Olivia PowellCreative communications agency DRPG has repurposed a school-targeted educational programme launched earlier in the year to support parents homeschooling their children as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.
In January 2020, the DRPG Academy launched its SPARKS campaign to encourage students to engage with the creative industries.
DRPG SPARKS offers free lesson plans, worksheets, videos and presentations to bring the world of the creative agency to life through curriculum-aligned educational content. The programme was designed to help pupils aged 11-16 discover how their school skills can help them to deliver communications projects and explore the creative industry.
The Academy team at DRPG have now repurposed the support material to make it available to clients and a wider audience, so parents can use it to home-school their children during the lockdown.
To help the launch, DRPG has created films of one of its creative directors, ex-teacher Tommy Moore, presenting a full lesson to work through. The videos have been created to allow time to pause and complete tasks and extension activities, and lesson plans are provided to parents to help them further support their children.
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 work carried out at DRPG and how it uses Maths, English, Media, Business, Design and IT skills.
For more information on the SPARKS programme click here.