Memorandum submitted by Ian Sandbrook

 

Executive summary of the main points made in the submission:

 

· Creativity is essential to our culture, our social cohesion, and our economic prosperity.

· The Creative Partnerships initiative has made a significant contribution to the teaching and learning of creativity.

· The Creative Partnerships initiative should continue to be funded, to consolidate creativity in the curriculum and to further our understanding of how creativity is best taught and learned.

 

About the Submitter

 

Ian Sandbrook is currently Interim Director of Education and Children's Services, Slough Borough Council. He was previously Director of Education and Leisure, Southampton City Council (2001-5) and was actively involved in the establishment of the Southampton and Isle of Wight Creative Partnerships project. He had further involvement with the project when he served as Interim Director of Children's Services on the Isle of Wight (2006). Ian has had particular involvement in the development of emotional literacy in the school curriculum.

 

Evidence:

 

The significance of creativity and creative capability

 

1. Creativity is fundamental to:

· the continuing development of national and local cultures and cultural identities;

· the arts and the sciences;

· the building of bridges between cultures and hence to social cohesion;

· the regeneration of disadvantaged communities;

· the continuing development of the creative industries which contribute extensively to exports and our economic prosperity;

· the continuing development of the knowledge economy.

 

The contribution of Creative Partnerships

 

2. Creative Partnerships has actively promoted collaboration between creative

partners and schools, between different schools, and between different local authorities, working particularly in disadvantaged communities which has raised educational attainment and creative achievement.

 

3. In the Southampton and Isle of Wight Creative Partnerships, the range of projects

of schools and colleges has included work with actors, musicians, visual artists, horticulturalists, journalists and broadcasters.

 

4. The impact of these projects has been measurable improvement, sometimes

radical change, in:

 

· literacy and oracy, numeracy and information technology capability;

· the confidence and self-esteem of pupils;

· identifying and solving problems;

· divergent thinking and the generation of new ideas;

· collaboration and teamwork;

· engagement; fascination; motivation; and capacity to learn;

· risk-taking and response to challenge;

· the key skills of creativity: questioning; connecting; envisaging; exploring and reflecting;

· emotional literacy;

· project management skills;

· the contribution of the pupils themselves to decision-making and the refinement of projects.

 

5. These improvements have spread across the whole ability range of the pupils,

including successful work by pupils with special educational needs and by those who are gifted and talented.

 

6. While creativity has been successfully fostered among pupils, teachers and the

creative partners themselves have also been able to extend their repertoire and generate new creative outcomes.

 

7. The particular contribution so far of the Creative Partnerships initiative in

Southampton and the Isle of Wight has been to build a sustainable infrastructure of partnership between the creative industry and schools. There has been a step change in the extent to which creativity is being taught and learned. However, there is still extensive work to be done to explore, for example,:

· whether there are approaches to the teaching and learning of creativity which are significantly more or less effective; or

· whether creative capability can be increased or is just released among individual learners;

 

8. The Creative Partnerships initiative has given good value for money in

Southampton and the Isle of Wight. There have always been some individual schools and local authorities where creativity has featured strongly in the curriculum. It could be argued that the funding should be given directly to children and young people's trusts or to schools. However, if creativity is to be fully established as a sustainable strand of the curriculum, it still needs the protection of the Creative Partnerships infrastructure.

 

Recommendations:

 

1. Creativity should be identified as a core capability in the curriculum of our schools and colleges.

2. Creative Partnerships should continue to be funded to support the teaching and learning of creativity.

3. Clear research targets should be set for Creative Partnerships to maximize our understanding of how creativity is best taught and learned.

 

June 2007