The Manning School for Girls – a school alive with creativity

The Manning School for Girls in Nottingham is a Creative Partnerships School of Creativity working with the programme to further develop creative teaching and learning practices, form innovative partnerships with other schools and help to shape future education policy and practice. There are 38 different languages spoken across this inner city school which started working with Creative Partnerships back in 2003 when it had low exam results and had been threatened with closure.

Lesley Lyon, Headteacher explains why The Manning School is now a different place six years on: “After a whole school consultation with students they told us that learning is most effective when they work alongside artists in the curriculum, we have since been on a creative journey which has transformed our school. Our work with Creative Partnerships started with a small scale project with our EAL students working with a theatre company. One of our pupils arrived from the Congo and hadn’t spoken in over three months. Through this project she played music from her own local village and from that moment on she started to interact with other pupils. We saw the impact of creative learning and partnership working and filtered this through all our subjects. Now when I walk through the school it really is alive with creativity, for example walking past a language class I often witness singing and drama role plays. We know that creative teaching and learning has the power to raise attainment, aspirations and change the whole school ethos.

“Implementing creative teaching and learning practice is a journey for the whole school and sometimes it isn’t an easy one. You need to start with a whole school vision for change and someone at a senior level needs to drive it. Here at Manning we have an Assistant Headteacher whose responsibility it is to drive creative learning. Students themselves must be involved from the start and teachers need to be offered support and encouragement to increase their confidence to take risks with their teaching as well as to work in partnership with other teachers and creative professionals. You also need to build in time to plan, talk and reflect. There is an immediate impact when you work with Creative Partnerships but it has taken time to alter ethos and aspirations. It is a journey for everyone in the school community and it is one well worth taking.”

And the results of embedding creative teaching practice? Creativity is relevant across all subjects bringing with it the competences which help to raise attainment levels. At Creativity, Culture and Education we believe that creative learning can transform the aspirations, attainment, skills and life chances of children and young people. Our brief is ‘fun with rigour’ – a creative approach to achieving high quality learning and we hope that through our programme more teachers will recognise and develop their own creative skills for the benefit of themselves and their pupils.