Tuesday 8 June 2021

CREATIVITY MATTERS!

 We know that creativity is an important foundation for learning, productivity, and success. 

Here are five reasons why.... 

TEAMWORK MATTERS!

 In an increasingly complex world where colleagues, families, schools and businesses are facing relentless pressure, facing higher and higher expectations and facing increased and increasing demands to do things more efficiently and more effectively, we need to remember that teamwork matters!

THE ARTS IN SCHOOLS MATTER!

 "Because of the Department for Education’s school accountability systems, many schools are reducing the numbers of hours, teachers, subjects and choices on offer. This risks strangling the talent pipeline to the creative industries and robbing children of the social mobility and opportunities that the arts offer. There is a real risk that the benefits of studying the arts will become the preserve of only those who can pay for it."


Bacc for the Future, the Cultural Learning Alliance and What Next have produced a helpful Arts in Schools toolkit which everyone who is passionate about creativity, culture and the arts should read.

DEBUNKING THE MYTHS!

 "One of the reasons why we get stuck in education is that our thinking is framed by so many myths.


MYTH ONE: The poor will always do badly in school. That’s not true: the 10% most disadvantaged kids in Shanghai did better on an earlier PISA math test than the 10% most advantaged students in large American urban areas.

MYTH TWO: Immigrants will lower the performance of a country on international comparisons. That’s not true: PISA shows no relationship between the share of immigrants and the quality of an education system, and the school systems where immigrant students settle matters a lot more than the country where they came from.

MYTH THREE: Smaller classes always mean better results. That’s not true: in fact, whenever high-performing education systems have to make a choice between a smaller class and a better teacher, they go for the latter.

MYTH FOUR: More time spent learning always means better results. That’s not true: study hours in Finland are little more than half of what students in the UAE spend, but in Finland students learn a lot in little time while in the UAE they learn very little in a lot of time."

OECD Education and Skills Today

CO-CREATE FESTIVAL AT YORK ST JOHN UNIVERSITY

 "Co-Create is a one-day festival produced by York St John University that celebrates the making of music, dance and theatre with, for and by members of the youth community. We are interested in performance as a vehicle to entertain and promote social justice and community empowerment, and in turn highlighting the value of being a socially engaged university."



They will do outreach work with groups of 14-19 students for the six weeks running up to the Festival.

The festival is free to enter, to register your interest send the following to co-create@yorksj.ac.uk:
  • Name & address of your school or group
  • Number of people to work on the performance
  • Performance type: Music, Dance, Drama (or a combination of any).
The Festival coincides with the opening of the York St John University Creative Centre.