Stimulating Creativity

St. Mary & St. Benedict’s Primary School: ‘Embedding Creativity’

  • Date:
    2008 - 2009
  • Introduction:
  • Article:

     

     

    Our Achievement

    • 77% of teachers participating in the programme said their involvement has increased their enthusiasm for the job.  92% said it's made a positive difference to their attitude to learning new skills and 85% said it has changed their organisation and practice within the classroom.
    • Curriculum construction continues to be reviewed and all teachers are beginning to understand more clearly curriculum development objectives 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 the children said they felt the project work enabled them to make important choices as to how they learned.
    • 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% said they would normally continue to work/research at home, but this figure rose to 90% during the project work.  80% of the children said concentration was much easier during creative project work.

    The Feedback

    "The work has had an impact on my teaching as a whole...not just one aspect of it."

    "When you're not enjoying yourself you doodle and don't think about stuff.  But you remember it when you have fun."

    "It gave us the confidence to have and express our own opinions."

    "We hated division.  But we baked a cake and laid a table for a Queen and did it all with fractions.  Division became fun."

    "Geography became fun.  Instead of just learning about a place we created a time travelling play and went to different countries at Christmas."

    "We made graphs with our own bodies and angles with a sling shot." "I found myself looking for different angles all around the house, without realising I was doing it."

    The Cre8us effect at...St. Mary & St. Benedict Catholic Primary School: Embedding Creativity

    The school has built on the potential of the Creative Council, which comprises 12 students from all age groups.  The inclusion of pupil's views and contributions to planning is developing, 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.

    As a further development and as part of the plan to sustain this approach the school has funded the creation of a radio station - Superstar Radio.  A group of pupils was initially taken to look at how the radio, and other new media applications, could be used to enhance teaching, learning and social interaction.  The whole school was then invited to apply for various roles and the selected group of twelve pupils and 2 members of staff led the programme, which included setting up the hardware and software, devising programme schedules and producing content for broadcast and podcast.

    The staff creativity team was formed to plan a range of creative interventions to help staff access and explore creative teaching and learning.  The group's consequent development opportunities have included a Creative Learning Team planning day at City Hall, London, instruction on the use of ICT equipment for radio and developing the understanding of philosophy for pupils.

    Pauline MacDonald concluded by saying:  "Working with Cre8us has strengthened teaching and learning across the school - it has led us on a journey of self-reflection and exploration that has completely changed practice in our school and helped us to achieve improved outcomes in all aspects of our provision."