Memorandum submitted by Castercliff Community Primary School, Nelson

 

1. Castercliff Primary School has been involved with Creative Partnerships since October 2005. This has proved to be a positive experience for all concerned and clearly impacted on teaching, learning and achievement within our school. This partnership has also supported the school in the pursuit of a more creativity based approach to education. Cross curricular links have been explored through projects and higher order skills, for example problem solving, questioning, discussion and evaluation have been encouraged. All staff and children have been involved, for example the School Council has had input on deciding projects and all children have taken part in a learning survey to say how they wish to learn and who they wish to work with. Learning circles have been used as the projects have developed and children have discussed their learning and negotiated with the teachers and creative partners to determine how projects have evolved. This has ensured that all the children have been involved in their learning and been active participants. Creative Partnerships actively encourage this approach and this is something the school has adapted in other curriculum areas and topics. Projects so far have included a dance project 14 to 20 October 2005, video project 28 to 31 March 2006 and a 'Making Stories Project' January to March 2007.

2. The most recent project undertaken was in the Spring Term from January to March 2007. This 'Making Stories' Project was in direct response to an OFSTED inspection in October 2006 which specified that the school raise standards and achievement in writing and speaking and listening across the curriculum. The school coordinator, literacy coordinator and head teacher met with a creative producer provided by Creative Partnerships to draw up an action plan to address this issue. Three classes were targeted to receive direct input from three creative partners: illustrator, storyteller / drama worker and writer. Even so ideas and skills were shared across the school through lesson observations, team teaching, sharing of resources and insets delivered by the creative partners. There was time and money available for planning before the project began and evaluations of the process, content and impact took place regularly. All this was overseen closely by the creative producer. These constant reviews enabled the teachers and creative partners to make changes were appropriate and ensured that positive relationships were established and professional skills were shared.

3. Progress and impact was measured by observing, interviewing and tracking the progress of four children in each of the three focussed classes. A written piece of work was levelled at the end of the Spring Term 2007 and compared to a similar levelled piece of work from Summer 2006. Results in writing showed that three children jumped three sub levels, five children jumped two levels and four jumped one level. The Project also impacted on raising the children's self esteem and motivation. Many, for example, carried on the dream books introduced by the writer as a means to plan and record ideas for writing. The review meeting also revealed that the creative partners gained from the project, for example being made aware of differentiation issues.

4. The project was so successful that a similar project is planned for Spring 2008 with different classes receiving input from Creative Partnerships. Approaches introduced by the various partners are being used in both key stages, for example the drama books and drama techniques. Staff have also reviewed the questions they ask and the starting point of activities, for example, drawing and role play is now used as a starting point for writing tasks.

5. I hope this information has been useful. Our work with Creative Partnerships has validated and supported our opinion as a school that creativity within the curriculum can be beneficial. Castercliff School now takes a more cross curricular approach to teaching and learning, higher order skills are encouraged, pupil voice is valued, creative approaches are explored and creative partners are linked with the school. All this has impacted on staff and pupil motivation and raising standards and achievement, especially in writing. The school is also now more aware of how we need to move forward in terms of creative development after completing a detailed framework on creative school development provided by Creative Partnerships.

 

July 2007