Memorandum submitted by Drew Rowlands, Assistant Headteacher / Director of Arts College, AST for Creativity, Halewood College, Knowsley

(1) Brief Biography: Previous to my present post, I was an LA consultant for Drama on the Wirral, which involved strategic development of the subject, developing and delivering staff inset and trouble shooting issues related to staffing. I have 18 years teaching experience in a number of schools and 22 years as a member of the British Actor's Equity Association. I am also a Trustee of Shakespeare North, an organisation set up to highlight Shakespeare's links to the North and particularly his work in Knowsley. I have successfully passed my NPQH, achieved AST in 2003 and have undertaken a wide range of training in approaches to creativity and creative problem solving (synectics)

Synopsis of Strategic Development

(2) To begin with, we established a whole school target centred on creativity development, which became part of our performance management cycle for all staff.

(3) We then instigated a wide range of projects in which staff from across the school developed schemes of work alongside creative facilitators provided through CP. These included Maths teachers working alongside Columbian musicians exploring approaches to fractions, the Geography department working with a photographer developing new approaches to how students would learn about urban settlement, Science department working with a farmer and marketing department of Asda examining genetic engineering of crops, Technology working with the Liverpool Biennial establishing format for exhibitions etc.

(4) As these projects reached successful conclusions both from an engagement and motivational perspective as well as from the perspective of expanding students potential to transfer knowledge and skills, we established an annual week long residential on Anglesey for our entire year 8 cohort where we created a weeks curriculum in which teachers extended their experience of working with creative practitioners and became the practitioners themselves. Departments teamed up in diverse ways i.e. Dance and ICT, Science and Drama etc. They then created workshops, based around an overarching theme, which involved an exploration of the skills involved in both subjects. The teachers then team taught the workshop whilst away, with follow up opportunities when back in school. CP supported through assisting with costs, providing a researcher to gather evidence, carry out interviews etc and assisting with the evaluation and follow up work back in school.

(5) Following on from this, we decided to look for ways of embedding the experience back in school. CP provided us with part funding that enabled us to take on an extra member of staff for two years. With this extra capacity, we used the Arts College team to support the development of colleagues' creativity pedagogy across the school. Together with CP, we then created a curriculum map for year 9 and established an integrated approach to teaching in which schemes were interwoven and mutually supportive. We used this process as a mechanism for entering our entire year 9 cohort for GCSE Expressive Arts 2 years early. We are now in our fifth year of this initiative and have advised schools from across the country on how to effectively initiate similar practices.

(6) The next stage in our development with Creative Partnerships came when we successfully bid to become a Lead Creative School. This brought the added responsibility for developing creativity across schools and lent itself perfectly to how we wanted to extend our community programme. Our first initiative was

the CATCHalewood Festival, which was a pilot project that ran in February/March 2006. It was 2 weeks long and took place in all 8 primary schools in Halewood. There were 6 specially designed workshops that combined a National Curriculum subject with a specific art form, all aimed to engage students and teachers in a new way of looking at a particular part of their curriculum. Each workshop had clear learning outcomes. All of the sessions allowed for clear support of SEN and Gifted and Talented students. Every child in each of the 8 schools, from nursery age up to year 6 took part in at least one 2-hour workshop, equalling over 2000 pupils and teachers participation in total.

(7) All schools were given an evaluation pack and asked to comment on all workshops. The evaluation asked questions such as "punctuality and effectiveness of practitioner, overall impact on pupils and teachers and the advantages of exploring the curriculum this way". There was a separate evaluation for Head teachers to give their opinions about the CATCHalewood Festival and the impact of the festival upon the whole school. Head Teachers felt "the festival added to our excellent and enjoyment provision-worked very well cross-curricular. A very creative experience for all our children" and "all enjoyed the activities; it gave our staff ideas for the future in cross curricular planning". The general consensus was that the activities were well planned, received and evaluated.

(8) The evaluation contained a section that addressed "areas for development and further comments", it was here that several members of staff noted that the long term impact of a one-off two hour workshop was difficult to measure, and many requested more sessions for students and additional training/planning sessions for teachers to enable them to more confidently implement creativity within their lessons.

