The Lead Creative Schools Scheme is a partnership between the Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government in which creative professionals work with teachers and senior leaders in schools to co-construct the teaching and learning opportunities within the school classroom and wider school environment.
The scheme strongly resonates with the values and vision of Curriculum for Wales. The four purposes are embodied in projects, a factor teachers have noted throughout and is illustrated in the case studies below.
The Scheme is, by its very nature, learner-focused and enquiry based. It has provided teachers and creative professionals with the opportunity to co-design their own learning opportunities in the classroom and wider school with the learners at the very centre. This allows learners to grow in motivation, engagement and confidence – developing life-long skills and dispositions which they can transfer to the world of work and society.
Key principles
An enquiry approach, considering the individual challenges and needs of the school.
Teacher and Creative Professional working together – co-constructing the learning.
Professional development ‘in situ’ combined with ongoing reflective dialogue.
Learners ideas, voice and interests central to the direction of learning.
Aim of raising motivation, engagement and attainment whilst developing and embedding learner skills and dispositions to realise the four purposes.
Key considerations:
Which school development priority or cohort of learners could be the focus of a creative approach to teaching and learning?
Do we give our staff the permission to vary and adapt pedagogy to engage their learners?
How do we authentically include learners’ ideas, thoughts and interests in the unfolding design of their learning?
Do we have the opportunity to collaborate with creative professionals to utilise their wider experience and different approach to creative learning to co-construct the learning within the classroom?
Have we the opportunity to use different areas of the school for learning – the outdoors, the school hall, corridors?
Do we encourage learners to be inquisitive, imaginative, collaborative, persistent and disciplined?
Do we encourage an environment of reflective dialogue about the nature of learning in an open and honest collaborative learning environment?