{"id":95,"date":"2018-12-12T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T13:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsite.applesandsnakes.org\/?p=95"},"modified":"2018-12-12T13:56:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T13:56:23","slug":"nicky-crabb-when-did-it-become-curriculum-versus-creativity-rather-than-a-creative-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/2018\/12\/12\/nicky-crabb-when-did-it-become-curriculum-versus-creativity-rather-than-a-creative-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicky Crabb: When did it become curriculum versus creativity, rather than a creative curriculum?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senior Producer, Nicky Crabb, discusses the importance, and struggle, of keeping creativity in our schools as pressures on exam results forever increase\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><b>When did it become curriculum versus creativity, rather than a creative curriculum? \u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apples and Snakes\u2019 patron and \u00a0former Children\u2019s Laureate Michael Rosen recently wrote in one of his brilliant blogs:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018our school system is skewed as never before to testing and exams\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a parent of two secondary school aged children, I am in the position to sadly agree. Right from entry to primary school at the age of four, our children are being prepared for a variety of tests. Rosen argues that all four-year-olds are essentially \u2018GSCE apprentices\u2019 \u2013 already preparing for the bigger tests to come, and taught in exam question related chunks of knowledge called attainment targets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our schools are data driven, fearful of league tables based on exam results and OFSTED reports and the endless capturing of data about student attainment at every level. As an ex-governor at my children\u2019s primary school, I have seen the impact of the ongoing stress of this on the school\u2019s leadership. It is constantly creating oppositions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Competition between schools, rather than collaboration<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The individual student, rather than the group\/team\/community<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doing as you are told\/accepting the knowledge rather than questioning\/inventing\/imagining<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facts instead of exploration<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being right rather than being wrong<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is this really the way to create \u2018educated\u2019 children? And if it is, then what do we mean by educated? As Sir Ken Robinson said in his famous 2006 TED talk entitled <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iG9CE55wbtY\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do schools kill creativity?<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (the most viewed TED talk ever at over 53 million views):<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will not come up with anything original\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He went on to argue that through our government\u2019s desire to constantly seek out better results and improve league tables, we are actually \u2018<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">educating people out of their creative capacities\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, something we are all born with. \u00a0We are not looking at or nurturing the whole child, but just a very small part of their incredible capabilities, the parts that can be tested. How do you test kindness, or compassion or self-esteem? Surely these are values we should be encouraging too, as well as knowing what a fronted adverbial is?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Apples and Snakes one of our strategic aims is <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to challenge expectations of what poetry is and can be\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We encourage the artists we work with and our staff to think outside of the box; when things go wrong, we talk about it and how to make it better next time. Our Book a Poet scheme places poets, rappers and storytellers in schools and community settings across the country \u2013 again and again the feedback we receive from teachers and bookers is that the children who do not normally participate, or who may struggle with traditional literacy based lessons, flourish and thrive in our workshops. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018It was fascinating to watch the students engaged and succeeding beyond their usual levels of achievement\u2019<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 teacher feedback<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The students were shown their own potential\u2019<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 teacher feedback<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018I really enjoyed this, it made me think about poetry in a completely different way\u2019<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 student feedback<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why is this? Partly it\u2019s the fact that all the poets we work with are inspiring role models leading creative lives and they bring a fresh perspective into students\u2019 everyday lives. It\u2019s more than this though, it\u2019s a different way of looking at language, encouraging playfulness with words, moving around the classroom or the space rather than sitting at desks, opportunities to perform often as a group rather than just as an individual. I know some great teachers and I know many will use different strategies to involve their students, but at the end of the day they have to teach the curriculum and get their class through the tests \u2013 they are restricted where poets are not. Poets see no limits to words, grammar or punctuation, and no <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> word for one thing; part of the joy of poetry is the exploration and creativity of finding the sounds and the rhythms that resonate deep down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On 28 September 2018 over a 1000 headteachers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/education-45665122\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">marched on parliament<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over ongoing budget cuts. I can only hope that they will continue to find the funds to allow artists from all creative disciplines to visit schools regularly and for trips out to arts events, so that students are still able to express themselves creatively, rather than be confined by the increasing demands and straight-jacket of the curriculum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photo by Suzi Corker<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First Published October 2018<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senior Producer, Nicky Crabb, discusses the importance, and struggle, of keeping creativity in our schools as pressures on exam results forever increase\u2026 When did it become curriculum versus creativity, rather than a creative curriculum? \u00a0 Apples and Snakes\u2019 patron and \u00a0former Children\u2019s Laureate Michael Rosen recently wrote in one of his brilliant blogs: \u2018our school&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"article_type":[9],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","article_type-read"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":18,"label":"Education"}],"article_type":[{"value":9,"label":"Read"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/SPIN_Pre2016_SuziCorker-1024x850.jpg",1024,850,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"D237","author_link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/author\/d237\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":18,"name":"Education","slug":"education","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":18,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":18,"category_count":2,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Education","category_nicename":"education","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}