Resources
Deep Learning Model
At the heart of the program is the interaction between students, teachers and creative practitioners and the fine balance between the curriculum, creative practices, the development of the Five Habits of Learning, General Capabilities and the activation of creative learning spaces within schools.
The Five Habits of Learning
Creative Schools nurtures in young people imagination, inquisitiveness, discipline, persistence and collaboration, the ‘Five Habits of Learning’ all successful learners share. These five habits map directly to the General Capabilities in the WA curriculum
High Functioning Learning Space
At the heart of the program is the interaction between students, teachers and creative practitioners and the fine balance between the curriculum, creative practices, the development of Five Habits of Learning, general capabilities and the activation of creative learning spaces within schools.
Warm Up Toolkit
Get Your ToolkitWe know we need to prepare our bodies before we exercise, but did you know we also need to prepare our minds before learning and getting creative?
At Creative Schools we begin with a short warm up before each session. Warm ups are intended to develop the social, emotional, physical and intellectual engagement of students in their experience of learning, as well as assist in relaxation and stress reduction. They are a fun and inviting way for a class to connect with one another and expel excess energy in preparation for the activities that follow in the session.
Last year we worked with Teachers and Creative Practitioners to design and develop a series of these warm ups, which we have compiled to create a Healthway Toolkit. We've made our Healthway Toolkit available for you to download as a free resource to use in the classroom!
Leading for Creativity
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Photo Credit: ‘Creativity and the Future of Work’ with The Hon. Dave Kelly MLA, Minister for Water; Fisheries, Forestry; Innovation and ICT; Science and Professor Bill Lucas. Photograph by Taryn Hays, 2019 courtesy of FORM.
In 2020, Creative Schools partnered with global thought leader Professor Bill Lucas to deliver Professional Learning for school leaders participating in the program. Valuable discussions were had around inspiring learning in students and meaningful ways of embedding Critical and Creative Thinking across all subject areas of the curriculum on a whole school level.
This culminated in a publication that brings together learnings from attempts to embed creativity in schools across the world with insights from the experiences of schools in Western Australia.
"The professional learning available to school leaders through Creative Schools program, linked us to knowledgeable international experts. The interactive sessions with Professor Bill Lucas and Paul Collard were invaluable as it gave me a world view of what creativity looks like in schools, examples from around the world, how to lead and inspire creativity in our school. Taking this leadership journey of embedding a pedagogy of creativity alongside the practical creative projects in the classroom revolutionised our school and gave the confidence to further our STEM journey and launch into problem-based learning across the school. Our change process into the way we teach and embedding creativity by allowing agency to students to solve problems, investigate their interests and steer their learning while addressing the WA curriculum began in 2018. Creative Schools and the support I received came at a pivotal time in the change management process. Due to the support in the classrooms and the PD to leaders, we have now embedded intentional play-based learning in classes from Kindy to Year 2 where the students have investigation time and the curriculum is connected to provide an engaging program for both the teachers and students. In our middle primary block we are prototyping a connected curriculum approach to problem-based learning where the children can delve deep and be creative. We are growing this creative pedagogy to a whole school approach by embedding the general capabilities and addressing STEM enterprise skills/ future focused learning. The support we received from the Creative Schools program in 2020 was instrumental to moving forward. Embedding creativity is not a quick fix, it is a process of change and schools need support to find what this looks like in their context as it is not one size fits all and will look different in many schools. Our approach has been noticed by others and has led to presenting our journey in creativity to hubs of interested schools, as well as a one-to-one mentoring of a neighbouring school. Our relationship with Creative Schools has been appreciated and our goal is to support others to be confident in beginning the journey to make schools engaging places that prepare students for the future world and work force.”
Jennifer Graham, Glendale Primary School
Case Studies
The impact Creative Schools has had on the learning and lives of its participants can be seen in evidenced based outcomes of case studies of the program.
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