Learning

Creativity Beliefs and Perspectives

This activity can be used to help parents and the wider school community to develop an understanding of creativity and why it’s important.  It will support you to connect with them and gain a deeper understanding of their views and beliefs, enabling a continued dialogue on the importance of creative thinking and their support for your school’s ambitions, vision and plans. 

A range of methods/ activities to gather views are included offering alternatives ways for parents/ community to engage. 

Leader for Creative Thinking - Person Specification

This activity helps you to consider the qualities of a creative leader in order to reflect on your own confidence and ability, and recognise which areas you might need to develop.  Whilst also supporting you to recognise who else in your school may already inhabit these qualities or how you can develop potential creative leaders. It can be completed individually or as a team with colleagues.

Noticing Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is rarely something wholly new that needs to be introduced into schools, in many settings it already exists, albeit in pockets and within some practices. Through an appreciative inquiry approach this activity helps you to notice creative thinking across your school and identify how it is being developed, as well as where it can be nurtured further. This can enable leaders to strengthen, deepen and expand creativity across their school.

Creative Leadership – Being Brave

Creative leadership requires the capacity to lead with courage. Courage to bust assumptions and myths around creativity and courage to explore your own creativity, and bring others with you on the learning journey. This activity invites you to consider others’ experiences as a way of reflecting on your own potential to lead for creative thinking, and to do so bravely!

Creativity and Science

Creativity is often associated with the arts to the extent that some people assume that it does not have a place in other school subjects. An important task for anyone in a leadership role is to challenge staff to rethink practices and to create opportunities for them to try new things. This activity invites you to reflect on how scientists think, consider the overlap with the five Creative Habits and design professional learning that will encourage those teaching science or running afterschool science or engineering clubs to embed creativity in their work.