Brooke sought to work with their Key Stage 4 students in this final year, specifically seeking to raise the attainment in Maths through a range of creative approaches. The school sought to address how they could develop an inspiring curriculum appropriate for all pupils, utilise and incorporate better their outdoor learning environments, whilst alongside developing confidence and skills of teaching and learning staff. The staff identified as key the need for pupils to have engaging ‘real-life’ situations to apply Maths skills. The school had had a thoroughly positive experience with the previous enquiry project working outside with Foundation / KS1. It really inspired the older children, leading the school to want to incorporate the redevelopment of the 'allotment' area into a Change School project.
“I'd love for (the creative practitioners) to have had G when he was little. Such has been the development he has made through the project” Headteacher.
"Are they (creative practitioners) not coming back? They've had such a profound effect on the students." Teaching Assistant
“The open and consistent collaboration between artists, students, staff and creative agent was in my opinion a contributing factor to the overall success of the project.” - Secondary Deputy Head.
"You can make anything more interactive and practical....we're taking all this into science now." Teaching Assistant
Staff themselves had expressed the desire to inject 'the buzz' into their maths teaching, and they had a genuine commitment to developing their practice and turning good lessons into outstanding ones. The school reduced their plans down into one key question - “Can the intervention of three practitioners in different art forms, help KS4 staff to increase confidence in the creative and learning inspirational delivery of Maths, and help develop children with complex needs as co-constructors of learning?” The school worked with a team of 3 practitioners, each focussing on specific areas of the Maths curriculum, who each worked with staff to develop confidence around the provision of teaching and learning in this area. The children were fully involved in the projects, which incorporated developing the outdoor learning environments including the redevelopment of the school’s 'allotment' area. Engaging 'real-life' situations allowed pupils to practise applying their Maths skills, enabling them to transfer their skills and better understand both the facts and the practical uses of those facts. The practitioners delivered weekly sessions between Autumn term and Easter 2011, covering various curriculum areas: Number, Shape + Measure, Data Collection. The fourth area, Using + Applying, was an over-arching feature which was embedded in each practitioner’s practice. The practitioners all put a great deal of effort into familiarising themselves with the maths curriculum, working independently, as a team and liasing with teaching staff.
The practitioners’ incorporated various art forms: drama, role play, textiles and sculpture, and outdoor structures were used. The school day was divided into three sessions, with each of the three KS4 classes rotating so each group got time with each artist - all groups then came together at end of day for pupil-led reflection and to share experiences. Practitioners had clearly identified assessment responsibilities. Some of the evaluation methods were pupil owned, around process displays and in-school blogs. These end-of-day reflections fed into future planning, and were incorporated into the project display.
Each class had a project journal to document progress, owned by staff and pupils alike. Practitioners used their own learning journals to document their impact. Projects had overall themes, the ideas of which came from the children. Despite the need to cover essential criteria, the drive of the project was for the children to take the lead on the direction of their own strands of the project. Therefore, although artists had similar starting points with each group, the children's input led to variations in each group's experience, and these variances were shared and explored during the end-of-the-day sessions.
The project encouraged pupils to think about the practical application of mathematical knowledge and feel confident in transferring their Maths learning with improved problem-solving skills and ability to apply learning to real life contexts. Staff felt children were to a varied extent taking the lead in this area and across the range of abilities were coming to find problem solving fun - they liked making harder sums. The young people were exposed to a huge range of resources, each with its own set of problems, and they effectively learned to find different solutions to the problems associated with those materials as well as the problems inherent in the task at hand.
The school extensively used the WEAVE creative recycling facility through the project, and this has opened up a greater relationship between school staff and WEAVE than had previously existed. The practitioner group was particularly strong during this project, which afforded the Creative Agent more time to liaise with SLT about how Cre8us - style teaching and learning could impact on the bigger picture of the school - this has led to radical changes in Brooke’s recruitment processes, planning and staff meetings, and this journey continues.
