Information for schools

"We believe that the best education has creativity at its heart"
House of Commons Education and Skills Committee 2007

Independent research and reports by many parties including the National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER), Ofsted and a Parliamentary Select Committee have shown that Creative Partnerships has a significant impact on everyone involved: young people, Parents, teachers and schools as well as creative professionals.

Find out more about how Creative Partnerships makes a difference and download these reports.

Key impacts include:

Improvements in academic attainment with independent research showing that:

"Young people who have attended Creative Partnerships activities made, on average, the equivalent of 2.5 grades better progress in GCSE than similar young people in other schools."
National Foundation of Educational Research (NFER)

The recent Ofsted report also found that schools that had taken part in the Creative Partnerships programmes showed "notable improvements in their levels of achievement and in measurable aspects of personal development, such as attendance."

One secondary school that had been put into special measures in 2005 applied to become a Creative Partnerships change school, and made creative learning a central part of improving teaching and learning. The percentage of pupils gaining five or more A* to C GCSE grades rose from 35 per cent in 2005 to 57 per cent in 2008.

Improvements in key skills

Creative Partnerships can have a positive impact on key skills of children and young people in the programme. An independent survey of Head Teachers found that:

• 91 per cent reported an improvement in pupils communication skills
• 92 per cent saw an improvement in pupils confidence and
• 78 per cent reported an increase in pupil’s ability to learn independently.

Improvement in attendance

Creative Partnerships was associated with "an educationally significant reduction in total absence rates in primary schools."

In some ways this is no surprise given the positive reports of Creative Partnerships impact on motivation and more interesting teaching. However 'Educationally significant' is a very rare finding and one which indicates that the only explanation of the evidence is the impact of Creative Partnerships.

Impact on Teachers

"It has been a revelation to me that I can work with someone with such complementary expertise and how much this extends what together we are able to offer students."
Secondary schoolteacher, Derbyshire

Creative Partnerships has teacher support and development at its core. In an independent survey of secondary schools working with the programme carried out by the British Market Research Bureau: 94 per cent of head teachers reported an improvement in the teaching skills of their teachers.

The recent Ofsted report also identified that involvement with Creative Partnerships had a continuing impact on teaching and learning after the programme had finished.

In one school that had worked with a local specialist performing arts school, the school recognised the potential of dance to engage and motivate pupils more fully, particularly boys at risk of underachieving. The use of dance in other areas of the curriculum (such as when studying the Egyptians) resulted in improved confidence in pupils, which in turn improved their performance in other areas, such as writing.