projects and explore the creative industry.
Local schools have been using the online material to complement lessons and provide an understanding of the creative industry for the past few months. Now, during these challenging times, the Academy team at DRPG have been working hard to repurpose 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.
To help the launch, they have created films of one of their Creative Directors, Tommy Moore an ex-teacher, 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.
DRPG creative director, Tommy Moore spearheaded the initiative and its repurposing during the Covid-19 crisis, “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. Now it can be used as a great resource for parents at home to help inspire their children in these strange times.”
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.
The lessons include:
English:
Explore how writing online works, what makes you found by Google and how to make a killer blog or vlog using cutting edge digital English.
Business studies:
Discover how to ideate, plan, deliver and measure a marketing campaign that makes a difference on a global scale.
Design:
Think you’ve got what it takes to make people think and feel differently? Explore how design can really shape brands, products and services.
Maths:
Want to plan the next Glastonbury, Reading or Coachella? Discover how maths makes a big difference when it comes to putting on an unmissable show.
Digital:
What makes people love Uber, Google or Spotify? We explore how UX (User Experience) is a game changer in the digital world.
Media studies:
Uncover the art of the viral video. Learn the pro skills and attributes needed to take your video to the top of the viewing charts.
For more information on SPARKS CLICK HERE to check out our latest broadcast and to access the programme CLICK HERE.