Category Archives: Research and Strategy

Wales’ Lead Creative Schools Scheme

The Lead Creative Schools Scheme is part of the Welsh Government and Arts Council of Wales joint funded programme Creative learning through the arts – an action plan for Wales 2015-2020.

The programme, which is expected to form part of the 2020 new school curriculum, is designed to:

  •  Increase and improve arts experiences and opportunities in schools
  •  Improve attainment through creativity
  •  Support teachers and arts practitioners in developing their skills

Creative agents and practitioners are working with schools across Wales, using music, art, spoken word and other creative formats to help improve literacy, numeracy and other curriculum subjects, as well as help improve life skills and general confidence and well-being amongst young people.

Below is an overview of where the scheme is so far:

Wales is leading the way with a ground-breaking creative learning scheme, which puts art and creativity at the heart of education and is transforming teaching methods across the curriculum.

So far, more than 40,000 pupils from 548 schools in Wales have benefited from the innovative Lead Creative Schools Scheme, part of the Welsh Government and Arts Council of Wales joint funded £20 million programme Creative learning through the arts – an action plan for Wales 2015-2020.

The programme, which is expected to form part of the 2020 new school curriculum, is designed to use creative techniques to improve attainment, develop the skills of teachers and reduce the impact of deprivation in Wales’ primary, secondary and special schools.

 

To celebrate, 32 of the participating schools have been selected to take part in Tate Exchange at Tate Modern in London from 24 29 April, 2018. Tate Exchange is an ambitious ‘open experiment’ which allows organisations and members of the public to participate in Tate’s creative process, running events and projects on site and using art as a way of addressing wider issues in the world around us. The international foundation Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE), a Tate Exchange Associate, will be working in partnership on the delivery of the activity throughout the week.

The event will bring to life the positive impact this scheme has had on schools, teachers, pupils and the artists involved. Visitors will be taken on a journey through the ‘Five Creative Habits of Mind’ – the bespoke teaching pedagogy that underpins this bold and ambitious programme.

Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams, said:

Reducing the attainment gap between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers is at the heart of our national mission to raise standards and is also one of the driving principles behind this programme.

 Theres no better showcase for the programmes excellent work than the Tate Modern. This is testament to how well schools, teachers and learners have embraced these learning methods and I want to congratulate everyone involved.

 We are already starting to see the results of our investment, which is changing how we view the arts and creativity in relation to the school curriculum while also improving academic achievement, broadening experience and developing crucial life skills.

The Lead Creative Schools Scheme has involved matching schools with creative professionals who use teaching and learning techniques that are specifically designed to be practical and relevant to real-life curriculum demands, and provide new ways for young people to engage with subjects, developing increased motivation for learning.

 

Phil George, Chair, Arts Council of Wales, said:

This bespoke creative learning scheme isn’t just about improving access to the arts in schools, but harnessing the arts and using creative techniques to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the whole curriculum, particularly in literacy and numeracy.

 Within just three years we have already started to see that by nurturing and developing the creativity of pupils, theyre taking steps to achieve their academic potential and grow as well-rounded individuals, closing the gap between the best and least well performing pupils.

 “We’re delighted that the Lead Creative Schools Scheme has been selected as a Tate Exchange Associate to showcase some of the great creative work taking place here in Wales as part of Tate Exchange at Tate Modern in London.”

 

As well as the Lead Creative Schools Scheme, pupils in Wales can benefit from a number of other initiatives, also funded by the Creative learning through the arts programme. The All-Wales Arts and Education Offer, which includes Experiencing the arts fund and Regional arts and education networks, is designed to build on and enhance existing arts activity in Wales’ schools and to support arts organisations to broker and strengthen their relationships with education by making the arts more accessible.

 

For more information visit www.arts.wales. To find out more about Tate Exchange please visit tate.org.uk/tateexchange. For press information about Tate please email pressoffice@tate.org.uk or call 0207 887 8730. For high-resolution images visit tate.org.uk/press.

