Creative Schools for a Creative Future: how Wales is leading the way

Creative Education: the best way forward for our accelerated age

While the education world continues to debate what effective 21st Century Learning might look like, Welsh schools are simply making it happen.

When it comes to education it is a truism to say we all want the best for our children. Whether we are teachers or family members our ambitions, naturally, are for the next generation to fulfil their potential, to develop a love of learning, and to lead positive, purposeful lives. But that general sense of wishing young people well for their future, if education policy and media commentary are anything to go by, is about all we can agree on.

The various methods and means that can best unlock children's potential continue to be a matter for heated debate. And everyone, it seems, has an opinion on the subject. Even if you’re not a teacher, you probably did once go to school yourself and those memories of history text books, PE, poems, times tables and art are often quick to surface and help shape passionately held views among the general public.

Employers freely share their views too, lamenting a lack of ‘work-readiness’ among school leaver recruits and graduates, implying the education sector should do more to develop attributes that will be helpful in the workplace.

However, as is often the case with these kinds of debate, the educational sweet spot lies somewhere between the two extremes. For an example of the kind of balance that can be struck look no further than Wales, where there is a national programme underway - Creative Learning Through the Arts. This Welsh Government and Arts Council Wales funded initiative is part of a response to Professor Dai Smith’s report on the review of Arts in Education in the Schools of Wales.

In 2014 Welsh Government pledged to develop a plan which would formally assert the central role which we envisage for arts education in the schools of Wales, which would also deliver commitment to maximise participation and develop an action plan for arts and you people. The programme appears to tread the fine line between tradition and innovation by forging links between artists and other creative professionals who then partner with teachers to devise innovative educational experiences that enthuse and inspire.

What makes the Welsh approach to creative education unique is twofold. First, these innovative arts and creative projects do not float free as one-off events. Instead, they are rooted in each school’s on-going development plan, with explicit demands for continuing professional development and knowledge sharing that incrementally extend and improve teacher repertoires. So sustainability is built into the planning and delivery of all projects. Second, CLTA does not seek to replace all existing approaches to teaching with a new all-encompassing doctrine. Rather, they suggest a blend of methods that can be best summed up in the concept of the ‘high functioning classroom’.

Such classrooms operate in ways that move between teacher-led, structured interventions and more open, exploratory student-centred learning. At times the teacher will strongly guide the learner at other times they will set a challenge and give children space to explore possibilities, make mistakes without being judged and have multiple attempts to find answers or solutions. Understanding how and when to move between these approaches requires subtlety and understanding, but it is certainly achievable.

In Wales many teachers are finding that working alongside artists is broadening their own skills. Having a clear sense of what less structured activities can look and feel like, how managing space and time for learning can be differently conceived, and how children are capable of designing aspects of their own activities is eye opening.

The arts are so conducive to cultivating high functioning classrooms because, generally, regardless of the artform, they can be integrated into school in such ways that they are wholly and multi-dimensionally put into the service of the learning mind. There are skills to be taught, and facts that are important to know of course, but woven in and through these basics are many moments where the teacher will need to let go and the child will have space to self-identify as a ‘learner’ at the heart of their own journey. This sense of ownership of learning is a key step in establishing a positive and engaged disposition towards school and greatly increases the chances of succeeding by more traditional measures such as summative tests and exams.

So if creative classrooms in Wales seem are reshaping the quality of learning for young people there. Why is this important and is it in children’s best interests?

To answer that, it is useful to quote from a recent speech by Andreas Schliecher, the OECDs Division Head and coordinator of the Programme for International Student Assessment - PISA. Addressing delegates at a conference on Creativity and Education he said:

“The kind of industrial approach to schooling, where children were educated in batches by age, and all go through the same standardised and prefabricated curriculum hasn’t really been conducive to nurturing the creativity and innovation that we need in this accelerated age…the skills that are easiest to teach and to test are also the skills easiest to digitise, automate and outsource.”

So it is vital that children are prepared for a world changing more rapidly than ever before by having the capacity to build new competencies and to switch lanes multiple times throughout their working lives. Flexibility and resilience will be key characteristics required to succeed.

Creative Learning Through the Arts continues to build as a potentially transformative programme in Wales. At the time of writing the programme is in its second year and is working within over 220 schools. With £20 million jointly invested by ACW and Welsh Government the stakes are certainly high. However with a new curriculum about to be established nationally in Wales, one that places greater emphasis on the kinds of skills and attributes Andreas Schleicher would see as directly addressing 21st Century challenges, the creative skills fostered by the artists and teachers working in partnership are likely to offer an excellent foundation. The interim evaluation of the programme can be found here: http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/evaluation-creative-learning-through-the-arts-programme/?lang=en

Teachers are excited and energised by these new ways of teaching and learning. In an upcoming event at Tate Modern in April teachers from Wales will join others from English schools who have been collaborating on creative pedagogies to reflect on experiences and hone their skills. This is key because so many arts based interventions have failed to gain traction in the past through a lack of attention to teacher development. It is only by giving teachers the chance to develop their own creative capacities that the benefits of an arts-rich approach to education can be sustained.