Memorandum submitted by Ignite Futures Ltd

 

1	This evidence is from Ignite Futures Ltd, a newly established (October 2006) independent and not for profit organisation, trading as Ignite!. The company was formed following a successful pilot programme of support for creative young people which was developed by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) between 2003 and 2006.
1.1	Ignite! promotes creativity in learning; our focus is work that supports the development of creative capacities in young people. In addition to direct work with young people, we research and develop initiatives and programme activity with adults who work with young people, notably their parents and carers, teachers, mentors and other workers responsible for policy and strategy.
1.2	Ignite! focuses on the characteristics of creative thinkers, rather than the output of any single area of the learning curriculum. We regard these characteristics as key to the future prosperity of our economy and society and to the happiness and well-being of its members.
2	Ignite! has worked successfully with Creative Partnerships in a number of regions of England, including the Black Country, London South, Bristol, Cornwall and notably and most recently in Nottingham. Creative Partnerships is a flagship programme in pursuit of the objectives set out by Professor Sir Ken Robinson in the 1999 NACCCE Report, All Our Futures. Creative Partnerships has had a major impact on changing the aspirations of young people, and the perceptions of teachers and education policy makers with regard to creativity in the curriculum.
2.1	It has taken time, however, and there is still some distance to travel to shift perceptions away from the embedded prejudice that creativity means the arts, (or the creative industries) and that the arts are at best peripheral to the progress of the economy and society (and the creative industries are where creative people should be employed).
2.2	Paradoxically, this barrier to understanding of the true significance and value of creativity and creative thinking abilities has been exacerbated by the identification and location of Creative Partnerships within Arts Council England. New proposals to establish CP as an independent agency are welcome.
3	In a survey of employers in 2006 Arts Council England itself acknowledged the gap of perception and understanding.   The survey, conducted amongst over 1,800 UK bosses and workers in 2006, shows that businesses do not value creativity and that creative people and practices are often misunderstood. Only 4% of managers said that the first thing they look for in a prospective employee is artistic flair or creativity and a mere 36% believe that creativity is very important for the future of their business. Creativity also seems to be misunderstood; one in five managers shared the view that being creative means dressing unconventionally, participating in wacky stunts and even go as far as saying that it is unnecessary in the workplace. The creativity gap is most evident in large corporations where only 2% of bosses place creativity at the top of their skills checklist when recruiting. Smaller businesses show more dynamism and individuality with 15% stating creativity is the most important quality in a new employee. (ACE 2006)
3.1	The problem of definition is compounded by the link to 'creative industries' (or businesses) and the implication that some businesses are not, or do not need to be, creative. 'Creative' is not an attribute of particular kinds of economic or social activity; creative thinking is a thought process that can be present or not in any business enterprise or social endeavour.
4	Ignite! recognises that the arts have a significant role to play in our social and cultural understanding (a powerful tool for making our society, not just a reflection of it), and that science and technology can drive forward many solutions to our needs and challenges. The dynamic equation can be expressed thus: science and technology can provide us with the tools for progress, but the arts will reveal the sensibilities we need to use them wisely, humanely and for the common good.
4.1	However, while science, technology and the arts are essential components of our survival and well-being, and need to be part of our life-long learning and comprehension, it is our capacity for creative thought that will enable us to translate need into solution, ideas into reality, imagination into innovation.
4.2	Ignite! feels that the ongoing misconceptions around creativity mean that the questions posed by the Select Committee may not reveal all the evidence that it wishes to see.
5	The changes in the curriculum announced formally on 12 July by the QCA are welcome revisions of the exam and results focused approach to learning. In particular we welcome the second aim (after literacy, numeracy and ICT competence) for young people to be creative, resourceful and able to solve problems. Ignite! would like to see such changes and a re-ordering of priorities go further, notably with reference to creativity in the science schemes of work.
5.1	Recent statements from the Prime Minister and the CBI regarding basic skills have depressingly revisited old ground. Evidence from Finland and the Emilia Romagna region of Italy reveals that delaying the teaching of literacy and numeracy until age 7, and instilling a lifelong love of learning through an early years creative and play-based curriculum leads to a national identification with or commitment to creative learning and innovation throughout a student's career.
5.2	The UK approach is summed up in the Leitch Report, widely regarded as a missed opportunity to place creative thinking on a par with literacy and numeracy as a basic skill. In the Arts Council survey 18% of employees feel that original thinking is not encouraged in the workplace and 64% of workers see themselves as 'functional' rather than 'creative'.
5.3	The conventionally described basic skills are the building blocks of all good education, but there is increasingly convincing evidence that 'promoting creativity is a powerful way of engaging pupils with their learning.' (Excellence and Enjoyment - a Strategy for Primary Schools, DfES 2003). The Roberts Report, Nurturing Creativity in Young People (2006) also recognises the priority;   current research and best practice in early years settings convincingly demonstrate the importance of creative problem solving, collaboration, imagination and social communication as the foundation for learning. The child that practices creative play becomes the socially competent child: a child that can learn and thrive. (Paul Roberts, 2006)
5.4	The key message from the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Children, Families and Schools should not only be, 'Every Child Counts', but also, 'Every Child Invents!'
