About Creative Partnerships

3 Oct 2008

Creative Partnerships is the Government’s flagship creative learning programme, designed to develop the skills of young people across England, raising their aspirations and equipping them for their futures. We foster innovative, long-term partnerships between schools and creative professionals, including architects, scientists, multimedia developers and artists. These partnerships inspire young people, teachers and creative professionals to challenge how they work and experiment with new ideas.

Young people develop the skills they need to perform well not only in exams and extra-curricular activities, but also in the workplace and wider society.

Why creativity?

We believe creativity is about more than ‘doing the arts’. It is a wider ability to question, make connections, innovate, problem solve and reflect critically. These are skills that are demanded by today’s employers. Creative learning empowers young people to imagine how the world could be different and gives them the confidence and motivation to make positive change happen. This helps young people to engage with their education and to achieve.

Young people at the heart of what we do

Creative Partnerships programmes demand that young people play a full role in their creative learning. We believe that our programmes are most effective when young people are actively involved in leading and shaping them, taking responsibility for their own learning. Creative Partnerships programmes enable children and young people to develop the skills needed to play an active leadership role in school life.

Schools Programmes

Creative Partnerships works with maintained schools from Key Stages 1 to 4 across England. A school can apply to one of three Creative Partnerships Schools programmes according to its needs and its commitment to creative learning. Schools will always receive the support of a creative professional as well as financial support.

Enquiry Schools
Enquiry Schools engage in a creative learning programme targeted at a specific group of pupils and teachers.

Change Schools
Schools in areas with significant challenges engage in an intensive programme that supports the creative development of the whole school.

Schools of Creativity
These schools are at the cutting edge of creative learning, engaging in an intensive, long-term programme. Schools of Creativity lead local and national school networks and help to shape policy and practice throughout Creative Partnerships.

The role of creative professionals

Long-term relationships between creative professionals and schools lie at the heart of the Creative Partnerships process. Creative professionals work as Creative Agents, helping to deliver the programme, or as creative practitioners working directly with students and teachers.

By working with creative professionals from many different disciplines, young people can develop a variety of skills and experiences. Creative practitioners have different expectations of young people and when these are set high, children rise to the challenge.

Creative professionals also benefit from working in schools. By being exposed to new voices and different views, they are challenged and their personal creative practice is enriched.

Continuing professional development

Creative Partnerships supports teachers by delivering ongoing practice-based professional learning and knowledge sharing.

Our training and development sessions give school staff and creative professionals time and space to reflect, think and experiment with new approaches. This helps them to nurture their creativity, develop their practice and become better educators.

The Creative Partnerships effect

Independent research and reports by Ofsted and a Parliamentary Select Committee have shown that Creative Partnerships has a significant positive impact on everyone involved: young people, parents, teachers and schools as well as creative professionals. Since 2002, we have worked intensively with over 2,700 schools across England. More than 12,800 schools have had some involvement in the programme. Over the coming year, we will work with many more schools in more areas of the country, as we start to deliver our new Schools Programmes.

The impact on young people

NFER pupil tracking survey
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) completed a study of 13,000 young people who had participated in Creative Partnerships activities. NFER found that:

'Young people known to have attended Creative Partnerships activities out-performed those in the same schools... at all three key stages. This was evident in average scores in English, Mathematics and Science, in Key Stages 2 and 3 and in total points scores, best 8 points scores and Science at Key Stage 4.'
(NFER conclusions, 2006, p22 para 5.3)

Despite coming from economically and socially challenged communities, young people who have participated in Creative Partnerships activities out-perform the national average at Key Stage 3 and match the national average at Key Stages 2 and 4.

The impact on parents

A qualitative report by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education suggests that creative learning projects encourage parents to engage with their child’s education.

Children talk about the exciting Creative Partnerships projects they take part in and parents are motivated to find out more by becoming involved in their child’s learning and in the life of the school.

