A whole-school approach to the development of creativity
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Information about the school/provider
Bishopston Comprehensive School is an English-medium 11 to 16 mixed comprehensive school situated in the Gower, near Swansea. There are 1128 pupils on roll, with 6.12% of pupils being eligible for free school meals. Most of the school’s pupils speak English as their first language and most come from a white British background. Very few pupils speak Welsh as their first language. The percentage of pupils with special educational needs is 19.5%. Bishopston’s specialist teaching facilty (STF) supports pupils with speech, communication and language difficulties. In addition, the majority of pupils attending the STF have a diagnosis of autism.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
Post-COVID, the school found that, across the curriculum, pupils needed to develop resilience and were lacking in the skills needed to work independently. This became evident through a range of indicators including the School Health Research Network (SHRN) survey and staff, pupil and parental views. The monitoring and development of skills across the curriculum became a whole-school focus. Alongside literacy, numeracy, digital competency and physical skills, an approach to developing and monitoring pupils’ creativity was established.
The significance of creativity in the development of the skills’ programme grew, as it was identified that creativity impacts all skills and all areas of the curriculum. In today’s rapidly changing world, leaders feel that creativity is no longer an optional extra confined to the Expressive Arts, instead it is an essential skill to be explored and developed in all pupils across the whole curriculum.
The school’s approach to monitoring and developing creativity links with the whole school approach to metacognition and self-regulation, nurturing creativity in pupils across all subjects and AoLEs, helping them ‘learn how to learn’. Much of this approach is owed to the school’s journey as a Lead Creative School through the Arts Council Wales programme. In order to address with both staff and pupils what creativity and creative thinking actually is, they focused on using research regarding developing creative habits of mind. This provided a framework that breaks creativity down into five key habits: being imaginative, inquisitive, persistent, collaborative and disciplined. These habits have provided a common language for teachers and pupils and have offered a structure through which creativity can be taught, monitored and developed across the curriculum.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
In order to embed their whole-school approach to creativity, professional learning was key. Whole school INSET included ‘myth-busting’ sessions around what creativity is and isn’t. Identifying creativity through the 5 creative habits of mind led to a much improved understanding and appreciation of creativity across the curriculum. Creativity is valued and developed in all subject areas and is no longer seen as something that just happens in the Expressive Arts.
A development role was established for a middle leader to lead on whole-school creativity, working closely with the skills’ middle leader leading on metacognition and self-regulation. This partnership led to a joint approach, developing a creative approach to self-regulation. The 5 creative habits were established as prompts to assist pupils when self-regulating and adjusting their approach to a task. This joint approach, linking metacognition, self-regulation and creativity, strengthened their value and increased buy-in with staff.
As well as professional learning, pupil ‘training’ sessions were delivered to all key stage 3 pupils as part of the Health and Wellbeing provision. They used metacognition, self-regulation and creativity to improve their outcomes when collaborating to solve an aerodynamic problem, researching and sourcing information to support and scaffold their own learning.
With the approach to and understanding of creativity across the curriculum firmly established, a self-evaluation/improvement planning programme was developed. This looked at teaching and learning through book looks and peer led learning walks, identifying the creative habits and how they are being developed in the pupils. Such observations included consideration of the use of open-ended questions (inquisitive), exploring alternative hypotheses (imaginative), persevering through a challenging investigation (persistent), being asked to find multiple methods to solve a problem (disciplined and imaginative), or working in teams to design a product to solve a problem (collaborative).
The qualitative data gained from these activities informed a report which was fed back to staff through subsequent professional learning opportunities, offering examples of effective practice in classrooms and suggesting areas for future development. This reflective cycle of observation, celebrating success and identifying areas for improvement has ensured that by highlighting creativity in pedagogies, it is a skill that is being developed in the pupils and not just left to chance.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
The monitoring of the impact that this approach is having on pupils’ standards is informed by both quantitative and qualitative data. These examples from Art, Health and Social Care and Business Studies provide insight into the impact this approach to developing creativity across the curriculum is having on pupils:
- Art: Although we have focused on the creative habits across the whole curriculum, we have found that by raising awareness at KS3 of what creativity is and its importance as a transferable skill, this has impacted upon option numbers in explicitly creative subjects at KS4. In 2024, there were 64 pupils who opted for Art. In 2025, 72 chose to study art at GCSE.
- Health and Social Care: Pupils’ views were gathered on the effectiveness of our approach to metacognition and the creative habits of mind. From a 2024 survey, 94.4% of pupils found this framework helpful when answering exam style questions, working out and planning an answer before writing it. 43.8% of pupils achieved grade A*/A grade. This is a significant increase from previous academic years and significantly above the LA average of 25.6%.
- Business Studies: By adopting this approach to metacognition and creative thinking, learners saw between a 20-30% increase in marks achieved in extended 10 mark questions. This was achieved by using this framework to access, infer and plan their responses.
As the school prepares its pupils to be ‘enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work’, leaders feel a school-wide commitment to developing creativity as a skill is not just desirable, it is essential. By embedding the creative habits of mind across the curriculum and tracking their use and impact, leaders at Bishopston feel they are ensuring that their pupils understand what creative thinking is and have the opportunity to develop their creativity, an essential skill for life.
How have you shared your good practice?
The school has shared good practice with the local authority, consortia and other schools through network meetings and professional discussion. A joint INSET with local primary school focused on how to use the creative habits of the mind to support metacognition and self-regulation. During this training session, schools worked together to develop a shared understanding of language and examples of effective practice in each progression step.