Lifting the Lid defined educational creativity in the following terms:
- Connecting: seeing relationships and combining in new ways
- Risking: having the self-confidence and freedom to fail and keep trying
- Envisaging: being original and imaginative about what might be
- Analysing: asking critical and challenging questions
- Thinking: taking time for reflection and soft thinking
- Interacting: sharing ideas and collaborating
- Varying: testing options and trying different ways
- Elaborating: exploring, fiddling, doing the unnecessary
Designing a creative curriculum
Lifting the Lid proposed six key messages for creative curriculum design:
- Focus on curriculum creativity by:
- Encouraging imagination and originality
- Making time to reflect critically
- Allowing space for thinking and choice
- Giving freedom to fail with the confidence to try again
- Create a culture of collaboration by:
- Sharing values and ethos with the whole school community
- Promoting the importance of talk and collaboration in consolidating learning
- Ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn from others
- Promoting teamwork and detailed planning
- Developing a distributed style that shares ownership and draws others into the organisation
- Emphasise cognitive approaches by:
- Advocating a range of teaching strategies and learning styles
- Promoting the importance of learning across the curriculum
- Encouraging teachers to make children active partners in their learning
- Encouraging teachers to structure tasks and pace of learning to make it challenging and enjoyable
- Make a real commitment to the community by:
- Promoting the importance of dynamic partnership
- Involving parents and carers at every opportunity
- Focusing on the importance of the learning environment
- Extending involvement into the local community and beyond
- Balance continuity and change through:
- Positive and productive performance management
- Inspirational and interactive professional development
- Making staff feel valued
- Promote child-centredness by:
- Promoting personal, social and spiritual aspects of the curriculum
- Encouraging teachers to develop each child’s confidence, self-discipline and understanding of their learning
- Encouraging teachers to make learning vivid, real and meaningful with many first-hand experiences
The report suggests that staff need time to teach and enjoy a creative curriculum that allows them to use their imagination and feel more motivated. Senior leaders should:
- Think with staff about how children really learn best
- Decide which curriculum model best promotes creativity in children and staff
- Try individual initiatives to excite learners and staff
- Reclaim time and space in the curriculum for creative thinking
- Be brave and individualistic
Lifting the lid on the creative curriculum, National College (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/download?id=17281&filename=lifting-the-lid-on-the-creative-curriculum-full-report.pdf
Implementing a creative curriculum
Below is a case study from the Leading Aspect Award, which shows how a school has interpreted its creative curriculum, focusing it towards developing enterprise skills.
Developing enterprising pupils through a creative curriculum built around enterprise skills, Leading Aspect Award
http://www.leadingaspectaward.org.uk/studies/view/?c=152&t=0&b=%2fstudies%2fsearch%2fdefault.aspx%3fp%3d2%26text%3dcreative%2bcurriculum
Creative curriculum audit
North Somerset Council gives an outline of a creative curriculum, showing its core principles and characteristics. This can be used as a simple auditing tool.
The core principles include:
- A thematic approach to teaching and learning
- Working in depth to give children the time they need to consolidate learning
- Placing direct experience at the centre of the curriculum
The creative curriculum, North Somerset Council (Word doc file)
http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/3AC63657-D340-45E0-92EA-A00EE4AA2D08/0/document_QCOfTheCreativeCurriculum.doc
Partnerships
Creativity Culture and Education delivers Creative Partnerships. This is a learning programme which has been running since 2002, and brings creative workers (e.g. artists, architects and scientists) into schools.
These practitioners work with teachers on creative problem-solving projects and techniques to help engage learners, improve behaviour, teach skills, and drive academic performance. The programme is delivered through a range of organisations which work locally.
Creativity Culture and Education
http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/
Lancashire Grid for Learning runs courses on creative curriculum design to help schools develop:
- Creative teaching
- Creative ways to plan the timetable or school day
- Enrichment activities
Curriculum design, creative learning, Lancashire Grid for Learning
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/creativelearning/index.php?category_id=1