Creative learning projects also provide non-threatening opportunities for involvement for parents who may not otherwise engage with schools.

The impact on schools and teachers

An independent survey of headteachers conducted by British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) spoke to three quarters of headteachers from Phase 1 and 2 areas to assess their perception of the impact of Creative Partnerships.

Secondary schools have reported that:

• 92% have seen an improvement in pupils’ confidence
• 91% have seen an improvement in pupils’ communication skills
• 87% have seen an improvement in pupils’ motivation
• 80% have seen an improvement in pupils’ enjoyment of school
• 78% have seen an increase in pupils’ ability to learn independently
• 70% have seen an improvement in pupils’ behaviour

The impact on the economy

An independent study by the Burns Owens Partnerships has shown that Creative Partnerships is having a significant impact on the development of individual creative practitioners:

'Creative Partnerships has nurtured a pool of practitioners and creative agents that are highly skilled, with a strong understanding of the education market.'

35% of creative practitioners had been working in the sector for less than three years. This group of emerging professionals and new companies gained the biggest benefits from Creative Partnerships in terms of new skills, confidence and CV enhancement. This is a highly significant finding because traditional government training programmes are more successful in reaching the longest established and biggest companies.

Approximately half of creative professionals working with Creative Partnerships have developed other work and employed other creative professionals as a result of their involvement with the programme.

Ofsted: The impact of Creative Partnerships

Ofsted published a report on the Creative Partnerships programme after inspecting a sample of 36 schools. The findings of the Ofsted inspection corroborate the findings of the earlier studies, confirming that Creative Partnerships is delivering improvements in the aspiration and achievements of young people and in the skills and creativity of teachers.

Ofsted inspectors reported that they had seen evidence of significant improvements in the basic learning skills of young people who had participated in Creative Partnerships activities:

'Improvements in literacy, particularly writing, and speaking were significant in the majority of schools visited... Developing and applying mathematical skills in context was also an indicator of pupils’ achievement which several schools identified... Pupils used information and communications technology (ICT) effectively to research, explore, develop and model ideas in and across different subjects.'

Inspectors also found that the projects had improved the confidence and creative skills of young people:

'Most Creative Partnerships programmes were effective in developing in pupils some attributes of creative people: an ability to improvise, take risks, show resilience, and collaborate with others. Creative practitioners, teachers and support staff clearly valued these as skills for pupils to develop and apply in order to express their own creativity. The majority of pupils interviewed knew these qualities were considered important.'

The development of these new skills and attributes contributes significantly to improvement in the overall attitude of young people to education:

'Often the outcomes of programmes could be seen in changed attitudes and behaviours, and the demonstration of creative approaches to work. This represents a significant achievement; it included teachers who previously lacked belief in their own creativity and ability to inspire creativity in others, and pupils who were previously unconvinced by approaches to learning or the value of education._

For some pupils their involvement in Creative Partnerships proved a turning point; good attendance and participation in learning continued beyond the project. In a small but significant proportion of schools, improvements in pupils’ attitudes and behaviour during projects signalled the start of a return to schooling.’_

Inspectors also found that Creative Partnerships’ programmes were contributing to the Every Child Matters outcomes:

'The vast majority of pupils directly involved enjoyed their education in and through Creative Partnerships; good behaviour, cooperation, enthusiasm and pride were common outcomes. "Skills that were consistently improved – literacy, numeracy, ICT, self-confidence, team-working, an ability to show enterprise and handle change – are likely to contribute to pupils’ future economic well-being."

The nature of particular initiatives enabled some pupils to develop good regard for the safety and well-being of others; they showed high levels of responsibility in potentially high risk situations such as handling different materials.

In a smaller proportion of projects, pupils showed that they could manage personal stress, contributing to a healthy lifestyle. Opportunities for pupils to make a positive contribution to the community through Creative Partnerships’ programmes were valued by pupils; in community-based projects, pupils displayed high levels of social responsibility.'