The wow factor! A creative curriculum brings subjects alive, engaging pupils and improving academic results in the process, says Charlotte Philipps
T
he wow factor, these days, is a phrase so well-worn that it’s in danger of becoming positively threadbare, so clichéd that it pops up in dozens of company names, from employee motivation specialists to car-valeting firms. Educationally, though, it’s well within its sell-by date, a focal point of the creative curriculum that is making school leaders, teachers, pupils and parents, too, see learning in a different way. Often, the wow factor merits, you feel, at least two exclamation marks, so exciting are the events that top and tail each term’s theme. At Blackheath High School Junior School, in South London, just about anything can happen – and does – from a spaceship landing in the playground to woodland fairies leaving a trail of fairy dust, leaves and a mysterious note behind them. Then there was the dragon’s egg that turned up (as they do) during a visit to The Tower of London, and hatched out at
school, scorching a few books in the process! Teachers know what’s coming. The children don’t. No wonder schools report a hike in concentration levels as pupils wait agog to discover what’s coming next.
A cultural delight
Angela Culley, head of the Mead School in Tunbridge Wells, and chair of the Independent Schools Association, says one of the noticeable side effects is the quality of silence as her pupils wait, breathlessly, to find out what creative delights will be served up next. “You walk into assembly and can hear a pin drop,” she says. But it’s excitement with a purpose. “Last term in Year Two we were learning about Nelson Mandela,” says Jo Donnelly, head of Key Stage One at Blackheath, who introduced the creative curriculum three years ago. “The girls were incensed by the injustice that took
10 INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ParENT autumn 2013
Above left to right, Bilton Grange Warwickshire, Garden House School, London, Bolton School Girls’ Division, Lancashire, Casterton, Sedbergh School, Cumbria
place. The questions were endless as they struggled to understand why people were treated so harshly in South Africa.”
Creativity abounds
It’s not, of course, as if creativity were a new invention. Indeed, in a more traditional guise, it’s something the independent sector prides itself on, and with good reason. Look at any school prospectus and you’ll find endless references to creativity, from the strength of the school orchestra to fundraising campaigns to building a new performing arts centre. What the creative curriculum does, however, is something rather different, taking a central theme – like castles – and threading it through every subject. What you learn doesn’t change. It’s all about the context. At Central Newcastle High’s Junior School, for example, the history and features of the city itself form a spectacular starting point, and www.independentschoolparent.com