Creative Partnerships: Enquiry School Programme

The Creative Partnerships Enquiry School programme worked with schools over the period of one year to explore how creative teaching and learning could enhance their practice.

In the Enquiry Schools programme schools engaged in a creative learning programme targeted at a specific group of pupils and teachers. They decided, with the help of a Creative Agent assigned to them by Cre8us, on a specific focus for their programme in relation to the broader needs of their school.

The key characteristic of Enquiry Schools was collaboration between the school, creative professionals and young people, helping to bring the curriculum to life, providing new ways for learners to engage with subjects and develop increased motivation for learning.  All Creative Partnerships programmes allowed time for in-depth planning, co-delivery and reflection.

Successful projects involved a broad range of creative professions from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds including scientists, artists, musicians, architects, designers, engineers, actors, gardeners and chefs.

Through the Enquiry School programme, we worked with schools to explore what creativity is and what it can unlock for their practice, their teachers, their pupils, their families and their communities.  Enquiry Schools were able to explore:

• what it really means for young people to be creative and how you can recognise this;
• what it is that teachers and other creative professionals actually do to encourage and develop that creativity, either working individually or together;
• how the setting and focus of learning affects creativity both in class and at school level;
• how creativity can drive improvement in an area important to the school, as identified within the School's Improvement Plan.

Funding:

Cre8us provided Enquiry Schools with a grant of £3,000 and schools match-funded this with a 25% contribution from the school of £1000.  This funding helped creative practitioners and external partners to develop a focused programme of enquiry-based learning with school staff and pupils, and created professional development opportunities with staff.  Building on existing expertise in the school, funding created space, time and resources to try new ideas, take risks and extend practice.

The role of creative professionals:

A distinctive feature of the Creative Partnerships programme was the Creative Agent: an experienced creative professional who is highly skilled in working in educational settings.  Enquiry schools were entitled to six days of Creative Agent time.

Creative Agents relied upon their practical experience of creativity and acted as a catalyst and helped schools identify creative practitioners, advise on programme development and project management.

How did the Enquiry School programme work?

What the approach looked like in schools in the form of projects varied greatly, as the programmes and the projects within them were designed to be individual responses to the needs of each school.  Please follow this link to find out more information about how the Enquiry School programme worked.

Please see the downloadable FAQ pdf document below for more information on the Enquiry School programme.