Creative learning at the heart of our skills-based curriculum
The Cre8us effect...at Earlsdon Primary School: 'Learning Voyage'
Physical Theatre Group, 'Highly Sprung', worked with classes and teachers from across the school to develop teachers' active engagement skills within and across core as well as foundation subjects.
Each class and teacher selected a different subject based on their own requirements, such as Maths, English, etc. Then, working with 'Highly Sprung' created a performance with the subject at the heart. Years 2 and 6 focused on Maths, Year 5 on Science, whilst Year 4 worked across the curriculum.
The school has also built on the potential of the Creative Council, which comprises 12 students from all age groups. The inclusion of pupils' views and contributions to planning is in it's infancy, but there is plenty of potential and the Council is providing a platform for the children. The members of the Council are becoming touchstones for learning throughout the school, continuing to disseminate information to teachers and governors, develop ideas around preferred learning styles, contribute to planning and collect evidence of progress.
Impact
- 77% of teachers participating in the programme said their involvement has increased their enthusiasm for teaching. 92% said it has made a positive difference to their attitude to learning new skills and it has changed their organisation and practice within the classroom.
- Curriculum construction continues to be reviewed and all teachers are beginning to understand curriculum development objectives more clearly and how creative skill development can be included. 100% of teachers are now planning in this way, as opposed to 20% in 2007/8 and 50% in 2008/9.
- 60% of children felt their teacher had developed a better sense of humour and was laughing more. 60% of children said they felt the project work enabled them to make important choices as to how they learned. They all said they felt they had been listened to.
- This project gave the children confidence in their own ability; compared to a norm of 75%, 100% of those questioned judged their work for themselves without needing adult approval.
- 20% of children said they would normally continue to work/research at home, but this figure rose to 90% during the project work.
- 80% of children said concentration was much easier during creative project work.
"The Change School programme with Cre8us is the best professional development we've experienced. It has focused to date on teachers' planning and listening to young people's views, as the route to a creative curriculum. We now want to embed the changes in order to sustain our whole school approach to creative learning." Gill Naylor, Headteacher
Results
"The work has had an impact on my teaching as a whole...not just one aspect of it." Teacher
"Creativity is part of the ethos of our school, but we must continue to explore and develop." Teacher
"It gave us confidence to have and express our own opinions." Pupil
"We hated division. But we baked a cake and laid a table for a Queen and did it all with fractions. Division became fun." Pupil
If you are interested in this project and would like to find out more about this and other projects, please visit the Cre8us website: www.cre8us.org.uk
