Creative Partnership – HUF School, Lahore

The goals of the Creative Partnership

HUF School System (Walton campus) identified a need to improve engagement with grade 4 learners in the study of the English language. The school also wished to instil collaborative learning behaviours in the class, with many of the children displaying introverted behaviour and not enjoying the social aspects of learning.

The Creative Partnership in action

A creative practitioner worked alongside the regular grade 4 teachers over a period of 18 sessions, to provide a suite of English language lessons using creative skills such as drawing, vocalisation, drama and mime to build the children’s confidence and social skills.
Every session began with an interactive warm up – setting the tone for the lesson to be one of more movement, more noise, more interaction and more fun.
Every lesson was structured around a clear literacy goal, e.g. identification of verbs and adverbs through balloon games or learning the difference between imperative, exclamatory and declarative sentences through a ‘flip-flop’ word game. The structure gave the teachers and pupils a clear way of seeing the learning objective whilst exploring the possibilities of each task.

Impact on learners

Every child who participated in this Creative Partnership programme responded positively and with enthusiasm. Teachers reported an improvement in creative writing and the class were working much more collaboratively. In literacy tests, teachers reported a 40% improvement across the class.
The children reflected on their own changes and improvements and stated that they believed they had grown in terms of persistence, imagination and collaboration.

Impact on teachers

On reflection, both the teachers and the artist concluded that the design of the activities made the learning process more children-centred and was a powerful tool for enhanced attainment.

The class teachers recognised that their own confidence had grown and have already begun to incorporate this style of creative learning into other lessons. Working in partnership with the artist and taking time to pause and reflect throughout the programme gave the teachers a sense of ownership, and by the end of the sessions, they had effectively made this more dynamic approach their own.