Studley Junior School wanted to work with pupils and staff together to revitalise their curriculum so that it supported creative learning and enabled the development of creative skills and attributes in pupils and staff. The programme they sought to devise was to address the SIP targets around exploration of creative teaching and learning across the school and within classrooms and that of developing the roles of adults and children within the school. They also sought to find effective ways of recording reflective practice for teachers and children, look at the development and use of indoor learning spaces that support creative learning, and seek ways of involving parents in the development of a creative school.
“Initially I didn’t feel confident enough to approach the theme but now feel confident enough to do that myself. Initially (the practitioner’s) resources provided examples but I now know I can do that myself. I have been taking on the idea of what I want the children to learn, not produce. Resources become problematic if they are focussed on product. I feel confident about that.” Year 5 Teacher
The children noticed the way the creative practitioner worked with their teacher: “It’s like swopping – they take ideas from each other.”
‘‘We were looking back over the questions we’d asked them and the learning objectives. We thought ‘Wow, these are quite in depth questions’ and in some cases the children have had to think in depth about issues that are really political and we think that’s really great because we’ve developed that in them to take on something a little bit more complex.’ (Year 5 Teacher).
“The creative agent and creative practitioners were fundamental to the developing of understanding, confidence and risk-taking within staff. They've helped staff view resources differently and see a much deeper purpose to their use. They have given staff the skills to select their own resources and see the curriculum in an entirely different way. They've embedded a reflective, evaluative practice within teachers where staff freely and frequently question their practice…..strong relationships (were made) with the staff and children, allowing …. a deeper understanding of the children and teachers need. This (was) invaluable in moving teaching and learning forward". Senior Leadership Teacher
The project this year continued to partner creative consultants and practitioners with all staff, starting with considering and developing a shared understanding of how creative pedagogies can facilitate the development of a more creative, appropriate curriculum that will more engage and motivate pupils. As an overall theme the school considered how the ethos behind Museums (collections, curation and their audience) can reflect the school’s pedagogical approach. All staff had the opportunity to develop their own mini-projects (supported by the practitioners) as a way to test out new approaches, sharing their learning as the project develops, working from themes that the children had input into. Regular staff meetings focused on reflecting on and sharing the progress. Parents and other members of the local community were regularly invited to share in the children’s learning through participation in learning sessions and special events. The programme was supported by and made robust connections with the ‘Looking for Learning’ initiative set up by Warwickshire LA, (which aims to support teachers to identify, improve and increase learning in classrooms), which was being conducted with a group of local schools.
The enquiry question that underpinned the programme was distilled into: “Will the development of a whole school project on exploring and developing museums – as a metaphor for learning – enable all stakeholders to contribute purposefully to embedding and sustaining our vision of a creative school?”
The project was monitored and data collected by the use of:
The project consisted at detail level of a series of inter-related projects relating to cross-phase and cross curricular learning and was contextualised within the theme of exploring and developing museums as a metaphor for learning and underpinned by three ‘big ideas’: collections (curriculum), curator (facilitator/mediator/gatekeeper to the knowledge), audience (learners). The project drew on the expertise of creative practitioner Karina Thompson and initially with her links with Forge Mill Needle Museum at Redditch (Karina had an exhibition of her work there in the Autumn term and led the initial staff Inset there - for the staff who participated this was very successful resulting in staff attending school before the autumn term began to enable them to have time to review and refresh their own learning spaces). Karina worked with four classes throughout the project and creative consultants, Ruth Bell and Chris Reid, supported all classes throughout the project. All classes chose a museum to ‘adopt’ which made connections with their curriculum theme through the museum’s permanent or temporary collections. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the New Art Gallery at Walsall and the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry were selected. Teachers were introduced to a range of ways of working in/with museums and reflected on the connections to classroom practice through:
As an introduction to the notion of a museum, in the first week of term, all classes were invited to experience a series of collections/installations set up by the practitioner/consultants – entitled ‘The Room.’ After spending time investigating these they discussed with their teachers what sense they had made of their experience through the three ‘big ideas’. Each class developed these ideas further through
A further week long project, ‘Drawing Collections’, was devised and delivered in the Autumn term by the creative agent and practitioner to re-focus all stakeholders on the three ‘big ideas’ and with the intention of introducing and exploring the ‘curator’ and ‘audience’ notions. In the spring term classes were encouraged to think about setting up their own museum within school and encouraged to think about this flexibly – What purpose does a museum have? What purpose does a collection have? Who is the museum for? How long does a collection have to remain? Can it be re-arranged? Can it become obsolete? Who will own the museum? Who will curate the collection? How much space will be required? These questions extended thinking and in some cases affected children’s learning spaces in their own classroom. Parents were invited to visit the children’s museums.
In order to keep the momentum of the project going one phase meeting each month was used for sharing, reflection and evaluation and these were led by the creative team. The creative agent led a series of staff meetings during the spring term for the same purpose.
The key impact has been the development of understanding and practice associated with creative teaching and learning by all staff. During the three years of the change school programme the following key changes are seen to have taken place within the school:
Staff felt that children embraced the opportunities to direct the learning that took place within the classroom although some felt that behaviour become more challenging as a result. Despite this, teachers still felt this was a positive development in the children and that the next stage is to develop a level of maturity in the way they use their new found voice. Children were given choice about outcomes they wanted to make while working with the practitioner. They also had to collaborate on their outcomes in small groups. This was a challenging way for them to work in an art context and they, their teacher and practitioner noticed how their collaborative skills were seen to develop through this experience. The practitioner also commented on the development of conceptual skills through the projects she supported. Pupils’ collaboration skills were key to the success of the project as were their entrepreneurial skills.
