Creative Partnerships: then and now

Shoot for the moon (detail) Shoot for the moon (detail)

Creative Partnerships was introduced by the government in 2002, in response to an influential report called All our Futures, published by the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Educations. You can read the report here.

The report responded both to fears that the National Curriculum's heavy focus on mathematics and literacy was driving out opportunities for creativity in education and that children's creativity needed to be encouraged in order for them to be fit for the challenges of the modern world of work. It ran as a pilot scheme in 16 areas for two years and was rolled out more widely in 2004.

Creative Partnerships remains the best known of Creativity, Culture and Education's programmes and a key part of what the organisation does.

Creative Partnerships supports thousands of innovative, long-term partnerships between schools and creative professionals including artists, performers, architects and multimedia developers through a network of local delivery organisations.

Our partners range from famous national institutions, such as the Royal Opera House, to individual local artists - and everything in between.

The Creative Partnerships approach

Creative Partnerships starts from the belief that teaching is fundamentally a creative profession and that teachers are well accustomed to finding creative solutions to complex challenges. By pairing the complementary skills of creative practitioners and teachers, Creative Partnerships helps liberate the creativity of everyone involved, so that fresh and engaging approaches to teaching and learning are developed through collaboration.

The Creative Partnerships approach:

  • starts with the school improvement plan linking programme development closely with priorities identified by the school
  • makes time for proper in-depth planning to ensure programmes are relevant and based on the needs of the school and its pupils
  • facilitates processes where young people, teachers and practitioners can work together as co-constructors of learning
  • brokers and supports long-term relationships between young people, teachers and creative practitioners
  • supports in-depth evaluation and reflection, leading to sustainable and embedded practice

What this approach looks like in schools in the form of projects varies greatly, as the programmes and the projects within them are designed to be individual responses to the needs of each school.

The key defining characteristic of project activity is the collaborative partnership between creative professionals, classroom staff and young people and the ways in which this partnership helps to bring the curriculum to life, providing new ways for learners to engage with subjects and to develop increased motivation for learning. Creative Partnerships projects allow time for in-depth planning, co-delivery and reflection.

More importantly, they are more active and more fun than standard curriculum activities and, at the core of the process, they give pupils greater involvement in decision making.

Successful projects involve a broad range of creative professionals from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines including: scientists, architects, designers, engineers, marketing experts, cooks, gardeners and artists. This mix of professionals means that projects can be designed to appeal to a broad range of interests and learning styles.