Since 2002 Creative Partnerships have worked in over two thousand four hundred schools in England, delivering a programme which places professional development for teachers and creative practitioners at its core. From the start of the programme it was recognised that in order to have any lasting impact on the ways in which schools develop creativity, the starting point had to be nurturing the creativity of teachers and other staff in schools. It is no surprise therefore that the thirty-six Creative Partnerships area offices have delivered over seventeen thousand professional development opportunities for over forty-five thousand teachers and other school professionals, resulting in an increase in teacher confidence to experiment with creative approaches to teaching and learning and a growth in teachers’ ability to reflect in-depth on what works.
Creative Partnerships aims to develop:
• the creativity and enterprise of young people, raising their aspirations and achievements
• the skills of teachers and their ability to work with creative practitioners
• schools’ approaches to culture, creativity and partnership working; and
• the skills, capacity and sustainability of the creative industries and other partners who wish to work with schools.
Innovative creative practice
As the organisation enters a new phase of development, funded for a further three years by the DCSF and DCMS, the focus of the programme will become sharper while reaching many more schools across England.
Schools selected for participation will work in one of three strands. Entry into the Schools of Creativity strand is highly competitive and only available to schools that have an established track record of working successfully with Creative Partnerships for several years. The brief for these schools will be to develop innovative practice in creative teaching and learning while proactively sharing that practice with others through local, regional and national networks. Thirty Schools of Creativity will be selected in 2008/9.