The Creative Curriculum

'The Creative Curriculum' seems to be the buzz word floating around Education these days. Be more creative ! Be flexible ! Marry subjects together ......but also make sure you're high up on the National League Tables. 'You cannot have it both ways,' is what I keep hearing in the back of my mind. I read recently that England is 'pre-occupied' with National Standards. The word 'pre-occupied' really caught my attention. Pre-occupied. It gives the impression, and rightly so, that the Government is more interested in 'measuring' education rather than seeing what's at the heart of it. I find it rather ridiculous to be 'creative' when you're enveloped within a system that is obsessed with statistics: how can you measure creativity?



When I first started teaching ( 8 years ago )I can remember the vitality and excitement. I spent hours coming up with new ideas and fun ways to teach what I wanted to teach, within the boundaries of 'titles' given to me by my then co-Year 4 teacher. She was well aware that I wasn't following school guidelines to the letter and that I was just trying to be as exciting and creative as I possibly could.

This was beneficial for the children and for myself. There are times now where you feel as if an invisible leash of sorts is tied around you; gently tugging every so often as if reminding you to stay on track and to remember that they'll need to know SKILL X or SKILL Y in order to pass through their SATs.



Rant over....



'Creative Curriculum' - One of the aspects of this is the Cross-Curricular approach: teaching across the subjects, or teaching one theme throughout a range of subjects. Not so long ago, this used to be called Topic Work. It's funny, you know, when the Head has to introduce these new schemes he often finds himself battered with lines such as 'this is what we did 20 years ago' and 'back to Topic Work! What were the last 20 years about then?' Poor chap ! Poor teachers ! And therefore: poor kids !


Ahem....I did say the rant was over didn't I !

There is a lot to be said for teaching one or two things through many subjects. You can see straight away how everything can or could connect. If I taught the Greeks in History, I can see experiments in Science and Forces coming in (Icarus and Gravity ;P) or even PE (Olympic Games). In English I'd do word origins (better with the Romans, but hey ho!). Geography would tie in well there too - we could use Google Earth (IT) to look at images of Greece and plot where all the Ancient Buildings and Landmarks referred to in the Tales (Literacy again) are to be found. I could go on and would rather not as I love the Greeks, but they're taught in Year 4 !



My take on this approach? I'm not so sure. I think it is a wonderful and brilliant idea - I'd go wild, but I don't believe you should bend other subjects out of shape to just fit around an idea - it doesn't work like that. An example would be that I hear a lot of 'You can do Literacy through History' or 'ICT through History'. Yes, you can, up to a point but we must not forget that children also need to learn key discrete skills in these subejcets too. I get fed up when I see so many children in ICT just use a paint program to draw something that they have been learning about in History. How is that ICT? More importantly, how is that even History? It's nothing at all.

Bring on the Creative Curriculum, I say, but don't lose sight of Key Skills that we want children to leave school with which will empower and enable them to succeed in the future.