Ofsted report - Creative Partnerships Initiative and Impact

In 2006 the Ofsted report praised Creative Partnerships for improving pupils' personal and social skills, and generating good creative approaches and positive attitudes by teachers, school leaders and creative practitioners.

The report also made some recommendations for the programme that, along with findings from external evaluations, and user feedback were incorporated into a new model of Creative Partnerships programme that was rolled out nationally in 2008. There is now a consistent process for application, selection, planning and evaluation for the three schools strands, Schools of Creativity, Change Schools and Enquiry Schools.

Ofsted Creative Partnerships Initiative and Impact Report (142 KB)

Ofsted’s main findings (text in bold below) with our responses and how these have been incorporated into the revised model of Creative Partnerships.

• Most Creative Partnerships programmes were effective in developing in pupils some attributes of creative people: an ability to improvise, take risks, show resilience, and collaborate with others. However, pupils were often unclear about how they could apply these attributes independently to develop original ideas and outcomes.

The responsibility to apply learning across contexts lies with the school, but the evaluation stage now requires the school to reflect on ways the attributes developed through a particular project could be fostered in other curriculum spaces and contexts, knowledge and skills.

There is also an emphasis on Continuing Professional Development in order to foster the broader application of skills developed through the CP programme and to leave a legacy through the teachers

• Good personal and social skills were developed by most pupils involved in Creative Partnerships programmes; these included effective collaboration between pupils and maturity in their relationships with adults.

• For a small but significant number of pupils a Creative Partnerships programme represented a fresh start. In particular, opportunities to work directly in the creative industries motivated pupils and inspired high aspirations for the future.

• Schools offered evidence of improvement in achievement in areas such as literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology (ICT) which they associated with pupils’ enjoyment in learning through Creative Partnerships programmes and their aim to develop thinking skills.

• Creative practitioners were very well trained and well matched to school priorities and needs. Most teachers gained an understanding about teaching that promoted pupils’ creativity and creative teaching by learning alongside pupils.

Although the matching of creative practitioner to school and pupil need was not deemed an issue in the last inspection, the current Creative Partnerships model has greatly strengthened the ability to identify pupils’ starting points. It is now a core element of the planning stage and each group of participants is explicitly asked to reflect on the contribution of the creative practitioner, particularly in relation to language.

• Programmes promoted good collaborative planning between subject areas in the majority of primary and secondary schools. However, in planning the programmes, pupils’ starting points were insufficiently identified and sometimes in arts subjects creativity was assumed when it was not necessarily evident.

The national Creative Partnerships Planning and Evaluation model requires each project to clearly set out aims, objectives and outcomes, and the needs of each participant group.

The combination of programme plan in the diagnostic Creative School Development Framework that Change Schools and Schools of Creativity complete, and the project level evaluation ensures schools have clear aims and develop the capacity to deliver the programme and ensure it is well led.

• Reasons for the selection of particular schools and individual pupils were unclear. This contributed to inadequate tracking of pupils’ progress, particularly regarding their creative development or ability to transfer the skills learned in Creative Partnerships programmes to other aspects of their work.

There is now nationally a consistent process for Application and Selection for all Schools of Creativity, Change Schools and Enquiry Schools.

• Local authorities should use local knowledge strategically to help Creative Partnerships direct resources, and support and challenge specific schools where learning remains dull, underachievement stubborn, or the creative development and achievements of young people constrained.

In response to this local Authorities are now key partners in the application and selection process, they work with Area Delivery Organizations to devise local eligibility and selection criteria and sit on school selection panels.

• A small minority of schools analyzed the attendance of pupils participating in Creative Partnerships programmes. During the programme those with usually poor attendance showed a significant improvement. For some pupils, their involvement in Creative Partnerships proved a turning point: good attendance and participation in learning continued beyond the project. In a small but significant proportion of schools improvements in pupils’ attitudes and behaviour during projects signaled the start of a return to schooling.

Further research undertaken based on this observation and found that:

- CP Schools’ attendance levels improved by a fifth when compared to the national average.
- The effect was stronger over time – the longer a school had worked with CP the greater the improvement in attendance levels.
- NFER behaviour and attainment research