The ‘Drawing Collections’ week culminated in a school museum and gallery where classes curated their learning and became the audience for each other’s collections; “I really liked class 5s gallery. They did all sorts of things like show us a video, give us some stuff (acetate) to cut up, show us some pictures that artists did – all sorts – and then, when they opened the window blind and we saw their wave picture on the window all of us went “WOW!”. It wasn’t like class ... they made us sit on benches and just talked to us...” (Year 4 child).
Children consistently gave praise and recognition for each other’s work, showing respect for the space in which the collections were presented. Children also asked searching questions about the skills and thinking involved in creating the collections. Those adopting the curator role demonstrated a clear understanding of this role, which helped to reinforce last year’s focus of using indoor space creatively and prepared the way for further exploration of the role in the spring term. It was noticeable that the children appeared happier and more engaged with learning. They valued the opportunity to voice their opinions and were visibly excited by what went on in the classroom. It was stated by several members of staff that those children who don't necessarily stand out in core subjects have shone in thematic work and through the enquiry-based approach.
Pupil interviews undertaken by the creative agent evidenced teachers modelling the ability to discuss learning. The re-instatement of phase meetings increased the level of teacher reflection as teachers began regaining confidence and trust to talk openly about setbacks, risk taking and their own learning journey. Practitioners saw teachers using a high level of questioning and this therefore required children to deal with deep issues related to teaching and learning (see quote in feedback).
Pupils recognised that teachers were giving then more choice in their learning but teachers themselves recognised they now needed to include children in the planning process. Teachers developed confidence in their own ideas and were able to negotiate and direct use of consultants and practitioner time much more. Teachers have identified areas/themes that they would like to establish, and consultants have supported teachers in implementing these, whereas prior to this, teachers felt they needed guidance to what was an ‘acceptable’ theme.
Teachers felt they have been able to take risks with their practice through seeing this modelled by the practitioners. Teachers also worked with the consultants in planning and undertaking a museum visit which supported their projects and linked to the whole school project. Through this process they developed their skills in undertaking school visits that were purposeful as well as developing understanding of the enquiry question.
Data results collected by the school (although not available in detail at this point) for two teachers have shown a gradual improvement over the 3 years in progress across maths, reading and writing, in line with that teachers practice developing through involvement with Creative Partnerships and the approaches undertaken.
Pupils commented that their interest has been captured – they identified new practical skills and team working developments. They could discuss their learning skills and frequently referred to themselves as detectives finding out about things and could identify their collaborative skills. The projects were planned to require the children to work in groups and with the support of their teachers and practitioner they developed respect for others views, needs and wants. The children became able to identify problems and know how to address them – for example they could identify that when they were not stimulated, they could become easily distracted and noisy; this ability to self-evaluate their learning is something that these children struggled to do at the start of the creative partnership journey; “I learnt that when I’m actually interested in something then I can be very quiet” Pupil.
The majority of children could unreservedly explain how their ideas were listened to and sometimes acted upon. They could also state the difference in how things used to be and how things have improved: “Miss S is very nice and very good at explaining things, very good at listening to us and listening to our opinions; she wasn’t like that last year”. Pupil.
Children now take part in regular learning assemblies, where they are encouraged to share and reflect on the learning that has taken place during that week, although there remained some concern that they still tend to focus on what (as opposed to how) they are learning in response to teacher questioning.
Children see staff modelling reflective practise, although again there was some concern that this is still not happening throughout the school with one teacher very concerned that each year she receives children who have not experienced a creative approach to teaching and learning and that this is impeding progress across the school. The school were considering the impact and approaches can be better shared with staff to embed the approach and were reviewing how shared understanding of individual classes place on this journey wasbeing addressed and developed.
The children in some classes could articulate the ways in which their input was included and valued when making decisions, and how this was a shared process between the teacher and the learners, rather than the teacher making all the decisions: “We’re taught in a creative environment because our classroom is very colourful and Miss S actually asks us what we want to put on the displays and we suggest things. Miss S teaches us in a creative way because we were learning about solving problems and she themed it”. Pupil.
The school agreed there was still some challenge around increasing parental involvement with differing strategies tried but some resistance (same faces always at events). This is an area for future development still starting with a ‘before and after’ questionnaire at Parents Evenings to see how learning conversations have now changed.
The school continues to look at how it can establish and embed the creative learning approaches they have been developing. Further and future staff time has been identified and protected to review and reflect on curriculum development. The school participated in the ‘Sustaining Creative Change’ study in the hope it would support the structures needed to move them forward. They identified the key points would be to:
The school sees that the staff collectively needs to continue to move practice on through CPD. It also recognises the need to ensure the governor’s action plan continues to support it’s commitment to creative pedagogy.
As part of the legacy work the school is part of a cluster of local schools looking at sharing the approaches and sustaining practice within the school, and beyond. This group is being led and facilitated by the creative agent who led Studley’s programme.
Project Title: Crafting Creative Learning: moving out, moving on
School: Studley St Mary's CofE VA Junior School, Warwickshire
Creative Agent: Ruth Bell