Memorandum submitted by Leighswood Primary School, Aldridge, Walsall

 

Evidence supplied by:

 

1. Jan Taylor, Head teacher, Leighswood Primary School, Walsall.

Produced in consultation with Noel Dunne, Creative Agent.

 

2. Nature of involvement with Black Country Creative Partnerships:

2.1 Leighswood Primary School has been part of BCCP since 2003. We joined the Creative Partnerships initiative because of a long held interest in how a more creative approach might help us enhance the learning environments of the school.

 

2.2 We have linked creativity to our School Development Plan by increasingly adopting pupil voice as the focus of our approach. We were concerned to evaluate the impact of placing creative teaching and learning at the centre of our school with pupils taking the lead role.

 

3. Your experience of introducing creativity into education: what impact it has had on:

 

3.1 Young People:

 

3.1.1 Young people now plan and run Creative Partnerships in Leighswood Primary School. Year 6 pupils take the lead but have helped put in place a structure that ensures that representatives from every year group have a say about the type of activities that are undertaken. Year 5 are now following in Year 6 footsteps and planning and delivering their own project ready to take responsibility for the whole programme next year. This has ensured a much greater ownership over the learning process in the school.

 

3.1.2 Young people are reporting a greater level of creative thinking, communication, planning and problem solving skills which they are transferring back into their other classroom learning.

"It's been a brilliant opportunity for when we're older: we've had to learn things like business skills and managing budgets which we wouldn't expect to be able to do - and that's made things like maths more interesting and enjoyable." Lydia

"I've found I'm more confident and I'm a much better speaker, especially when I've got to present things. I can also handle difficult situations more quickly. I'm proud to wear the CP suit" Sheri

 

3.1.3 This is reflected in a greater level of confidence and independence amongst our pupils than we could have envisaged possible. The Year 6 group have instigated the school taking the lead of a cluster of schools that will explore how all these schools can implement creative approaches to the curriculum. These include the High School that the pupils will be starting in September. This is because the pupils wanted to 'take CP with us'.

"I feel a more fulfilled person - more confident in myself and what I've got." Hannah

 

3.2 Teachers:

 

3.2.1 The teaching and learning outcomes of undertaking this process have been more profound than we initially anticipated. The most fundamental has been the realisation form the school leadership / teaching perspective of how we underestimate the potential of children. This process has raised our expectations of what we can expect children to achieve.

3.2.2 Most fundamentally, the teachers now trust in the creative process and allow the children's own work, not their 'enhancements' of it, to be shared. Teachers are seeing the benefits of allowing children to grow from the experience of taking responsibility for their own learning.

 

3.2.3 The whole process has been a challenge. Balancing the interface between staff and pupils and managing the expectations from both sides has generated tensions that we think we have successfully navigated. This is evidenced by a whole staff commitment to continuing and extending this practice next year because of the very clear benefits to children's development and progress that we have witnessed this year.

 

3.3 Wider school communities

 

3.3.1 The Foundation stage work has grown from the Nursery Practitioner working with creative practitioners on engaging with families. . As a result staff have brought parents on board project and this has stimulated a number of staff / parent initiatives in which parents are increasingly taking ownership for learning activities and opportunities they want to give their children. As a result of creative activity partnership bonds with parents are much stronger.

 

4. Conclusion:

4.1 Embedding creative thinking into the planning and delivery of our teaching and learning has had a profound effect on how we view ourselves as a school. It has encouraged us to take risks in the learning opportunities we create for the children we are responsible for. This has resulted in a realisation that we have been underestimating the learning capabilities of children and we are now actively seeking opportunities to stretch and extend children in all their learning experiences.

5. Any recommendations for action by the Government or others which you would like the Select Committee to consider for inclusion in its report to the House.

5.1 Ensure that Creative Partnerships continues to provide a framework for funding and evaluating the impact of creative teaching learning and teaching in schools

5.2 That the centrality of creative learning is recognised by those who influence curriculum development in our schools

5.3 That schools of innovation are enabled to act as effective lead practitioners that can influence the development of creativity in all schools

 

July 2007