(9) The work carried out within departments and alongside CP facilitators, has formed the basis for how we are preparing for life in our new learning centre from 2009. As a result of test modelling, which has taken place in this year, from September 2007, we are structuring the year 7 curriculum so that students will spend whole afternoons, several days a week developing competencies through a hybrid-learning programme. Underpinning this will be the development of the six thinking skills outlined in recent QCA guidelines and will form our next step towards creating a truly personalised education for learners. CP will support the process through practitioners who will help us develop dynamic monitoring processes and explore ways to capture students' views and opinions.

(10) Within our primary partner schools we have recently piloted a set of 6 two-hour workshops focusing on the development of each of the different thinking skills. Each session focuses upon one particular competency and is aimed at preparing our year 6 students for the Hybrid Learning project when they come to Halewood College in September. We intend to monitor the 36 year 6 children who have participated, throughout the course of their year 7. We hope to deliver the course to all of our primary schools next year.

(11)We are also leading for the borough, on the development of the Diploma in Creative and Media. Through early conversations with CP, it is clear that the support they could offer will be vital to successful implication, and so we are beginning to plan how we might utilise the expertise and experience that they can offer.

Impact on Attainment

(12) Over the years we have been able to gather a range of quantitive and qualitive evidence that supports the impact of CP. Both have been used to determine the direction that Halewood has taken and both are regarded as being equally important.

(13) A baseline survey of staff undertaken in 2002, based upon a 72% return, indicated that only 21% of staff allowed students to regularly work independently of them. In 2006, the same survey, based upon a 71% return, revealed that 78% of teachers now regularly had independent learning within lessons.

(14) In the same survey, 29% of staff did not understand what teaching for Creativity was and what it entailed in 2002. By 2006 all staff believed that they had a clear understanding.

(15) We believe we can attribute this positive development in classroom practice to the staff development that CP has offered us. It has resulted in whole school results increasing by 12% over 4 years, and therefore being invited by the SSAT to join their 'Most Improved Schools Club' at the end of our first phase as an Arts College in the Autumn of 2005. Our Value Added indicator now places us in the top third of schools in the country.

(16) The Expressive Arts GCSE programme for our entire year 9 cohort, and based upon an integrated approach to teaching the year 9 curriculum has seen results grow from 33% A-C and 85% A-G in 2002, to 44% A-C and 100% A-G in 2006. We expect similar results for 2007. These results are based upon cohorts of between 250 and 270 per year. We have delivered presentations based on this initiative to North West Arts Colleges, Knowsley Secondary Partnership and a range of individual schools from across the country. The process has also highlighted that with appropriate structures and learning opportunities, students' attainment does not necessarily need to follow a chronological format. We have therefore introduced a range of early entries for GCSE in English, Maths and ICT as well as AS level qualifications for key stage 4 students. We believe this is due to the development in our ability in general, to think creatively about providing appropriate pathways for learners.

(17) This view was supported by OFSTED, who inspected the school in January 2007 and found our curriculum to be outstanding. The schools outstanding range of taught courses and extra-curricular activities is a key factor in its improved achievement and attendance. Very thoughtfully planned key stage 4 options and pathways help all students gain qualifications that match their abilities, interests and aspirations. As a result of this creative approach to planning, we are already assured of a 100% 5 A-G pass rate in 2007.

(18) The improved teaching and learning has also led in an increase in those students wishing to stay on into our 6^th form. In 2002, we had a 52% retention rate. In 2007, we have had to cap our intake at 60%.

Impact on Ethos

(19) Anecdotal evidence is varied and wide-ranging. It has provided insightful evidence that has allowed us to focus on the impact that CP initiatives have had on students', staff and parents and it has moulded our thinking in how to move forward.

(20) CP consultant, Gerri Moriarty, accompanied us on one of our residential trips to Anglesey. She wrote a report entitled 'Swimming through Deserts'; the title itself coming from how a student described the creative challenge posed in one of the workshops and was primarily built upon interviews with students and teachers. (Student) 'The teachers are being more creative - they're coming up with wacky things that are fun but educational as well. '

(21) On seeing learning and teaching as a transferable skill

(Student)' We found out that teachers can teach not just about their own subjects, but about other subjects.' ' You could use the way we learned in Drama within History to teach about the feudal system, peasants and kings.'

