Vision Art Education

Testimonials

"I have enjoyed working with Nazneen for many years and always found her to be dedicated and caring. She builds excellent relationships with all types of children and is able to get the best work from them, enabling them to develop and grow through their tasks. Nazneen is a great team player and cooperates well with all the adults that she needs to work with, always showing good communication and consideration for others. She uses her artistic talents to inspire all those she works with, always producing excellent results. I would be very confident to recommend her for working in any setting with children or adults."

"For the 2 years that I have worked with Nazneen, she has been an exceptional leader with the support staff and the children she has worked with. She has offered and supported staff who have felt out of there comfort zone with children with a variety of strategies and advice.
Nazneen has delivered art/SEMH/ nurture groups to a high standard personalising her schemes of work to each individual child and their needs. Nazneen has worked collectively across the key stage 1 and 2 phase where she has built trusting and lasting relationships with our most vulnerable children. Nazneen is driven, focused and passionate about her creativity and pursuing it into the creative curriculum."

"Ms Naz Sheikh was employed as an Art teacher at Meade Hill School from May 2011 until 15th February 2015. Meade Hill School is a special school; all pupils have statements for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Ms Sheikh has worked with all age ranges throughout the school supporting teachers, teaching groups of pupils and working with more challenging and disengaged pupils on one to one support. In her teaching role, Ms Sheikh has developed curriculum overviews; planned long, medium and short term plans to deliver Art courses. Ms Sheikh has also been responsible for purchasing resources and managing a budget to deliver the courses that she has planned. During lesson observations and learning walks, Ms Sheikh’s lessons have always been judged as outstanding by the school leadership team, QA consultants and Ofsted.

Ms Sheikh has excellent behaviour management skills; she has great empathy for the pupils and families but, is assertive and professional in ensuring the best outcomes for all the pupils in her care. Ms Sheikh is a very caring and compassionate member of staff who has grown and developed professionally during her time at Meade Hill School. She is dedicated, conscientious, ambitious and hard working. She is also an excellent leader and team player. She is punctual and energetic and always supportive of new changes that have been introduced. She is creative in her teaching styles and always proactive in dealing with behaviour management. Ms Sheikh has empathy and a great understanding for the specific needs of pupils in special needs schools. She is also ambitious to ensure that all pupils achieve the best outcomes they can, irrespective of ability, disability of family backgrounds. Ms Sheikh is professional in every aspect of her role at Meade Hill." - George Campbell, Head Teacher

"Sophia is a 19 year old with severe learning difficulties. It has been very hard to get her to engage in any activity needed a level of concentration.... that all changed when we started art sessions with Naz .
Naz immediately set the parameters and Sophia new who was in charge!
The lessons were engaging and fun with a piece of art work to take home at the end. Sophia used lots of different skills guided by Naz and her levels of concentration were excellent.
Thanks for all you’ve done and keep doing it, you have a gift" - Miriam Shaw

"I have worked with Nazneen on numerous occasions and have always found her to be extremely professional and dedicated in her work. She is excellent at building relationships and encouraging the young people to relax and feel confident in their work and in expressing themselves through art instead of through emotional means. Nazneen is a great leader and worked as a nurture lead with a small team of people where she showed responsibility and the ability to coach and mentor as well as delegate while encouraging to bring the best out of people. Her art is inspiring and innovative and 9s always well thought out with the ability for everyone to succeed at their own level and feel a sense if accomplishment. I would be delighted to work with Nazneen again in any capacity as she inspires those she works with to be better."

