EVALUATING CURRICULA FRAMEWORKS 6CF010 WEEK 8 How to plan for creative learning opportunities.

Learning outcomes To extend your knowledge on how to plan for creative learning opportunities To think about your own theoretical position and your views on providing creative experiences and learning opportunities

Activity What resources do you think could enhance children’s creativity? Complete given activities What are your views on creativity and developing this in children?

Seminar activity –dvd primary creativitydvd primary creativity Watch the dvd of a school and its’ approach to developing a creative curriculum What parts do you think were positive/influential? Are there aspects you would take on board in your own practice? discuss

Creativity- a Vygotskian perspective “ Creative activity is seen as a combinational activity, where the individual brings together recalled images, actions and/or experiences to envisage (or imagine) something new. These processes of imagination are present in all aspects of our day to day life and mental activity.” (Vygotsky, 2004 in Siraj Blatchford, 2007, p.7)

The implications….. Creativity is a universal capability (we all do it) That the acquisition of knowledge far from being an alternative objective to the development of creativity, is actually complementary Creativity is dependent on prior knowledge (the more they have the more creative they will be) “the implication for education is that, if we want to build a relatively strong foundation for a child’s creativity, what we must do is broaden the experiences we provide him with.” (Vygotsky, 2004, in Siraj Blatchford, 2007, p.8)

Free Schools Free Schools/academies have been set up by a wide range of proposers. Free Schools will provide an inclusive education to young people of all abilities, from all backgrounds, and will be clearly accountable for the outcomes they deliver. These new schools will have the same legal requirements as academies and enjoy the same freedoms and flexibilities to help them deliver an excellent education and drive up standards in our schools across the country, particularly in disadvantaged areas. These freedoms include: the ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff greater control of their budget freedom from following the National Curriculum freedom to change the length of terms and school days freedom from local authority control. Like academies, they will be funded on a comparable basis to other state-funded schools and will not be profit making. Who can set up a Free School? Charities, academy sponsors, universities, independent schools, community and faith groups, teachers, parents, businesses. (from DfE, 2014)(from DfE, 2014)

Challenges and dilemmas What do you think are some of the challenges practitioners face in implementing creativity into their lessons? How will these differ between EYFS and the primary NC What about the concept of free schools/academies? What are your views? Please discuss these issues with a partner and feedback

“ In a democratic society schools exist to provide and education for life, so that education must be planned as human development and not merely in terms of the acquisition of knowledge- as developmental rather than incremental, as a process rather than as a product.” (Kelly, 2009, p.273)

Task Here are some concepts/ideas across the curriculum age range Please think of different ways this could be delivered to children birth to eight creatively. Think about resources and the environment Please record your ideas down ready for discussion with different groups

Reference list Kelly, A.V (2009) The Curriculum – Theory and Practice/6 th Ed. London : Sage Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2007) Creativity, Communication and Collaboration: The Identification of pedagogical progression in Sustained shared thinking. Asia Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Vol 1 (2) pp114

Plenary Does everyone understand the requirements of the formative task? Any questions? Please read on the webfolio; ‘Teaching Children Aged 2-8 years : The Arts and Creativity’ by Pramling Samuelson et al (2007) ‘Communication and Collaboration’ by Siraj Blatchford (2007) and ‘Creativity and Pupils’ Experience of School by Cullingford’ (2007)