(22) (Teacher) 'Maths are usually setted. Here, they welcome the opportunity to help each other. Set 1 is helping Set 5 so we all know how to do it'

' Teaching subjects in peculiar combinations helps the pupils to understand that things fit together'

(23) In 2004 NFER visited Halewood for two days in order to review the impact of CP at that point. The following quotes are taken from their report. As a result of their involvement in CP, the motivation levels of young people were also seen to have increased, as had their attitude to learning. A number of teachers commented that young people had begun to work independently of teachers and lessons. They were taking their work seriously and were staying behind after school to finish pieces of work. One teacher referred to her opinion of the young people when she first arrived at the school: 'I had written off the whole year group because I thought I couldn't do anything with them'. This teacher was amazed by what the young people had achieved. She remarked: 'I would never have thought that I would have got this work out of them!' A teacher involved in a pilot project described how the teamwork element within the project, along with the allocation of responsibility areas to young people, had increased confidence levels and had enabled the class to 'gel together'. A number of young people also commented on the impact of CP projects. One aspect they spoke about was an improved ability to work with others. One young person remarked: 'I'm quite a dominant person but I listen more now'. Likewise, another observed that she was more able to cooperate because 'everyone has got to put in their ideas as well'. A third young person said: 'When you are working in a group and someone comes up with an idea you work on it and just gets better and better'. Young people also mentioned how their involvement in CP-related projects had affected peer relationships. One young person commented that, due to the working in groups during the Anglesey residential, she had 'made friends with people that I didn't think I would get on with'.

(24) The overall impact on ethos is centred on stakeholders' perceptions of themselves and the world in which they live. In simple terms, the vast majority of people involved with Creative Partnerships within Halewood, are now better informed, are able to see connections between subjects and topics, apply what they know imaginatively and to a variety of contexts, aspire to more and see themselves as members of a global community who have a responsibility to make a positive contribution.

The Future

(25) I believe education in this country faces unprecedented change. Even more so than when the National Curriculum was introduced in 1988. At that time schools had to look to change what they taught. We are now being asked, rightly so, to change the way we teach. BSF will provide us with buildings that reflect the fluidity of society and employment, and so we will need to develop our pedagogy to match our environment. 14-19 reforms will see students take real responsibility for their learning, deciding what and where they will learn. Raising the leaving age to18 will have huge implications on how students 16-18 access learning. Personalised Learning (9 gateways and 4 deeps), functional skills /thinking skills and national strategies are already highlighting the overwhelming change needed in the very structure of education in order so that Every Child really does Matter.

Conclusion and Recommendations

(26) It is clear that we moved from an industrial to a technological world a number of years ago. However, there is a view, which originated in the Far East that we now live in a world of Creativity. Technology is so advanced that with imagination, anything is possible. Our experiences of working with Creative Partnerships for the past five and half years have certainly proven this to be true. In the light of the changes that we face, I would urge that CP is supported to continue. The development opportunities provided for staff, the strategic facilitation of ideas at leadership level and the relevance to the lives and future employment of students through working with creative practitioners will be a vital ingredient as schools develop.

(27) I also believe the role that Creative Partnerships has to play in the development of diplomas in the coming years should not be underestimated. Certainly in Merseyside, CP has gone to great lengths to develop the skills of practitioners so that they are equipped to work with students in all phases of education. With the emphasis on work based and work related learning, I believe this experience will become extremely important.

(28) The NACCE report into Creativity and Culture entitled 'All Our Futures' published in 2000 provided me with a philosophy that has become the cornerstone of my belief of how we might achieve a world-class education system for Britain. At its heart, this report suggests that a whole school approach to creativity can lead to an overall improvement in standards. 'Creativity is possible in all areas of human activity, the sciences, arts, at work and at play. When individuals find their creative strengths, it can have an enormous impact on self-esteem and overall achievement'. Creative Partnerships are in the unique position of supporting schools in developing this aspect of learning. They are having a significant impact, but there is still much to do, and for this reason, I recommend that you continue to support its development.