Career Education Standard 3-18: Introduction to Creativity Skills published

NEW!
Linked to the Career Education Standard 3-18
An Introduction to Creativity Skills is now available on the National Improvement Hub – complete with reflective activities, actions, and planning exercises.

http://bit.ly/CEScreativity

You can find all of the Career Education Standard resources here:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/career%20education%20standard%203-18:%20suite%20of%20learning%20resources?dm_i=LQE,5G1XD,49RSC3,L39D3,1

 

 

How well prepared is Scotland for the R&D challenges of the future?

Interesting article from Holyrood.com featuring a great example from West Dunbartonshire Council and Glasgow’s Science Centre:

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/how-well-prepared-scotland-rd-challenges-future?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Education%20Bulletin%200811&utm_content=Education%20Bulletin%200811+CID_12731b42ba8a62ddb6bf1e6f38b2ea05&utm_source=Email%20newsletters&utm_term=How%20well%20prepared%20is%20Scotland%20for%20the%20RD%20challenges%20of%20the%20future

 

Parents’ Nutshell Guide on Creativity, Enterprise and Employability

The latest National Parent Forum of Scotland nutshell guide is now available on the NPFS website: http://www.npfs.org.uk/creativity-in-a-nutshell/

Its focus is Creativity, Enterprise and Employability so we hope you will find this guide particularly useful in your work.  It is has been produced by the NPFS in partnership with Skills Development Scotland with input from a range of other partners, including NCLN representatives and  Young Enterprise Scotland.

 

It recognises the significant and increasing link between future employability and well developed  creativity skills in young people. In their 2016 report ‘The Future of Jobs’, the World Economic Forum highlighted anticipated changes in employability skills and suggested that by 2020 over one third of the skills considered important in today’s workforce will have changed. Notably, creativity will have become one of the top three skills needed to deal with the avalanche of new products, new technologies and new ways of working. https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs . As you may know, the focus on creativity and employability is also reflected in Quality Indicator 3.3 in the latest (2016) version of the school self-evaluation and improvement guide How Good is our School?

New RSA Publications – creative schools and creative systems

The Creativity Portal has two new pieces of content this week from the RSA that educators at both a school level and a senior management, strategic level will find fascinating and transformative.

RSA: Giving Schools the Power to Create – Developing creative capacities in learners and teachers

A summary paper on how schools can best develop pupils’ creative capacities by the RSA. The paper includes 12 design principles for action and offers a clear overview of the international picture on creativity skills.

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=giving+schools

 

RSA Report: Creative Public Leadership – school system leaders and system-wide innovation

A report from the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) that asks how school system leaders can create the conditions for system-wide innovation. The report sets out nine first steps to re-orient the role public system leaders might play.

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=creative+public+leadership

 

 

 

RSA Report: Creative Public Leadership – how school system leaders can create the conditions for system-wide innovation

A new report from the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) sets out nine first steps to re-orient the role public system leaders might play.

  1. Build the case for change
  2. Desist from waves of centrally-driven short-term reforms
  3. Develop outward as well as upward accountability, to learners and localities
  4. Create and protect genuine space for local curriculum designs
  5. Prioritize innovations that transform approaches to assessing students
  6. Place intentional, rigorous focus on the development of teachers’ innovation capabilities, throughout their careers
  7. Redirect some proportion of a jurisdiction’s education spending to an explicit incubator program, tasked with radically innovating on behalf of the system as a whole
  8. Build systems of collaborative peer learning to support the adaptive scaling of innovation
  9. Put system entrepreneurship at the heart of system leadership

 

https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/creative-public-leadership-how-school-system-leaders-can-create-the-conditions-for-system-wide-innovation/?utm_content=buffer20513&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

Spectacular A grade results for dance students at Eden Court

This week, Eden Court have revealed another year of consistently high exam results from their trio of SQA drama and dance courses, and have been earmarked as an exemplar of best practice by the Scottish Qualification Authority.

