The Elliot Foundation
Elliot Foundation Intro
As a collaborative at The Elliot Foundation, we have worked as a network of schools in the West Midlands and East Anglia alongside creative partners Stan’s Cafe, Open Theatre and Sampad to explore creativity in teaching. The programme has been evaluated by Dr Victoria Kinsella-Hadjinestoros at Birmingham City University to identify the features of creative teaching which impact children’s experiences and achievements in the classroom. We are challenging our definition of effective teaching and assessment in order to evaluate effectiveness through a focus on inclusion and innovation.
The research question that has guided our collaborative is: How can empowering teachers to develop creative pedagogies facilitate the environment in which learners are enabled to flourish and fulfil their creative potential?
Through the development of our creativity toolkit and the Repertoires of Practice, we are enabling our teachers and learners to develop their teaching for creativity across the entire primary journey – from EYFS to KS2 – and to explore what is possible with experimental and creative learning in the classroom.
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Pilot and Legacy phase
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Pilot phase
Year one:
In the first year of our Creativity Collaborative, we set up enhanced relationships with our creative partners, investigated new pedagogical approaches and created a localised approach for developing creativity. Our schools took part in a range of creative experiences including theatre sessions and adventure themed days out.
Year two:
During the second year, our teachers collaborated with Open Theatre and Stan’s Cafe on short and long-term projects. 82 staff members – including senior leadership, SENDCOs, HLTAs and pastoral staff – engaged in classroom activities and reflection sessions. In total, 136 sessions were delivered across our schools with 1,079 children participating.
Year three:
In the third year of the project, we further enhanced our partnerships with Open Theatre, Stan’s Cafe and SAMPAD on both short and long-term projects. As part of this enhanced partnership, teachers were able to co-plan and collaborate on delivering units of work within the school curriculum. We carried out evaluations and focus group observations which led to the development of our Repertoires of Practice.
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Legacy phase
Now that we have entered the legacy phase, we are focused on the impact that teaching for creativity is having in the classroom more widely across all the schools within our collaborative – and broadening this impact across the whole of the Multi Academy Trust We are engaging with our head teachers to ensure that teaching for creativity is highly valued and integrated across improvement plans for our schools and becomes a normalised part of the curriculum experience. We are integrating teaching for creativity into our Early Career Teaching programme to ensure that this becomes a core part of their practice. In addition, we are developing our use of technology to facilitate the wider roll out of our project – looking at innovative ways of tailoring AI in combination with our Repertoires of Practice to support with both the planning and delivery of lessons across the curriculum.