Memorandum submitted by Riverside Community College, Leicester

 

Since the introduction of the National Curriculum in the 1980s creativity has been lost as teachers have struggled to deliver the content of a packed curriculum. Gone are the opportunities to work on one project in depth allowing students to use enquiry and research skills and to move in the directions any outcomes might take them. Similarly, teachers are too afraid to give up time and take risks when in the middle of a lesson one student asks a question which could divert the whole purpose and objective of the lesson. We argue that we want students to take responsibility for their own learning and yet we actually will not let them do this for fear of not fulfilling the curriculum.

 

Employers are constantly citing that they need young people to have enterprise skills as well as exam qualifications: the ability to use their own initiative, to work as part of a team, to take risks etc and to be independent learners. The loss of creativity from the curriculum severely limits opportunities for students to acquire these skills.

 

The introduction of the Creative Partnerships initiative at Riverside has assisted us in developing the business and enterprise ethos and the willingness on the part of the staff and students to take risks. I would like to highlight two projects in particular.

 

1. The Young Consultant students have represented Creative Partnerships Riverside and Leicester at external events thus developing the Student Voice. They have received training on leadership and presentation skills from professionals through Diversity Hub. Students have delivered professional development to Riverside teachers on creativity in lessons and to Head teachers and Local Authority staff in Sheffield. They have also made presentations at Warwick University and to the national conference in Manchester about the origins and development of Creative Partnerships at Riverside.

2. Twelve Young Consultants have been involved in developing their own Riverside Radio Station. Again they have been trained by professionals and an offshoot of that has been cross phase learning; we have had a Year 7 student training a Year 10 boy. This has mirrored what we are trying to do at Riverside; encouraging young people to work together regardless of age and to develop their own individualised learning pathways.

 

Some of these young people have used their Creative Partnerships experience to gain accreditation through the Key Skills programme, particularly in Problem Solving and Communication. This is an area the college is looking to develop further; we are currently investigating a Level 2 qualification in Radio Presentation.

 

Consequently, we feel that the development of creativity at Riverside has allowed us to grow confident young people who have been able to take responsibility for their own learning in an exciting and engaging way and to gain recognised qualifications at the same time. We are grateful for the professional expertise Creative Partnerships has been able to give us and our intention is to build on this training of our staff and students so that the creativity we have started to embed will be sustainable.

 

July 2007