 

Supported by Highland Council and Highlife Highland, Eden Court CREATIVE provides tuition in National 5 Drama, Higher Drama and Higher Dance courses for students whose schools often can’t provide these qualifications. All of the classes, assessments and performances take place over weekends and holidays to fit around regular schooling, and students can attend from all corners of the Highlands; so participation requires a lot of dedication and the results seem to speak for themselves!

 

Among the 35 students who took one the courses in 2014-15, the theatre has announced a 100% pass rate, with at least 21 students achieving an ‘A’. This shows even further improvement on the results in 2013-14, which also returned a 100% pass rate and saw 12 ‘A’ grades from the 28 student intake.

 

The Higher Dance students did particularly well, with all six students achieving ‘A’ grades, and the results are being noticed in wider circles. SQA recently contacted Eden Court CREATIVE to request video footage of Higher Dance classes to use as an exemplar of best practice throughout Scotland.

 

Lucy McGlennon, Eden Court CREATIVE Manager said:

Our SQA courses are going from strength to strength, each year we are seeing more students taking part and their work continues to improve. We work hard to provide the best learning opportunities we can for these disciplines, which some students wouldn’t have access to otherwise and it’s wonderful to see those opportunities being recognised – we’re all incredibly proud of our students and the work they’ve produced!

The 2015-16 session started during the summer holidays and this year received the highest number of successful applications to date, all three courses are at full capacity. Details for next year’s courses are published by Eden Court CREATIVE in December and anyone interested in receiving further information is encouraged to email creative@eden-court.co.uk.

Travelling Gallery is touring Scotland – Turner Prize Winners

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Touring Scotland in the Travelling Gallery from 21st August – December 2015

This year will be the first year the prestigious Turner Prize, award by the Tate Gallery will take place in Scotland when it will be hosted by the Tramway art space in Glasgow from October to January. To complement this event the Travelling Gallery is delighted to bring to you this exhibition which includes art from a selection of the Scottish artists who have been past Turner Prize winners and nominees.

Artists included in the exhibition are: Christine Borland with Brody Condon, Martin Boyce, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon, Callum Innes, Jim Lambie, Ciara Phillips, David Shrigley, and Lucy Skaer. Many of the artists in this exhibition have exhibited previously in the Travelling Gallery, albeit some time ago and before their Turner nominations, so it has been a great pleasure to work with them again and exhibit new or recent work.

Travelling Gallery Curator Alison Chisholm said “We have a great line-up of some of the most successful contemporary artists to come from Scotland in this exhibition and we are really looking forward to taking it on tour”.

The Travelling Gallery is a mobile contemporary art gallery, custom-built in a big, beautiful bus. The gallery is supported by Creative Scotland, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Museums and Arts Division of the City of Edinburgh Council. The EYES ON THE PRIZE exhibition has been curated specifically for this unique space, and will travel the length and breadth of Scotland, visiting schools, high streets, community centres, and many other venues on the way. Travelling Gallery staff are always available to give formal, and not so formal, presentations on the exhibition at every stop.

The Travelling Gallery is fresh from its recent partnership with V&A Dundee. The Design In Motion exhibition displayed the work of 7 Scottish designers who use digital technology to explore new ways of working. The tour was a great success and resulted in the Travelling Gallery’s first visit to London where it parked outside the V&A Museum in South Kensington.

The Design In Motion exhibition came with a new temporary livery for the Travelling Gallery – who have now commissioned artist Mike Inglis to design a stunning new look for the mobile gallery – The Ark Camps. Mike Inglis will be giving a talk about his new design when the Travelling Gallery visits Custom House in Leith on Thursday 27th August as part of LeithLate 2015.

