In May 2008 Jon came to work with our school for three weeks as part of the Creative Partnerships Enquiry School project. The focus of the project was to develop speaking and listening through story telling with Year One children. This year group was chosen as 60% of the children had limited English and half of them had only recently arrived in this country, such a group, therefore, presented a huge challenge.

Jon shared his great expertise, ideas and boundless enthusiasm to develop the project during both the planning and implementation stages with our children and staff. Since the project has been completed, Jon has continued to help and has advised us on the development of our multi-media resources.

Jon has a caring, open and friendly personality which makes him easy to work with and has built up excellent relationships with the children, students on work experience and all members of staff. He also delivered valuable inset training for all staff, sharing his expertise so that the knowledge gained would be sustainable as staff would develop their own multi-media projects.

Working with Jon as part of Creative Partnerships was a fantastic experience for everyone at our school. His infectious enthusiasm caught the imagination of the children and the staff. All of the children wanted to ‘talk’. They were so proud of their achievements and gained so much satisfaction from their work, it was a delight to witness their pleasure and enjoyment.

Thank you Jon

Karen Garnett
Assistant Head

Rob James
Year One Teacher

Video is a great tool for the exploration of space and place. arc architecture centre for Hull and the Humber Sub-region works with Cafe Society on the facilitation of schools projects.

For the ‘Shaping Our Place’ project pupils conducted research into the effect of good and bad design on learning and school community. Working with arc and Cafe Society the pupils created a video, documenting their school environment and making recommendations as to how the design of schools could be improved.

Video proved to be a dynamic and immediate communication media, that the young people could have a large degree of hands-on control of. The videotography support that Cafe Society brought to the project enabled a variety of participants to explore architectural and environmental themes, whilst developing transferable skills in new technology and communication.

The team worked behind and in front of the camera to produce a final edit to be distributed to their School Governors and the Local Education Authority. The professional product was edited by Cafe Society and the young people.

Gillian Dyson – Head of Learning, arc Architecture Centre

Over a number of years, BBC Learning ran a successful pilot community learning initiative across East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire.

Cafe Society proved to be an invaluable and respected partner for digital media project delivery, with a particular strength in the engagement of hard to reach youth audiences. High impact, imaginative and creative pieces of work were testimony to the understanding, patience and recognition of the challenges faced when working with young people.

The strength and diversity of skills within Cafe Society also provided continued professional development support to teachers in schools across the region on the use of digital media. Teacher evaluations and the subsequent cascade and introduction of new skills in teaching and learning had a positive impact back in school.

Cafe Society’s uniqueness is it’s seamless and relaxed approach to learning and development. Creativity and participant lead ideas are very much encouraged, supported and developed resulting in extremely high quality content and wonderful experiences for all involved.

Paul Corcoran : BBC Learning Project Manager Sep 2008

I have known Jon for a number of years, whilst I have been working as an Advanced Skills Teacher for Citizenship in Hull, based at Winifred Holtby School Technology College on Bransholme.

I had heard of Jon’s reputation whilst the school was engaged with a number of artists through Creative Partnerships and as school coordinator, I engaged him to complete a transition project that had stalled. He injected energy and a connection with our students that gave them the confidence to finish the work in an innovative and fresh way……their way.

I naturally had to use him again, and through Creative Partnerships, used Cafesociety as often as possible, building upon his work in Sierra Leone to enhance the confidence and literacy skills of Year 9 students, taking risks with the material and trusting the students. They repaid us by presenting a workshop at a national CP conference, reflecting Jon’s “can do” approach to problems.

He has since worked with History students on the Making an Impact project, other literacy work within the school and is known by many of the students. Jon has also begun CPD work with a number of staff on Adobe software.

He is committed to digital storytelling and we still have the aim of Hull Schoolchildren having the opportunity to “say who they think they are”.

Finally, I have passed Jon’s name to a number of other schools in my work as an AST, and the feedback to me is always the same…..high standards, innovative and willing to take risks.

Lance Boanas.
Advanced Skills Teacher.
Winifred Holtby School – Hull.

I am writing to thank you for the project work that you have carried out with our students during the last four years.

As you know we try and introduce new experiences and skills for our students on a regular basis. This is something that all schools do to enrich the curriculum, but for us such programmes have a special importance as the Seychelles islands are physically very remote. Within this context we have welcomed a good many facilitators over the years, but your contribution to developing this ‘added value’ curriculum has been unique.

Students working under your supervision have benefited so much. Many of them have taken the skills acquired further, to tertiary institutions for example. This is not just an issue of familiarity and competence with technology, although I must say that the manner in which you encourage confident and effective use of sophisticated equipment is exceptional. It is also an issue of enabling creative thinking and problem solving. Students working with you become better at responding to challenges and working as part of a team to resolve difficulties. They think ‘outside the box’ and are able to layer developments in terms of imagery, sound, concept and style. They can create professional products whilst maintaining a strong personal commitment to the content. I have noticed additional skills imported into the formal curriculum following involvement with Café Society projects, particularly in the areas of Art and Design and Literature.

Further, I must praise the way in which you engage with students; never patronising, sensitive to their agenda, but also clear about the need to produce work and create experiences that they feel proud to be part of. Your manner is engaging and productive; in short, the students really like you and enjoy working with you. They are comfortable working with you in your role as a facilitator, they enjoy the humour but are constantly aware of the prioritisation of work; they do not see you as a teacher, and I think that this is an enabling distinction actually! Many of them talk about you and the work that they made with you years after the event; if part of being a successful educationalist is to make an impact and convey sustainable and extendable skills then you certainly qualify.

Looking forward to the next series of workshops, Jon.

Martin Kennedy
Director, International Schools Seychelles