This week, the historic Bristol Old Vic hosted our Energiser Fund learning event. Early years practitioners, artists, academics and programme leads all gathered to celebrate and reflect upon the first year of the Energiser Fund. 

The Energiser Fund supports 11 organisations with a three-year grant to deliver co-created programmes with 2-4 year olds. We gathered to share learnings and experience some of the imaginative early years sessions our partners are delivering across the country.

Reflecting on one year of the Energiser Fund through collage

The event opened with Vanessa Stansall, an early years music teacher, producer and researcher with Creative Futures and Sound Connections, sharing her thematic analysis of the fund’s first year. 

Vanessa had been exploring the question What is co-creation?. Though the work delivered by the Energiser Fund partners is diverse - some common elements have started to emerge. Co-creation can be seen as open-ended work which embraces curiosity, possibility thinking and risk. It is a collaborative process where children are seen as competent and adults are responsive and attuned to them. In order to co-create safety and trust must be built, and this important work takes time. 

We'll be sharing in more detail the findings from Year 1 in an online session on 25 November. 

In the discussions different organisations expressed that co-creation is not a simple procedure or list of rules to be followed. It is a process, a live question, something that must be practised, tested and reflected upon in real time. 

Each organisation created a collage as a creative expression of how their first year of the fund had gone. It can be easy to forget to practise what we preach, but every group embraced creativity and play to reflect on their work. Many noted that making the collages echoed the experience of co-creation itself: dialogue, collaboration, improvisation, and openness to one another’s ideas and feelings.

Co-creation with early years can be difficult to define. By the end of the discussion, it felt important to acknowledge that everyone is working within this uncertainty – and that the uncertainty is valuable. It creates the flexibility needed to follow children’s interests and let them truly lead.

Playing for practitioners – Bristol Old Vic’s Create Space Project

The final session of Day 1 was a chance for the group to experience Bristol Old Vic’s Create Space project, which is in partnership with local Redcliffe Nursery School. This project takes a core group of children aged 2-4 years to co-create playful spaces within the theatre. 

Two huge rolls of paper were rolled out across the floor, along with scissors, strings, crayons and anything else that could be played with. Adults were encouraged to re-engage with their curiosity and creativity they encourage in the children they work with. A pianist observed the session responding to the action with improvised music. The room was transformed into a place of play, music and creativity. 

Everyone was on their knees or lying flat, drawing sunflowers, shapes and allowed themselves to play with their imagination. 

Wrapping Up the Energiser Event

This was a wonderful event, and we’re grateful to our Learning Partner Groundswell Arts for their design and delivery of the event, and to Bristol Old Vic for hosting us. 

Of course we also extend our thanks to all of our Energiser Funded partners that came down and generously shared their work. 

Over the two days, we saw creativity, play, and collaboration in action, and were inspired by the dedication and imagination of everyone involved. It was a brilliant reminder of why supporting early years creativity matters and how much we can all learn when we put children’s voices at the centre. 

Interested in finding out more? 
Join us on Tuesday 25 November for an online session sharing  our reflections and findings from Year 1 of the Energiser Fund.