The Travelling Gallery will tour EYES ON THE PRIZE to schools and community venues in the following areas:

22-28 August Edinburgh
1-4 September Glasgow
7 -18 September Highlands
21-25 September Orkney Isles
28 Sept – 2 October Highlands
5 October Nairn
6-9 October Moray
19-23 October East Dunbartonshire
26-30 October South Ayrshire
2-6 November Perth and Kinross
9-12 November North Ayrshire
16-20 November Dumfries and Galloway
23-27 November West Lothian and Stirling
30 Nov – 5 December Glasgow

During the Edinburgh Art Festival the Travelling Gallery will be visiting the following venues:

22 August City Art Centre, Edinburgh 11-5
25 August Collective Gallery, Calton Hill, Edinburgh 11-6
26 August George Street, Edinburgh 11-5
27 August Custom House, Leith – A LeithLate 2015 event 12-6
28 August Modern 2, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 10-6

Travelling Gallery is touring Scotland again – Preview

Preview: Friday 21st August 5:30 – 7:30pm

at TRAVELLING GALLERY, CITY ART CENTRE, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DE
Refreshments provided

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Touring Scotland in the Travelling Gallery from 21st August – December 2015

This year will be the first year the prestigious Turner Prize, award by the Tate Gallery will take place in Scotland when it will be hosted by the Tramway art space in Glasgow from October to January. To complement this event the Travelling Gallery is delighted to bring to you this exhibition which includes art from a selection of the Scottish artists who have been past Turner Prize winners and nominees.

Artists included in the exhibition are: Christine Borland with Brody Condon, Martin Boyce, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon, Callum Innes, Jim Lambie, Ciara Phillips, David Shrigley, and Lucy Skaer. Many of the artists in this exhibition have exhibited previously in the Travelling Gallery, albeit some time ago and before their Turner nominations, so it has been a great pleasure to work with them again and exhibit new or recent work.

Travelling Gallery Curator Alison Chisholm said “We have a great line-up of some of the most successful contemporary artists to come from Scotland in this exhibition and we are really looking forward to taking it on tour”.

The Travelling Gallery is a mobile contemporary art gallery, custom-built in a big, beautiful bus. The gallery is supported by Creative Scotland, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Museums and Arts Division of the City of Edinburgh Council. The EYES ON THE PRIZE exhibition has been curated specifically for this unique space, and will travel the length and breadth of Scotland, visiting schools, high streets, community centres, and many other venues on the way. Travelling Gallery staff are always available to give formal, and not so formal, presentations on the exhibition at every stop.

The Travelling Gallery is fresh from its recent partnership with V&A Dundee. The Design In Motion exhibition displayed the work of 7 Scottish designers who use digital technology to explore new ways of working. The tour was a great success and resulted in the Travelling Gallery’s first visit to London where it parked outside the V&A Museum in South Kensington.

The Design In Motion exhibition came with a new temporary livery for the Travelling Gallery – who have now commissioned artist Mike Inglis to design a stunning new look for the mobile gallery – The Ark Camps. Mike Inglis will be giving a talk about his new design when the Travelling Gallery visits Custom House in Leith on Thursday 27th August as part of LeithLate 2015.

The Travelling Gallery will tour EYES ON THE PRIZE to schools and community venues in the following areas:

22-28 August Edinburgh
1-4 September Glasgow
7 -18 September Highlands
21-25 September Orkney Isles
28 Sept – 2 October Highlands
5 October Nairn
6-9 October Moray
19-23 October East Dunbartonshire
26-30 October South Ayrshire
2-6 November Perth and Kinross
9-12 November North Ayrshire
16-20 November Dumfries and Galloway
23-27 November West Lothian and Stirling
30 Nov – 5 December Glasgow

During the Edinburgh Art Festival the Travelling Gallery will be visiting the following venues:

22 August City Art Centre, Edinburgh 11-5
25 August Collective Gallery, Calton Hill, Edinburgh 11-6
26 August George Street, Edinburgh 11-5
27 August Custom House, Leith – A LeithLate 2015 event 12-6
28 August Modern 2, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 10-6