‘The expressive arts provide opportunities for children and young people to explore, refine and communicate ideas, engaging their thinking, imagination and senses creatively’  Successful Futures

 

We are very proud to have been a Lead Creative School over the past four years.

Wales, like many countries in the world, is currently undertaking a radical review of its education system. This review is the result of numerous reports and research that suggests the current curriculum is not equipping children adequately for the rapidly changing world we live in. To find out more try this talk by Sir Ken Robinson ‘Changing Education Paradigms ’ which gives some interesting background to the current review of education in Wales.

The Future Jobs Report published by the World Economic Forum outlines the top 10 skills needed as we move into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Creativity will become one of the top three skills workers will need. In this fast changing world of new technologies and new ways of working, we are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes.

Sir Ken Robinson defines creativity as follows ‘Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.’    He suggests that creativity is about imagination and innovation. He says ‘Imagination is the root of creativity. It is the ability to bring to mind things that aren’t present to our senses. Creativity is putting your imagination to work. It is applied imagination. Innovation is putting new ideas into practice.’

The curriculum review for Wales carried out by Professor Donaldson in ‘Successful Futures’ and Professor Dai Smith highlight the importance of creativity in education. Professor Dai Smith writes in his report: ‘In a twenty-first century, schooling will increasingly become the basis of a creative society, of a creative economy and a creative culture. Creativity or being open to the acquisition of new knowledge and innovative skills, will shape our world like no other force imaginable’

Sir Ken Robinson also argues that we are all born creative and that in fact we educate the creativity out of children, his talk ‘Do schools kill creativity’ raises some interesting questions and is well worth a watch.

Our successful application to become a Lead Creative School gives us an opportunity to shape our curriculum and address one of core aims “Deliver a stimulating and innovative curriculum that challenges, excites and inspires pupils to achieve their best’ You can read more about the Lead Creative Schools Project in ‘Creative learning through the arts –an action plan for Wales’.