"Nazneen is extremely well accomplished as a professional practitioner, she has undeniable skills of communicating with people. Particularly those who may have additional needs, emotional problems or difficulty projecting their needs across. Nazneen works with and along side those needs this produces confidence building, space for emotional processing, plus a inclusive environment. Her work and empathic techniques really do change lives. I am privileged to have seen the wonderful results of her art sessions and client interactions myself . I would have no hesitation to recommend anyone to become involved or partake in Nazneen’s sessions and they will see for themselves how invaluable they are." - Claire Goodliffe, Social Worker, BAhons social work, MA PG dip social work

"The work that Naz has produced with the children at St Joseph’s has been fantastic. She has been commissioned to complete numerous display pieces around school and has created striking and immersive displays. The children who have worked with Naz have been enabled to explore techniques that they may not have encountered before and can proudly say that they have created stunning pieces of art work that are showstopping parts of our school environment. Most recently Naz worked with children to create our Reading appreciation wall, which has pride of place alongside our corridor book displays. The display truly brings the excitement of reading to life and the children who have contributed can see photographs of themselves creating the work as well as their final products, indicating the importance of the process as well as the result. Naz’s work in school has elevated the level of display pieces that are presented and will continue to be admired for the foreseeable future!" - Ruth Vayro

"I have known Naz for over 10 years as a colleague and as her line manager, working with children and young people with social and emotional difficulties.
In a school setting, Naz works well within a staff team, contributing to wider school priorities and independently identifying where she can bring added value. Although not a qualified teacher, Naz planned and delivered both therapeutic and curriculum based activities to vulnerable pupils. Naz worked closely with the Assistant Headteacher to develop schemes of work for groups of pupils, which ensured coverage of the National Curriculum and a clear progression in the artistic skills of learners. Students produced high quality work in a range of mediums, which was used to make stunning classroom displays which were regularly shown off to visiting headteachers! More importantly, students showed a real pride in the work they were producing, because Naz instilled in them a sense that they could improve and should aspire to produce their very best work. Naz displays an effortless balance between warm reassurance and setting clear expectations. Whether working with a group of students or a highly anxious or agitated individual, Naz was consistently able to engage and empower even the most isolated and vulnerable young people.
In a support service setting, Naz is quick to build relationships and begin to understand the priorities for a specific piece of work, whether building self-esteem with a group of vulnerable girls, producing magnificent displays or supporting a child with highly challenging behaviour to reengage in class. I worked closely with Naz whilst she supported one child with significant needs and it was a pleasure to watch her building relationships and making an impact, not only with the young person, but with the family and the school. The child began to access more lessons, parents felt supported and appeared more relaxed and the school were keen to invite Naz to work with more pupils and for her to model her approach for other staff in school.
Naz is fearless in her commitment to supporting young people, energetic in developing ideas forprojects or interventions to suit the child or school she is working with and tightly focused on using art and craft techniques to empower and engage the children and young people with whom she works." -M Wilcock (Head of Service)

"I have worked with Naz for 7 years in two different organisations. I believe that both her approach to and delivery of the art sessions with adults with learning disabilities and complex needs is excellent.
Naz can develop schemes of work and projects with the needs of the adults in mind. She always has a bespoke plan in mind for each adult within the same project, so that each adult can achieve the end goal but following a different journey along the way.
She creates an extremely calm environment which is welcomed by our community and can create a sense of belonging within the group. Naz is extremely creative with all art mediums and can put her hand to anything, make it sensory, lengthen the project out, develop further schemes to ensure that the work benefits each adult. Naz has also created an exhibition worthy of a gallery with the work produced by our community and is extremely enthusiastic in helping out with all things creative. Naz is extremely flexible with changing plans and quick to adapt when necessary if anything crops up.
I am very comfortable putting our Art Club and our service users in the very safe hands of Naz. I know that she will do her utmost to help them achieve great things whilst enjoying every second. I can’t rate Naz highly enough, I would definitely recommend her to other organisations and hope that she continues with Creating Adventures for as long as we an keep her. " - Jenny Allcock, Creating Adventures

