This February Arts Council England (ACE) have launched Creativity Exchange, a new online community to encourage teaching for creativity across the curriculum.
Designed for school leaders, teachers and cultural organisations who work with schools, this platform will be a place for creative inspiration and to share innovative practice in education.
What is the Creativity Exchange?
The Creativity Exchange is a space for school leaders, teachers, and cultural organisations to share ideas and reflect on what teaching for creativity means in practice. This exciting, new platform is a bridge between the recommendations that came out of the Durham Commission in October 2019 – a collaboration between Durham University and Arts Council, to understand the role creativity should play in education – and the launch of the Creativity Collaboratives programme later in 2021, a national network of schools working together to develop a model to nurture creativity across the curriculum.
Why now?
During the past year, we’ve seen the landscape of education and cultural sector shift in light of Covid-19. Since March, ACE have spoken with teachers and young people to understand the impact of the pandemic on schools and students and they’ve been continually inspired to hear that, now more than ever, the value and power of creativity is being recognised.
In conversations with ACE, teachers have explained that creativity has a social and personal value, as well as being an essential tool to support children and young people’s learning. They’ve also expressed that developing a happy and well-adjusted young person is just as important as improving school performance and maintaining a creative and collaborative culture in schools, even during lockdown, remains their priority.
The Creativity Exchange is positioned to offer practical guidance and best practice to do exactly this and support teachers, who are under tremendous pressure.
Get involved!
If you’re a teacher, school leader or a cultural organisation that works in schools then this platform is for you and there’s lots of ways you can get involved. To find out more visit the Creativity Exchange website here.