“Creating a culture of creativity” – sharing practice on how the school develops pupils’ creative skills through a worthwhile programme of professional learning and highly effective curriculum provision.

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Information about the school

Sketty Primary School is situated in Swansea. Currently, the school has 495 pupils on roll between the ages of 3 and 11, taught in 16 classes. The average class size is 30, which is slightly above the Local Authority (LA) average of 27. The LA Pupil Admission Number is 32. Pupil mobility is at 3% which is half the LA average. Seventy-four per cent of pupils living in the catchment area attend the school. Around 4% of the pupils on roll live in areas classed in Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) as being in the most deprived 30% of all areas. Approximately 8% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is significantly below the LA average. There have been no fixed term exclusions or racial incidents recorded in the past three years. The school has almost 29% of pupils receiving extra support and 5% (children with IDP’S) on the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) register and approximately 14% of pupils have English as an additional language (EAL). No pupils speak Welsh at home. There are 23 teachers at the school, including the headteacher, who was appointed in September 2017. The deputy headteacher was appointed in 2022. The school is a modern building on two levels situated on a large site. There are extensive grounds, boasting a developed woodland, fields, yards, adventure playground and pond. The physical environment is well maintained, welcoming and vibrant.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The school has a clear vision for the curriculum. It has been designed stemming from a strong culture of cynefin, creativity and pupil voice. The school strives to ensure that the curriculum is broad and balanced and builds systematically on pupils’ existing knowledge, understanding and skills in all areas of learning and experience. It provides many authentic learning experiences through a range of beneficial themes that engage and motivate. 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

To develop a culture of creativity the school has a number of considerations which are equally weighted and have no order of hierarchy. The school believes that these are the keys to creating a successful culture of creativity. 

The school provided the following set of questions and answers to describe the nature of its work.

• Who is the school champion? 

The school is fortunate to have several very creative members of staff, teaching and non-teaching, who have experience and skills across the expressive arts curriculum. Utilising and building on in-house expertise is crucial in driving a project forward. Enthusiasm can be contagious and making the process fun and interactive for staff ensures “buy in” and increased commitment levels from all. 

• Are staff appropriately trained to deliver high quality lessons? 

Even though the school has highly trained staff in areas of creativity, this is not universal across the school. Where staff are lacking the required skills or working outside their comfort zone, training has been sourced and had a huge effect on staff confidence, which translated into the children being enthusiastic, confident and motivated to try new experiences. A very successful example being the pottery skills developed by staff in Year 5. Both teachers lacked experience, so training was provided with a local ceramicist, who spent time going through the process and giving them the opportunity to learn hands on. The quality of work they can now support the children to produce is excellent and is a direct result of giving them the tools they needed to help them believe they could do it. 

• Do we need an expert to support delivery of lessons? 

Where necessary a range of artists, authors, actors, and musicians have been accessed to enhance the learning experience for the children, continuing to develop the skills of the staff and providing children with role models “planting seeds of inspiration to fuel aspiration.” Over the past year, Year 4 have been involved with a creative project with Arts Council for Wales focused on cynefin through digital media, poetry and story delivered through the Expressive Arts. This involved them visiting the Royal Welsh college of Music and Drama to see a student wearable art show, which inspired them to create their own wearable art and exhibiting these in a show at the Dylan Thomas Theatre. 

• Are resources adequate to deliver lessons? 

Investment has been key to delivering quality lessons. Within school, there are high quality resources across the creative arts, including a kiln for pottery, a good range of consumables for the visual arts including clay, glazes, printing inks, watercolours, spray paints, textiles, card, paper etc – with a focus of sustainably such as recycled art projects. Experienced local artists from the community are employed to work alongside teachers for specific projects as well as specialist teachers in music and dance to work with cohorts half termly. This has resulted in some very special end of term performances to parents in school and at the Taliesin Theatre, Grand Theatre and Dylan Thomas Theatre. 

• Does the skills ladder adequately develop skills that can be built upon year on year? 

Skills ladders are used to ensure progression and continuity throughout the progression steps. For example, a simple clay progression ladder outlines the skill to be taught in each year group starting with exploration and marking making in the early years to a culmination of skills by the end of PS3 including slab building, coil pots. These skills ladders are not a scheme of work as it allows teachers scope to incorporate the skills in an authentic learning context, which can be developed and adapted to suit the needs of a cohort and to reflect pupil voice. 

• Are the activities purposeful, authentic, relevant and reflect cynefin? 

The curriculum overview ensures that learners understand the value of creativity. A range of local and national artists, writers, performers and musicians are explored throughout the curriculum as well those from outside Wales. Many of the learning experiences are incorporated into real life, authentic learning contexts such as enterprise projects. For example, graffiti art designs transferred to merchandise and sold at the Year 5 enterprise sale, and the children have been given fantastic opportunities for performance at local theatre for parents and the local community. Inspiration is often taken from the locality in the form of landscapes, nature, people and stories.  

• What quality assurance is in place, eg lesson observations, managing in the moment? 

Governors, the headteacher, the deputy head and the senior leadership team are visible across the school and Management by Walkabout is used extensively to impact change and move the school forward. Senior leaders are heavily involved in creative projects, ensuring that what is being produced is a very high quality and, as the school uses in-house expertise, this enhances the work produced further. All staff are involved in creative projects allowing them to utilise their own strengths effectively as well as being supported in areas of development from expertise within the school. Time is allowed for careful planning, implementation and evaluating outcomes. This collaborative approach is evident in the ‘Triad system’, which ensures high quality professional dialogue and collaboration across the whole school. 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

The standard of work achieved is high year on year, with all children producing work to a very high standard. The curriculum has been developed through a skills-based approach, beginning in Nursery and then built upon year on year. By the time the children reach Year 6 they have developed a skill set that produces high quality pieces, which they are very proud of. 

As the approach to creative learning is embedded across the school and pupils have the opportunity to experience a range of creative activities each year, high levels of commitment and enthusiasm are guaranteed from pupils, as evidenced in music, dance and drama projects the older children have been involved in for a number of years, including Primary Partners and the Taliesin Dance Project, whilst also giving Year 6 pupils the opportunity to perform their end of year show at a professional theatre (Dylan Thomas Theatre) to experience first-hand the successes that can be achieved in the future. 

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