A Creative Curriculum nurturing creativity and imagination at the Thomas Coram Childrens Centre

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A Creative Curriculum nurturing creativity and
imagination at the Thomas Coram Childrens Centre
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Introduction

• Bernadette Duffy
• Head of Thomas Coram Centre for Children and
  Families
• Chair of the British Association for Early
  Childhood Education
• Author of Supporting Creativity and Imagination
  in the Early Years

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Today we will be looking at the work we have been
doing at Thomas Coram on-

• The importance of creativity for children
• Being a creative practitioner
• Creating an environment that encourages
  creativity
• Working with artists and others to encourage a
  culture of creativity

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Part One The importance of creativity for
children
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England and the EYFS

• The aim of EYFS is to-
• Increase coherence, provide a flexible approach
  to care and learning and raise quality and play a
  key role in improving the life chances of all
  children
• End the sometimes unhelpful distinction between
  care and learning and between birth-to-three and
  three-to-five provision.
• Help us see childrens learning and development
  as a process starting at birth

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The EYFS and Creativity

• 4.1 Play and Exploration
• Learning through Experience
• Adult Involvement
• Dispositions for Learning
• 4.2 Active Learning
• Mental and Physical Involvement
• Decision Making
• Personalised Learning

• 4.3 Creativity and Critical Thinking
• Making Connections
• Transforming Understanding
• Sustained Shared Thinking
• 4.4 4.10 Areas of Learning and Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional,
  Communication, Language and Literacy, Problem
  Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy , Knowledge and
  Understanding of the World , Creative , Physical

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Childrens creativity must be extended by the
provision and offered support for their
curiosity, exploration and play. They must be
provided with opportunities to explore and share
their thoughts, ideas and feelings, for example,
through a variety of art, music, movement, dance,
imaginative and role-play activities,
mathematics, and design and technology.EYFS
2007 Practice Guidance p 104

• Practitioners ensure that children have the
  opportunity to develop the following aspects of
  creativity-
• Being Creative Responding to Experiences,
  Expressing and Communicating Ideas
• Exploring Media and Materials
• Creating Music and Dance
• Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play

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When am I most creative ?
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What is creativity

• We have been influenced by Anna Craft s work on -
  Big c and little c creativity
• Creativity enables individuals to find routes
  and paths to
• travel...It is a process of conscious invention
  and describes
• the resourcefulness of ordinary people rather
  than
• extraordinary contributors.
• It is about-
• thinking along unorthodox lines
• breaking barriers
• using non-traditional approaches to problems.
• making new connections

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• Through creativity we-
• Promote the full range of human potential
• Explore values and ways of working
• Understand our own and other cultures
• Respond
• Experiment

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Why is it important

• Through their creativity children-
• Express their thoughts
• Think about and create new meanings
• Solve problem and gain mastery
• Gain self esteem
• Create their own view of the world

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The creative process

• Curiosity
• Exploration
• Play
• Creativity

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The difference between Representation and
Reproduction
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How we use the arts to promote all areas of
learning
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Part two Being a creative practitioner
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Who helped or hindered your creativity ?
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The role of the adult

• Our role is to -
• create conditions within which children support
  children to be creative thinkers
• develop children's creative thinking through
  our interactions with them

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Creating conditions which inspire children

• Be aware of the nature and value of creativity
  and imagination
• Be aware of the importance of equal
  opportunities and the need for equality
• Be honest about personal prejudices and
  challenge our own assumptions
• Value each child's representations
• Encourage the children to use adults as a
  resource
• Communicate with parents and others
• Provide access to artists, crafts people,
  musicians, dancers

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Developing childrens creativity through our
interactions with them

• offer children secure relationships which allow
  curiosity to flourish
• be facilitators
• recognise that the process may be more important
  than the product
• value children's self initiated activity
• work alongside children as a partner
• be genuine and honest

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Examples from Audit Are there -

• Outside spaces that complement the inside space?
• Spaces for storing and displaying a range of
  equipment and resources
• Materials organised in ways that encourage
  children to combine them in new and creative
  ways?
• Materials and resources organised in ways the
  allow the children to take responsibility for
  their environment?

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Part four - Working with artists and others to
encourage a culture of creativity
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Music day
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Developing the garden
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Using found materials
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The tunnel project
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Garden Room Project
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Conclusion