Creativity can boost pupil confidence and achievement
A £20m arts project in schools is having a positive impact says Diane Hebb, director of engagement and participation at Arts Council of Wales
THE importance of imagination and creativity in helping us see beyond the obvious is at the heart of the ground-breaking programme, Creative Learning Through The Arts – an action plan for Wales.
It’s an extensive hive of activity to the tune of £20m across five years, jointly funded by the Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government.
Now in its third year, this ambitious programme is giving us the opportunity to re-boot the way we think about and support the role that arts and creativity play in the education of our young people.
In developing creative learning through the arts – we knew it couldn’t just be about promoting access to the arts in school, important though this is – we were interested in delving deeper, and seeing whether creative techniques could invigorate learning across the whole curriculum, raising levels of attainment for all while narrowing the gap between the best and the least well performing learners.
The programme has two main building blocks. The first, the Lead Creative Schools Scheme, supports schools to develop bespoke programmes designed to enrich and improve learning and teaching.
Through the scheme, pupils and teachers have been working with many of Wales’ best artists and creative professionals to design and experience a range of cross curricular projects.
The primary aim of the scheme, as well as improving attainment, is to improve literacy and numeracy through creative approaches to learning.
Part of our work, as an Arts Council is to ensure that all children, particularly those from less well off-backgrounds, have greater access to highquality arts and creative experiences during their time at school and in doing so, support improvements in motivation, behaviour and attainment. Working with regional school improvement consortia we are providing schools in Wales with a fantastic opportunity to work with some of Wales’ leading creative professionals and improvements are already evident in participating schools.
As we move towards the new curriculum, where creativity will be one of the four key purposes, we can already see the improvements, with 548 schools already benefitting from the Lead Creative Schools scheme and more to follow.
Schools are already telling us about increased confidence amongst learners participating in the scheme. Pupils talk about the excitement of working more collaboratively with fellow pupils, artists and with teachers.
All of this in turn, we are told, results in more meaningful engagement from pupils, a decrease in absences and improvements in attainment - results that have so far exceeded all expectations.
Examples of written feedback from pupils include: “I felt I wanted to come to school to do the project; excited, enthusiastic, energetic” and “I wanted to come to school more to do the project.”
The scheme is about teacher development too. Central to the Lead Creative Schools methodology is the training programme and deployment of creative agents and creative practitioners matched to schools following a training programme.
Creativity brings with it the ability to question, make connections, innovate, problem solve, communicate, collaborate and to reflect critically, the skills young people will need if they are to take responsibility for their own learning.
These skills also enable them to adapt to and manage change, and are the skills demanded by today’s employers. Above all, creative learning empowers young people to imagine how the world could be different and gives them the confidence and motivation to make positive change happen.
The ambition of the scheme is one of whole-school change, adopting an approach across the school community.
Participating schools talk about teachers changing their practice, having witnessed the impact of creativity on their pupils.
One teacher said: “The project has given me the confidence to allow my lesson to be more pupil-led which in turn encouraged a deeper level of learning.
“By allowing the pupils to lead, it made me more aware of the pupil’s abilities and their capabilities.”
Lead Creative Schools are inspiring, motivating and developing learners’ skills and are supporting
the work towards the new Curriculum for Wales by promoting the creative skills for life which Professor Graham Donaldson outlined as being important in his Successful Futures review.
One case study is Ysgol Bryn Deva in, Connah’s Quay. Their project focussed on improving boys’ writing through a change in mind set, and developing confidence and a willingness to write, producing a very positive outcome for a class of year five pupils.
Using the history of the River Dee, a local historian and a heritage expert supported their work and provided a range of resources.
The project led to an improvement in the learners’ ability to work together as a team. Learners developed the ability to work closely, supporting and encouraging each other along the way.
There was a clear shift in mind set during the project. Learners felt more confident and were more willing to give things a go and persevere when things became difficult.
An Estyn report on the project last year said: “As part of the project to encourage boys’ literacy, staff worked with the local Watermen’s Association to build a ship in the form of a dragon and sail it on the River Dee with smoke from a flare billowing from its prow. This dramatically inspired pupils’ reading and writing.”
This initiative is all about complementing and supporting schools’ current programmes of work.
It’s about nurturing and developing the creativity of learners so that they achieve their potential.
We want to make sure that in a rapidly changing world, our children and young people are able to meet the needs of the economy and to thrive within the increasingly competitive environment of day to day life.
The second building block of the programme, the Experiencing the Arts Fund has awarded over 240 grants to schools and arts organisations since launching last year.
The Go and See fund is supporting visits to high-quality arts events, while the more ambitiousc an apply for support from a Creative Collaborations fund. This allows those schools that want to work in a more sustained way with an arts, cultural or heritage organisation to develop more innovative and ambitious projects.
One teacher told us: “I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that our learners would be sitting here having a philosophy lesson and being completely engaged with it the whole time.
“This had a positive impact on the staff, who felt that they were then able to adapt their own lessons using similar approaches and provocations, recognising that far from detracting from curriculum content, these workshops would actually serve to enhance curriculum content.”
Unsurprisingly, this programme is confirming the rather obvious point that different children learn in different ways. Acknowledging this and doing something meaningful about it are two separate things.
It’s often difficult to cater for varying needs in a classroom environment. Bringing creativity into the mix provides teachers and learners with new techniques for a motivational learning experience.
In three years’ time we’ll know how well it’s worked. We hope to be able to offer clear, measurable proof that the approach deserves continued investment.
Some achievements can be measured through school attendance and attainment but teachers are telling us about how they observe children growing in confidence, taking the lead in group situations and of improvements in decision-making skills.
The programme is unashamedly ambitious. It’s about nurturing and developing creativity, broadening experience, improving academic success, developing crucial life skills and igniting the dreams of our young people.
For more information on Creative learning through the arts you can visit: www.arts.wales/arts-inwales/creative-learning