Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

schools; and (c) an evidence-based approach to the contribution of carnival arts and carnival
education to the development of communication and life skills.
19 - The development of Carnival Sunday into a true Children’s Day event would be greatly assisted
by the establishment of greater links between educational institutions and carnival arts organisations.
Sufficient funding should be made available to NHCT to: (a) create a new post of Carnival Arts
Education Officer with the specific responsibility of liasing with schools, facilitating school-community
partnerships and developing Carnival education resources; (b) establish a Carnival Arts Education
Network, which will act as a forum for information exchange, partnership and curriculum development
between teachers, academics, carnivalists, museums, libraries, schools, community groups and
musicians; and (c) the possible creation of a London Carnival Schools’ Competition. If the Trinidad
model were followed, the competition would have several elements, including a school steel band
competition, calypso competition and costume band competition. The competition would need to
take place at the end of the summer term preceding the Notting Hill Carnival and would provide an
incentive for school-based carnivals, which tend to happen at this time.
“My response to the critics of carnival across the curriculum is this, they obviously have not
experienced carnival, and they are not aware of the complexities that the art form embraces. They
are unaware of the need for this type of learning within the British school system and they cannot see
how the art form is a real opportunity to be totally inclusive for all children no matter what cultural
background they come from.” 88
4.11 The role of the carnival arts education in schools, colleges and the higher education sector has
become a source of much debate since it focuses on multicultural education, Carnival’s place
within society, its value as an acceptable topic for study and the need for black history to be
recognised. Carnival arts can be described as the study, practice and creative development of
specific genres of music, literature, poetry, art, textiles, sculpture and design, which originate
from the ancient rhythms, traditions and cultures of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
The Notting Hill Carnival and carnival arts offer a wealth of possibilities, which cut cross all
subject areas and encompass all age ranges. For those interested in academic study, it is
possible to theorise about carnival, study carnival aesthetics and relate its significance and
growth in historical terms.
4.12 The Notting Hill Carnival is the largest, most complex and significant, as well as spectacular
cultural festival in Britain today. In her submissions to the Carnival Review Group, teacher
trainer, Celia Burgess-Macey, has argued that work on carnival education within schools and
colleges in London has been going on for at least twenty years. This has usually been the
result of the enthusiasm of individual Head teachers, teachers and parents with contacts in
community-based mas camps and steel bands rather than as part of an official educational or
school arts policy. Some schools have successfully developed and implemented a carnival arts
education curriculum with a view to preparing their pupils to participate in the Notting Hill
Carnival and other local Carnivals:
• In 1986, under a Greater London Council sponsored initiative, ‘Caribbean Focus’, William
Patten Primary School in Hackney worked with the Perpetual Beauty Masquerade Band
in order to stage a successful street carnival;
88
Carole Chin, teacher, Stockwell Park Secondary School, South London
141