6	The Ignite! definition of creativity is as Ken Robinson explained, 'Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value.' In the context of learning and child care this can be translated as 'Creativity is applied imagination' (in much the same sense as 'Applied Maths' is an outcome driven version of 'Pure Maths'). We also extend our definition to include, 'Innovation as applied creativity' in the sense that innovations can be socially or economically exploited for wider commercial or social benefit.
6.1	More importantly we use the definition to focus on the characteristics of creative thinkers which include the spectrum of lateral or divergent thinking, problem solving, invention and imaginative play.
6.2	The characteristics that Ignite! works to enhance or increase as capacities in young people are: 1. resilience, the capacity to learn through trial and error, not deterred by failure, a tolerance of confusion or uncertainty; 2. resourcefulness, the capacity to know what to do when you don't know what to do, a relaxed condition of employing different strategies, or simply waiting for an idea or solution to emerge (Keats's negative capability); 3. relationships, a capacity to see and make connections between ideas or across disciplines, the translation of one idea into a different context, and the ability to draw analogies and metaphor; 4. reflection, a capacity to review one's own thinking, to map the thought processes and analyse direction and focus; 5. risk-taking, a willingness to push boundaries, explore the unfamiliar, go beyond one's comfort zone, to try new and alternative routes.
6.3	These new '5 Rs' do not represent an alternative curriculum, but an approach to learning, to problem solving, to invention and to play that can have lifelong benefits to a child's appetite for learning, social interaction, outlook and well-being.
6.4	The evaluation of the Ignite! Programme (Annabel Jackson Associates, 2005) contains evidence both qualitative and quantitative that a child's performance and attitudes to themselves, to their openness to learning and to school life are enhanced by exposure to the Ignite! creative development programme. This has implications for the child turned off by school, and the excluded young person whose divergent thinking is not recognised for what it is.
7	In response to the Select Committee questions; our experience is that many teachers are already willing and open to adopt more creative approaches to their teaching. In many ways they regard themselves as 'creative practitioners' and resent the implication that creativity is the domain of arts or creative experts who come in to work with them.
8	Parents and carers and early years teachers and carers have many opportunities to develop creative play with their children if offered guidance to take them beyond unstructured play. The workforce in early years provision, however, are under-qualified and do not enjoy the level of status, training support or pay that their critical responsibilities should reflect.
9	In the definition of creativity that we have outlined here, the arts do not have a special role or contribution to make to creative education. There are many arts activities that are not creative; formulaic reruns of musicals with young people come to mind, or 'expert' led projects with few or no opportunities for young people to co-author or devise or curate their own outputs. Creative science, for example, is just as fertile a subject area for developing creative approaches to enquiry, discovery, resilience in problem solving, and resourcefulness.
9.1	Creative Science has formed the focus of a collaborative programme between Ignite! and Creative Partnerships, Nottingham, and involving the regional development agency and Science City, Nottingham. Scientists, arts practitioners and teachers collaborated in devising creative science activities, working with 4,500 students from KS 2 and 3. The outcomes of the pilot phase leading up to National Science and Engineering Week in March 2007 have prompted the funders to invite a further collaborative bid for development of creative science initiatives over three years.
10	Creative industries should not be singled out as requiring a creative workforce. This simply compounds the confusion between creativity as arts or media related activities, and creativity as a mode of thinking. All industries require a highly skilled and motivated workforce confident in their creative thinking capacities, as the mobile phone engineers of Nokia in Finland exemplify.
11	The evaluation of Ignite! cited above contains evidence drawn from the PASS survey, an analysis of Pupils' Attitudes to Self and School, which highlights the improved attitudes of students involved in Ignite! with specific regard to their self-confidence, propensity to truant, attitude to learning and six other values.
12	There are many modes and opportunities for young people's creative capacities to be acknowledged and assessed; the compilation of an individual portfolio of creative achievement which could be presented in a wide variety of ways and forms, including Web2 technology, can become part of the student's record of general attainment. Ignite! has many examples of such portfolios.
13	Critical to embedding creativity in the curriculum is the understanding that creativity is not confined to any subject area, nor a separate subject per se, but a mode of thought that can be encouraged and developed, learned and practised. Many teachers already recognise this in their pedagogy.
14	Creativity is a route to empowerment and a counter to a utilitarian view of society. A wider understanding of creativity needs to be generated among employers that makes clear the distinction between the arts (and a view of unconventional behaviours), and the valuable capacities of creative thinking. Organisations such as TUC/Union Learn, Campaign for Learning and NIACE already recognise this; schools increasingly recognise this. It remains for employers' organisations, apprenticeship and training bodies, and policy makers to recognise this essential ingredient to social and economic progress, and re-order strategic priorities and commit resources accordingly.
July 2007