Anderton St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School

Creativity Project Evaluation – Spring Term 2008

The aim of the project was to enhance creative teaching and learning at St. Joseph’s through the use of a thematic approach, which innovatively linked curriculum areas and provided an enriched and stimulating programme of learning experiences.

During the Autumn ‘07 and Spring ‘08 terms, the children in Key Stage 2 took part in a range of cross curricular activities relating to the history topic of the Tudors.

Project Outline

At St. Josephs we recognise the broad range of learning styles within our pupils. In order to appeal to the whole learning community we aimed to provide a variety of creative approaches to deliver the project such as; Drama Dance Visual arts Handling artefacts Music – Vocal and instrumental Embracing new technologies Educational visits and visitors

In adopting these multi-sensory approaches we believed that this would provide a ‘way in’ for all pupils to be motivated to learn and potentially spark new interests.

Creative Approaches

The school recognised a need to develop the thinking and questioning skills of the children, to enhance speaking and listening, creative writing and to further challenge the more able children, so that they could apply these skills across the curriculum. Therefore we chose to develop the following areas;•Core Subject – Literacy•Foundation Subjects – History and Music•Skills – Creativity (particular focus on questioning skills)•Attributes – Empathy (particular focus on other people’s perspective)•Local Authority Expertise – Museum Service and Music Service

Creative Approaches

This lead to the development of the following project objectives;- to improve the quality and diversity of questioning, by both children and staff - to enhance the confidence of staff in taking a more creative approach to planning and delivering the curriculum - to teach key skills, using a cross curricular, thematic approach to planning, teaching and assessment - to improve creative writing and speaking and listening skills with particular focus on the more able children in KS2 - to develop creative partnerships with the Museum and Music service in order to impact on the quality of learning and the confidence of teaching staff

Project Objectives

Success CriteriaWe decided the project would be successful if there was evidence of;

- enhanced teacher confidence in applying this ‘thematic’ approach to planning, teaching and assessment- improved quality of questioning by children and staff so that ‘thinking’ is challenged, considering alternative perspectives, views and approaches- an improvement in creative writing with particular focus on cohorts of more able children in Key Stage 2

Organisation•The project, which involved the whole of Key Stage 2, ran for two terms from September 2007 to March 2008.•To enhance in-house skills, we enlisted support from specialist practitioners such as Gail Bonney from the Museums Loan Service, Tudor music specialists ‘Tapestry of Music’ and a Tudor Jester.•To effectively deliver the project, Key Stage 2 staff planned collaboratively to ensure that cross-curricular links were maximised and there was continuity and progression in the key skills for all pupils. This team approach allowed staff to support each other and make optimum use of their skills. •Flexible timetabling allowed for a more thematic approach to teaching as discrete subjects merged into cross-curricularised lessons.

Whole School Involvement•The initial proposal and project outline was prepared by the SMT and History Subject Leader (who was to lead the project)

•This team then held further planning meetings before project tasks were disseminated to other stakeholders.

•The allocation of tasks is demonstrated by the following mind map. All stakeholders had an important part to play to ensure success.

Our ProjectThis short presentation was made by pupils in Years 4 and 5. It shows some of the practical activities undertaken during the project and was shared with parents at a special assembly celebrating our achievements.

Monitoring and EvaluationHow did we measure success?1.Pupils enjoyed and gained significant subject knowledge from the project – Monitored through final evaluations in pupils’ History books and discussion with project leader.2.Pupils were more confident about asking and answering questions – This was monitored through AGT workshops, lesson observations and assessment for learning practices. An INSET session from the Museum Loan Service provided an opportunity for staff to develop their questioning skills through the use of artefacts within the classroom. During observations, staff increased their use of open questions.3.Collaborative planning led to a more coherent vision for the project – This was monitored through subject leader work scrutiny.4.Improvements in creative writing were monitored through Subject Leader and Class Teacher assessments but further, in-depth analysis will be undertaken in the Summer term when more formal assessments take place. Within the classroom, creative writing activities set within the project led to the re-evaluation of pupils’ individual writing targets and learning was further personalised by the use of the ‘two stars and a wish’ principle.5.Although we did not pursue our partnership with the Music Service, our link with Museum Loans enabled pupils to experience a more hands-on approach to history through the handling and observation of artefacts – this was demonstrated through work in pupils’ books and discussion with the Project Leader.

Impact The following film clips demonstrate the impact of the project across the school:

KS2 pupils Ruth, Jack, Laura and Christopher

Governor Mr F Webster

Year 6 teacher Mr S Merrick

ImpactThe following film clips demonstrate the impact of the project across the school:

ParentMrs D. Trott

Deputy Head TeacherMiss M Singleton

Head TeacherMrs MT Bamber

Next Steps

Although the project has now ended, it has led to other developments which will have a long term impact within the school:-

1. A skills based curriculum is being developed for all foundation subjects which will help us to monitor progression in skills development throughout the school. Staff will be able to gather evidence of learning easily to monitor effectiveness. These skills will underpin all learning which was previously knowledge led.

2. Staff are using more creative approaches to planning and delivering the curriculum. Year 5 are currently leading a multimodal geography project – drawing upon the skills of individual pupils. This has ensured a more personalised learning experience .

3. We expect to integrate a thematic planning approach to teachers’ planning over the next twelve months.

4. We will be looking for opportunities to work with cluster schools to access a greater range of learning opportunities for our pupils.

Future ProjectsIn light of this experience, were we to plan another project,we would:-•Refine the project at bid stage so that we were focussing on fewer objectives and aims. We felt, in hindsight, that thisproject was too wide. At times this made it hard to monitor and assess impact.•Run the project over a shorter timescale so that momentum was not lost. We felt that the period after Christmas was a hiatus.•Involve members of our local community to make learning relevant to pupils’ daily lives.•Base all learning on subject skills, which can be easily assessed and monitored.

SummaryThis project offered a unique opportunity to develop creativity within our school. The support and grant from Lancashire LEAmeant that we could concentrate on raising achievementwithin Key Stage 2 while being able to take risks in our delivery of the curriculum. All school stakeholders felt that they had benefited from the project in some way and the enjoyment andengagement of the pupils was evident throughout. Staff weregiven a scaffold to try out new approaches and we were all challenged to consider the methodology of our teaching when we discovered the possibilities that skill based learning could afford.We would definitely consider becoming involved in other projectsand are actively seeking cluster opportunities to develop ourcreativity. Our eyes and minds have been opened to new ideas!