Woodlands sought to inspire and challenge all learners (pupils and staff) by rethinking their approach to curriculum development. They wanted to develop a community of enquirers, with a sharper focus on questioning and children leading their own learning, both in school and continuing in their own homes. They sought to work collectively with creative practitioners to develop and deliver a creative curriculum that is founded on children’s interests, develops staff abilities and skills in creative and flexible planning, engages parents and improves standards. They wanted to use the school indoor and outdoor spaces in a more creative way, and find new ways to engage with and take their children out into the wider community.
“We didn’t know things before and now we’ve learnt it and we have ideas in our head and we won’t need to learn it again”. Pupil
“She (creative practitioner) can read stories without even reading a story. She makes actions without using words with actions like this (action of princess)”. Pupil
“Enjoyment has helped children remember more. But star and a wish helped to be more reflective”. Teacher
“In Foundation stage ability to talk about learning had huge impact: language in communication and thinking; creative development and writing all improved. Children’s enjoyment of curriculum has enthused them in other areas”. Teacher
“Given me food for thought throughout the curriculum”. Teacher
The programme focussed on the SIP Target: To write a new creative curriculum for September 2011 which inspires all children; enabling all to reach their potential, in particular in writing, and which includes: working with practitioners; able gifted and talented, SEN; EAL and use of new technologies across the curriculum and a focus on speaking and listening activities: role play, drama, films and visual images and working outside including Forest schools.
The school focussed this into an enquiry question:“How can we use our developing creative curriculum to support purposeful writing across the whole curriculum, to enable all children to consistently achieve their best?” However on reflection the project was actually looking at how best to support staff in the development of their planning and their teaching and learning practice. As the school were taking a huge risk in re-writing its curriculum and changing practice in school, it was ‘safer’ to have a question that focussed on children although ultimately the success of the programme was due to staff.
For pupils the aim was for the project to result in:
For staff the project was around taking risks, challenging how they planned and prepared for the children’s learning, deepening the reflection on the impact of approaches used to then build on this further. It was important that staff would feel comfortable and excited talking about the learning in the classroom and that they knew it was ok for not everything to work as long as they could discuss openly what had worked, what hadn’t, why, the impact of that and what they could do next. Other areas included supporting staff to enable children to lead on the use of display around the school as well as involving wider stakeholders in the process. Ultimately the aim was to see the planning and delivery approaches being used outside of the time the practitioners were in, maintaining and developing the creative curriculum on a daily basis.
A team of 4 very experienced practitioners joined the Creative Agent, working across the school including Nursery. The team were already experienced at re-designing curriculums and in a coaching and mentoring approach to working with teachers. Three of the practitioners were also creative agents for other schools so had a wealth of experience of the Creative Partnerships programme and all had been practitioners on many CP projects before. All but 1 of the team had worked on the pilot term that ran in Year 1 of Change School.
The programme as planned consisted of the following:
Each year group planned a curriculum that took 1) the knowledge, skills and values they wished the children to learn 2) the interests of the children and their preferred styles of learning 3) the interests of the staff and skills they have 4) the national curriculum coverage. Topics and themes across the year covering all the subjects and key activities (such as Mothers Day etc) were woven in.
The daily/weekly planning proforma developed in the previous years project was used as the starting point for developing topics in detail with attention on:
- 1. the ‘wow’ (what will engage children)
- 2. what visit or visitor will be incorporated
- 3. what the parental involvement will be
- 4. outputs (at least one written and one creative)
An overview of the topics were held by the SLT in order to ensure curriculum coverage and to make sure there wasn’t any repetition or overlap. Subject leaders also looked at coverage and the challenge provided by the topics and activities planned.
A significant aspect of the creative curriculum was to consider how parents could engage with the topic. This ranged from parents coming into the classroom to participate alongside children or be led by them, supporting children when they went out of the school on a trip, participating in homework activities and in attending sharing events led by the children. Previously there had been a tension between very enthusiastic parents and ‘The Curriculum’, with staff often feeling under pressure and under the microscope (many parents are successful professionals, some of whom are teachers themselves). By finding a way to harness the parents within the curriculum, teachers were placed in a greater position to discuss the learning, and how activities supported their child’s development. An example of child-led planning was with the Pirates and Treasure Island work – the hook was a message in a bottle inviting children in. The project was linked throughout to curriculum objectives – eg to science for example through looking at how to create a circuit for electricity on the island.
The planning process between staff and creative practitioners ensured that staff were comfortable with the plans using the staff and children’s interests in the design, there was a measured level of challenge and risk taking with enough structure and confidence for teachers and teaching assistants to deliver the majority of it without the practitioners. There were elements that had greater risk or required more specialist support or expertise and this is where the practitioners went into the classroom. This is where the practitioners often had a traditional role seeing them using storytelling, dance, role-play/drama and visual arts e.g. working in role as part of an expedition to the Himalayas, as Nelson Mandela’s jailer, or as a guide to finding the Gingerbread Man. The creative model Mantle of the Expert often underpinned the approaches.