Mission Statement

VAE was established in May 2019, this has been a childhood dream for the founder who is extremely passionate about teaching arts and crafts to children, young people and adults.
‍
Throughout the last 16 years Nazneen has worked in numerous settings within four local authorities in various roles with a range of audiences. Nazneen has always been passionate about art and social emotional wellbeing within the community. Nazneen is an Arts Award Practitioner and Behaviour Mentor Nazneen currently delivers therapeutic art sessions to adults with complex needs, Autism and learning disabilities. Each programme has a bespoke package to support their needs and abilities. Nazneen’s other projects involve teaching children art/nurture interventions at North Cheshire Jewish Primary School, Oakgrove Primary School and St Joseph’s Primary school. The Art projects are based on specific themes directed by the head teacher and the senior leadership teams.
‍
VAE mission is to support and apply different elements of the National curriculum into a creative curriculum using a variety of transferable art skill for people to put into practice.

Creativity is also well recognised for its potential to heal people, express hidden emotions, reduce stress, fear and anxiety, and promote a sense of autonomy. Engaging children, young people and adults in the arts can inspire and motivate, opening new possibilities for creative expression and imagination.

Art can stimulate a young person’s ability to question and connect with the world around them, and nurture positive aspirations, confidence and the capacity for autonomous critical thought. It can also help young people to develop the resilience to manage challenging life circumstances. Arts projects in schools can be used to raise awareness of mental health issues and challenge stigmatising attitudes. Arts experiences challenge young people’s sense of themselves in a vastly different way to formal education, providing different opportunities for young people to explore their identity, skills and abilities.

The feedback I have received has given me insight into the relationships forged between artists and participants which is fundamentally different to those experienced with other adults in schools, a point reinforced by participants.

There may also be greater emphasis on process than on the outcomes or products required of more traditional approaches. Young people report a sense of enjoyment and achievement in creating art,which demonstrates significant levels of motivation, improved self-esteem, self-awareness,resilience and community engagement. Many evaluations of arts interventions document their effectiveness in re-engaging young people in education and developing skills that are transferable and as relevant to working on other subject areas.

The Old School

Creating Adventures

Arts Award

Art Client Statements

Ann – I love going to the art session, I find it relaxes me. I love drawing, painting and doing glass art.

Sue – Very friendly, lots of variations of work to do. Both of my art clients really enjoy coming as they can express what they think and feel.

Nick – Thumbs up when asked what he thought of our art group.

Sarah – Nice atmosphere, nice and relaxed, Naz makes the clients feel comfortable. I like coming for a change of scenery.

Lynn – I like the socializing, talking to people, listening to their experiences, ‘’good old chin wag’’. Sarah engages well with the artwork and enjoys coming to the group. Sarah’s concentration has improved drastically. I enjoy supporting Sarah with her fine and gross motor skills that she actively uses in her work.

Karen - I like learning new skills. Philip still engages well. Phil gets on with the group and likes to work independently.

Phil - I like doing art and colouring.

Chloe - I like meeting new people, new friends, change of scenery, happy with the work. My best piece of work is my mandala pattern.

Laura – We attend the art group on a Monday and the young lady I support has severe and profound learning disabilities. I believe it is now a part of her routine. On our entry to the art group, it is a happy and welcoming place; the music in the background suits us too. Lilianne likes to bop to the music. Naz is great; she couldn’t do anymore to accommodate us with tea, biscuits and lots of different art projects. Lilianne likes to hold the paint brush and colour in. Lilianne takes part in every session. Sometimes for a long time and sometimes for a short while. WE LOVE ATTENDING THIS GROUP.

Natalie – Coming to the art class on a Monday morning is so enjoyable.Heather and Lily really enjoy it. It is very relaxing and we learn new things every week. Every week we do something different . We like using oil pastels and paints. We wouldn’t change a thing. Our art teacher is great and is very friendly. We love coming and hope to continue.

Gus – Since starting the art classes last year I have enjoyed decoupage,painting ceramic candles holders, painting onto acetate. I love coming on a Monday with the girls. I recognize some familiar faces from college. Naz is helpful and I would like to learn more techniques.