Embedding practice and ensuring legacy in the Inspiring Leaders, Creative Learners programme in Doncaster

It’s a Tuesday at Richmond Hill Primary School. Karly (Year 1 teacher) is setting up for an English lesson. Instead of her usual preparations, she is testing the sound effects of sheep bleating, while donning a pair of white woollen trousers, fluffy ears and a tail. Why? Because today, it’s our Inspiring Leaders, Creative Learners session, and children are exploring The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Karly has transformed into Small Billy Goat and when children return to their classroom, she starts bleating. 

The lesson includes hot seating and Small Billy Goat being questioned by students about his intentions and experiences.

The Rose Learning Trust comprises nine primary schools in and around Doncaster. Through Inspiring Leaders, Creative Learners, teachers in these schools are collaborating with drama practitioners from darts, Doncaster’s leading creative health and learning charity.

This work is empowering teachers to embrace creativity across the curriculum, allowing children to access topics in different ways.

One in three children in Doncaster lives in poverty (City of Doncaster Council, 2023), and head teacher, Helena Honeybone, at Town Field Primary told us at darts, that teachers ​“are building on sand.” Here and across the UK, young children are starting school with complex needs, many struggling with comprehension, listening and working in a group setting. Teachers and school staff are the most vital resource in supporting every child to access education effectively, and through Inspiring Leaders, Creative Learners, we at darts are collaborating with exceptional teachers. We have observed teachers transforming their approaches and exploring new practical techniques while continuing to teach a dense curriculum. One artist shared, ​“The teachers I am working with keep making time to do this brilliantly. It is fantastic to be working with them.” 

We are utilising Bill Lucas’ Five Creative Habits of the Mind to evaluate the impact on teachers. For one teacher, persistence has been key: ​“If we’d tried these activities at the beginning of the year, they wouldn’t have worked. The progress in their confidence and my own is amazing.”

Each teacher is tracking three children per class. Of the 51 tracked, our early findings show improvements in: 

• Confidence 
• Peer-to-peer collaboration 
• Retention of knowledge

There have been some challenges, from logistics to assessments. Many teachers have been concerned about how to report on this work. This has been managed through excellent support from Trust senior leaders. They have encouraged teachers to use photos, visual art, and recordings as evidence, which is working well across the schools. Teacher understanding has been promoted by the engagement of senior leaders, including their attendance at all continuous professional development and learning (CPDL) sessions. 

For our second year, we are focused on embedding and sharing this learning further. Consequently, we are facilitating CPDL in every school, co-delivered by teachers and artists, and the Trust has organised a termly network meeting. Teachers will work more independently with artists checking in and sharing feedback less regularly, while teachers reflect on this change.

We all look forward to seeing how the work develops in the second year of the programme.