The planning cycle saw the practitioners meet at the end of the term in order to reflect on the topics that had recently taken place to then plan in detail what would happen next. This cycle of planning and reflection enabled staff from across the year group to work together rather than just check in with each other, deepening the level of conversation around learning and unpicking the detail of success and challenges. This was a very important part of the process and although could appear similar to that which existed before the programme, the nature of questions from the practitioners ensured that rich discussions took place as well as enable staff to take the opportunity to validate and celebrate the development in their practice.
The permission signalled from the Head Teacher for all to take the risk and create something new, was incredibly significant in making the change happen. When the Head Teacher first came to the school (part way through the previous year) the culture of teaching was quite traditional with pockets of creativity (largely as arts activities) and an emphasis on achieving high results. Throughout the Creative Partnerships programme Inset days have brought together individuals as a unified staff team and they have struggled with and achieved an understanding of creativity and what it means for a creative curriculum. Without this permission and without the constant challenge to take risks, it would have been very easy to tinker with the notion of creativity and to stay safe, although the target of progression for children was never lost. Additionally the commitment from staff to persevere when there were challenges has also been crucial. Not all ideas have worked as much as imagined and there has been a real need for staff to take a leap of faith by working with the ideas they had developed with practitioners as well as allow themselves to allow topics to unfold as the children lead the direction. They have had to learn that targets are not to be feared as a stick to beat them with but as a way of measuring the success of the learning. All of this demonstrates the change of culture that has been required in school in order to make the changes, understand and appreciate the impact, and sustain it.
There were a number of things that impacted on how creative and innovative this programme was for the school. The planning tools were developed by the practitioners specifically for the school, taking on board feedback from staff and from understanding the components needed for the curriculum to not only be creative but robust and successful. The ‘wow’ element ensured there was an interest or hook into the learning, usually this was driven by an interest such as Pirates and often had an element of role play required, such as corresponding with an unknown person. The visit or visitor aspect ensured that there would be an element of taking the children out somewhere or bringing someone in, to connect them to the wider world and provide them with an experience additional to the teacher and classroom, to enhance their learning. The outputs gave a robust opportunity for evidencing the learning as well as usually a creative output for the work whether it was in making a model or creating a live piece for sharing. As the project progressed it became frequent within a project that there would be a sharing element in order to provide an audience with experiences of the learning and a public way of children reflecting with others on their experiences.
Most significant for the children was the shift from being those who received learning to being leaders and equal participants in learning. This didn’t require a culture change for the children. What they demonstrated was the ease in which they could make it happen and the impact of their engagement, enjoyment and motivation for learning in turn propelled the staff to develop and build on the work further.
Specific measured change showed that in all year groups more children were working at an above average level in 2010-2011 than in 2009-2010. Children in Reception with average or above levels of writing increased by 9% from 69% in Nursery to 82% in Reception with an increase of 48% of those above average. Children in Year 1 with average or above levels of writing increased by 21% from 60% in Reception to 81% in Year 1 with an increase of 47% of those above average found that:
Other measured change showed Children:
For staff the changes were that almost all staff, teachers and teaching assistants, have taken risks and tried new creative approaches. They are more trusting of the children, allowing them to make more choices in their learning and to shape the direction of topics, unpicking ideas that do and don’t work to learn from them. The Year 1 teachers and teaching assistant have researched and used Mantle of the Expert extending the work with the practitioner.
A whole new creative curriculum has been developed collaboratively and a structure put in place to keep this fresh.
This project helped to meet directly one of the schools priorities ‘To write a new creative curriculum for 2011, which inspires all children enabling all to reach their potential particularly in writing.’ The school is now in a very strong position as all staff were excited by and engaged in the process after a successful summer term using this model. Priority now is to make the most of the support the practitioners brought and capture the evidence so that a case is made to Governors re continued funding beyond Creative Partnerships. To date the school have committed to funding one of the practitioners to come back in at least one day per term – they have applied for funding from Solihull for extra funds.
Creativity is now at the heart of the curriculum and this is reflected in the new Teaching & Learning Policy, in the staff meetings and planning sessions and the way they monitor the children. The planning and reflection cycle that feeds the new curriculum is now fully established and the principles and expectations are also in place backed by the new Teaching and Learning policy. The time that staff have received will continue as it has and the budget available for supporting the curriculum will continue to be used on resources and practitioners to support plans. There is confidence that the work will not only be sustained but built on further as teachers and teaching assistants continue to build on their practice. The final review identified the key areas to continue, which are largely around looking at furthering the role of children as leaders and taking greater leadership of their learning. There are also ambitions to look at how the environment, displays and learning journals can be developed further.
The Creative Agent as part of legacy funding was working with the SLT to create a new recruitment pack and process to ensure that any new staff who come to the school are recruited through a process that compliments the vision and curriculum now in place. An induction pack and process will also see that any new staff starting at Woodlands can understand how the new curriculum works and expectations of their role in the school.
Project Title: Enabling Children To Be Their Best
School: Woodlands Infant School, Solihull
Creative Agent: Claire Marshall