Despite the variations in approaches and delivery, across the board there were key aspects that increased the impact of the project:
For students the areas of impact were in problem finding and solving, co-construction, reflection and increased attainment.
There have been excellent gains in the children’s ability to transfer their knowledge to practical applications, and the attainment and progress data for using and applying maths in KS4 shows raised attainment and accelerated progress to give the following:
Year Ten:
Number - All pupils met their target for the first time
Data - All pupils met their target for the first time
Shape - All pupils met their target, and some exceeded it
Use and Application - All pupils met their target, and some exceeded it
Year Eleven:
Most pupils met their target in all 4 areas.
Year 11 students only had access to half the project, as during the first term the delivery day clashed with the day they spent in college, therefore impact has not been as great.
Staff felt pupils were more involved with their own learning, as co-constructors understanding the wider application of their learning. Students have been observed to be more confident in a new way of learning. They have worked well as teams and have helped each other. Their communication skills have been used effectively and they have made progress. Most observations have been informally made, but thoroughly discussed - although the tracking has been informal, regular staff consultations mean that these observations can be fed into future planning and IEP targets.
The development of creative teaching and learning has been a key focus for the staff, and SLT have introduced hubs and triads, team teaching, and joint planning to help improve this. These initiatives in partnership with the Cre8us project have led to 11 members of staff rising from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘good’. Staff have been observed (by SLT) to be more open to a creative approach to teaching and learning and they are applying ideas and teaching styles to their lessons, eg using rowing machines to measure averages. They display more confidence about using more creative approaches; an example of this is when, on a day when the practitioner was unexpectedly ill, staff continued with the work regardless, moving things forward in a meaningful way. Also staff asked to finish one project on their own – out of the project timelines.
The creative practitioners made constant and thorough use of the journals, not only to document the progress of the project, both pictorially and written, but also to note their own reflections and learning journey, to take into their own continued practice. Staff commented positively on how flexible artist’s had been to go with the children’s interests and ideas, no matter how seemingly random or far from the starting point.
A constantly changing display, relating to the project, comprised a visual, sound and textural record of the project’s development - and was, of course, available for the whole school to explore.
The school had been developing its use of BLP, and the practitioners developed a raffle ticket reward system based on the language of BLP; resilience, perseverance etc - this proved extremely successful and has been carried on in school, with this data feeding into children’s IEPs. Similarly, the extensive displays that related to the Cre8us project reflected the language of Looking for Learning and BLP.
Sharing of the success of the project was actively encouraged by the leadership of the school with all teachers involved.
The main outcomes of the project have been that students and staff have seen and continue to see mathematics in a different light.
The Head’s involvement has been key here – she sent a very strong signal to staff of the key relevance right from the beginning.
The project has had a profound effect on the staff involved. Initially, the faculty leader D's enthusiasm in embracing the project, her positivity (despite underlying reservations) and her willingness to discuss the impact it had on both herself and her children, really rubbed off on the other staff. Ultimately, the school feels it may prove to be the TAs who have gleaned the most benefit, and who are at the heart of the steady development of creative learning within the school.
As a result of the project, staff in other parts of the school were curious and keen to engage in similar activities. SMT have made a commitment to embedding creative teaching and learning approaches throughout the school. One way is by continuing to work with the Creative Agent as a creative consultant, working with the Head and SMT to look specifically at sustainability plans, having identified that previous approaches still being used (in pockets) – the intention is to highlight this and sustain it through staff reflection.
An ongoing impact has been the development of a new recruitment policy and techniques – prospective teachers are now asked to bring a 10 minute activity that they would use to creatively introduce themselves to the children. This has since been built on, and the recent recruitment of a new health care co-ordinator took the form of a ‘market place’ based on healthy living set up in the school hall, to which staff and students alike were invited. HT reports that this development has “transformed” the level of appointments within the school and has been a major impact.