Creativity Collaboratives – Inspiring Teaching and Learning

The Penryn Partnership was formed over 25years ago, built on a vision that children from the ages of 4-16 will have a breadth of experiences across the curriculum, which will enable them to be creative, resilient and independent learners with a thirst for knowledge and exploration. The Penryn Partnership is a learning community of 8 primary schools and one secondary, including 2 ARB units for SEND provision. Proud to serve and share the same communities of families, we work together to provide a broad offer for our young people, along with opportunities for teachers to work together to develop practice and expertise.   

The Penryn Partnership has always understood and valued the importance of creativity and were part of the Creative Partnerships programme. We knew then, that building sustainable learning partnerships between schools, industry and cultural organisations would provide our young people opportunities to experience and flourish.  

The University of Exeter (UOE) was our research partner during the pilot phase. Associate Professor Kerry Chappell and Ursula Crickmay from the School of Education are fundamental partners in our work, utilising their knowledge and expertise to ensure the research across PCC is of the highest quality. The UoE team led on collating the overarching findings from the pilot phase and this has allowed us to disseminate and share the impact of our learning and most recently start to share that regionally, nationally and even internationally.  

Pilot Phase

In Year 1 (21-22) of the Penryn Creativity Collaborative, we set out to Question, Challenge and Explore, working towards creating a model of creative skills and pedagogies.  Through explorative research across our learning community, we explored three questions:  

  • Why are creative skills needed in a changing workforce?  
  • What creative skills are needed to be developed by Cornish students to become better prepared?  
  • How do we best prepare teachers for Teaching for Creativity?   

From Spring 2022, working alongside the expertise of Associate Professor Kerry Chappell, and Ursula Crickmay from the University of Exeter, we leaped into a range of explorative research methods: a literature review, a business and cultural partners survey, a range of focus groups, and interviews to explore approaches to Teaching and Learning across the Penryn Partnership.   

In Year 2 (22-23), we felt more equipped with the understanding of why creative skills are needed and what creative skills are needed to become better prepared for a changing workforce for our Cornish students. Our focus was on Building and Testing. We wanted to develop a model for developing pedagogy across a partnership of schools and to develop leaders and teachers who are promoting and implementing change for the Teaching of Creativity. 13 teachers across the Penryn Partnership were inspired to participate in Action Research during the 2022/23 school year. Across our Learning Community, each Action Research coach explored their own research question linked to our emerging language around creative skills and pedagogy. 

Our Action Research programme promoted professional collaboration and helped to establish a team of staff as an evidence-based group. Working and learning with the expertise of the team from the University of Exeter, our teachers also worked with industry and cultural partners in their classrooms, allowing them to hold firm to our overarching question about how we prepare young people for a changing workforce.  

Our ambition in Year 3 (23-24) was to Embed and Grow, extending the scope of our project, ensuring long-term systemic change and impact across the Penryn Partnership and beyond. Across the partnership, a learning community of Leaders and teachers cascaded practice from their work so far to extend the impact of Teaching for Creativity. Our Year 1-3 Report shares the impact on our schools from the Creativity Collaboratives Pilot Phase

  • Year 1-3 Report – View our Year 1-3 Penryn Creativity Collaborative Report, plus further information, by clicking here. 
  • Year 1 Report – View our Year 1 Penryn Creativity Collaboratives Report, plus further information, by clicking here. 
  • Year 2 Report – View our Year 2 Penryn Creativity Collaborative Report, plus Action Research findings, by clicking here.
  • Year 3 Report – View our Year 2 Penryn Creativity Collaborative Report, plus Action Research findings, by clicking here.

Legacy Phase (2024-2026)

The Penryn Creativity Collaboratives aims through the Legacy Phase (24-26) to;  

  • Consolidate learning from pilot phase exploring how have we developed teaching for creativity in our schools so that others can learn from our journey  
  • Embed and deepen practice across the Penryn Partnership demonstrating how teaching for creativity has found its place in our schools using the PPC model of Creative Skills and Pedagogies. ​ 
  • Increase evidence on the impact on pupils including how teaching for creativity fosters an equitable curriculum 
  • Create a sustainable programme of working with stakeholders (industry, cultural partners, parents) to ensure we continue to ‘better prepare’ young people for a modern workforce​ 
  • Grow our PCC Toolkit of well-tested resources to support sustainability beyond legacy. ‘How do we embed and deepen teaching for creativity in our schools – a model to share’ 

We want to: 

  • Develop the PCC Frameworks for schools to use for self-assessment, development and reflection ​ 
  • Develop the PCC Toolkit including teaching approaches, tools and resources tested by schools.  
  • Continue our partnership with UOE, working with Profession Kerry Chappell and Ursula Crickmay. As they develop a ‘Train the Trainer’ programme and resources for Action Research we want to use their approach to ensure teachers and leaders flourish in developing practice in teaching for creativity.  We hope by UOE sharing an approach to Action Research we can cultivate others to develop an ambition curriculum with teaching for creativity through it.

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About Creativity Collaboratives

In October 2021, Arts Council England announced funding of £2,780,000 to build a network of schools that will test a range of innovative approaches to teaching for creativity. The Penryn Partnership was selected as one of the eight national pilots, led by Penryn College.  The funding has been generously supported by Freelands Foundation and has been granted to eight lead schools, who each work with a network of at least a further eight schools. The networks trial varied methods of teaching that help children and young people develop their creative capabilities and evaluate their effectiveness. The pilot will run until July 2024, testing out teaching approaches and curriculum development which can then be applied more widely throughout the education system.