The resources have now been published to inspire teachers across the country, as part of a national pilot funded by Arts Council England and Freelands Foundation:
The toolkit was officially launched during the Penryn Creativity Collaborative Symposium, which took place at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus on Tuesday, March 26.
Creativity Collaboratives kicked off in October 2021, when Arts Council England announced funding of £2,780,000 (A$5,321,000) to build a network of schools that would test a range of innovative approaches to teaching for creativity. The Penryn Partnership was selected as one of the eight national pilots, led by Penryn College.
The eight lead schools each work with a network of at least a further eight schools and the networks trial varied methods of teaching that help children and young people develop their creative capabilities and evaluate their effectiveness.
The pilot runs until July this year, and testing is ongoing into teaching approaches and curriculum development, which can then be applied more widely throughout the British education system.
Delegates from across Cornwall and beyond attended the March 26 event, with local industry and cultural partners taking part in a ‘sofa debate’ to explore the importance of creative skills in a modern Cornish workforce.
Following the toolkit’s launch, Penryn College headteacher, Tamsin Schouten, said it has been written by teachers, leaders and researchers to inspire teaching and learning but nationally.
“We hope that these resources support others to discover the power that teaching for creativity can bring to both primary and secondary classrooms, allowing our students to become better prepared for a future workforce,” Schouten said.
The Penryn Creativity Collaborative toolkit has been created to support those wanting to develop creative pedagogy in the classroom, and has grown out of a year of Action Research during 2022/23.
Resources include ideas that ‘You Might Like to Try’, serving as lesson plans for teachers; ‘Creativity Is Everywhere’, exemplifying the Penryn Creativity Collaborative creative skills across the curriculum; and ‘Developing Creativity Across the Curriculum’, which includes resources from the University of Exeter on how to develop Action Research (a research method that aims to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue) across schools.
Liz Westhead, head of Humanities at Penryn College, was part of the team that helped develop the toolkit. She believes there is a moral imperative of embedding creative pedagogy and skills into classroom practice.
“Creative pedagogy deepens understanding; students are engaging in more memorable learning whilst also developing the creative skills they need for their futures,” Westhead said.
University of Exeter’s Associate Professor Kerry Chappell, said their research shows how teachers’ own Action Research embeds understanding of teaching for creativity much more deeply than if teachers are trained in techniques.
“We are extremely excited to be able to pass on this understanding through the creative toolkit for more teachers nationally to encourage their students’ creativity,” Chappell said.
Sir Nicholas Serota, the chair of Arts Council England, opened as the symposium’s keynote speaker.
“Each day, teachers and pupils at the schools in the Creativity Collaboratives are making changes – some big and bold, some small and simple, but all highly effective in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning,” he said.
“To thrive in a world where they [young people] will have to adapt to seismic changes and switch careers with greater frequency than their grandparents, or even parents, did – young people will need the confidence, resilience and spirit of enterprise that creativity encourages.”
At Penryn College, the project is led by Sarah Childs as lead practitioner, with the research study led and facilitated by Associate Professor Chappell, and University of Exeter Creative Arts Lecturer and Researcher, Ursula Crickmay.
To check out the Penryn Creativity Collaborative toolkit, click here.
