Main Curriculum Focus
HASS
Cross-curricular Links
HASS – geography
HASS – skills
Science – chemical sciences, earth and space sciences
Technology processes and production skills
Design Technologies – knowledge and understanding
Numeracy – statistics & probability
Literacy
CCP – Sustainability
Context
Treeby Primary School was opened at the beginning of 2022 and is located near Jandakot, south of the Perth CBD. Jane Wescott is the principal who leads a staff of 36 including 20 teachers. The student population numbers 250 with more buildings onsite for growth in the future. With the school being less than a year old the data on performance, ICSEA ranking etc is not yet available. The school population has a diverse cultural background coming from families in the new housing estate.
Our class of 20 year 2 students are from a range of backgrounds. They have varying abilities and are curious about the world around them with a little encouragement from their teacher. Unfortunately, it feels at times as though they have forgotten how to be imaginative and inquisitive and this is something their teacher has been concerned about. Diane Baker is a very experienced teacher of 16 years, ten of those at level 3, and has been enjoying the challenge of joining the staff of a brand new school. Shona McGregor, the CS creative practitioner, is a former special needs teacher and professional visual artist who is combining her love of education and the arts to promote creative thinking and learning in Western Australian schools.
WHAT WE DID
We were very driven by the interests of the students themselves and the structures that were in place in their new school. Diane mentioned that the recycling system was a little confusing at Treeby which led us to think about how much the year twos knew about plastics and what happens to them when we throw them away. We collected lots of recycled packaging from the children and our own homes and used them in activities to build their awareness of what plastics are, where they come from and what happens to them when we throw them away.
How did we make the curriculum come alive?
We used very hands on, meaningful activities the children could connect to at their level. We also took note of their ‘wonderings’ so we could incorporate them into future sessions and really target the things they were interested in. Experiments, a factual picture book about plastic and anything inspiring curiosity helped us to progress their learning of the curriculum in a motivating way.
How did we make the Creative Habits of Mind come alive?
The Creative Habits were embedded in everything we did. Our warmups centred around the habits and we discussed them after each activity; how we used them and which ones were difficult, while using our class habit board. We would talk about the habits we used again after our main activities and the children used wool in the habit colours they thought they used best that session to add to the pom poms they are making as the program progresses. We also talk about the habits that are the trickiest that day and the children place habit coloured mini pegs on the habit board next to the habit they struggled with.
How did we activate student voice and learner agency?
Lots of choice and problem solving! The children are very used to waiting to be told what to do and how to do it. They are not very aware that they can be responsible for their own learning and without prompting them they are reluctant to use their imaginations or make mistakes. We made sure to allow the kids to work out how to do everything themselves even down to how to organise the class for an activity or roll up a giant ball of string we were using. (It’s clearly a lot harder to do than you think.) We also gave them many opportunities to present their learning to the class and give each other feedback in order to make the learning visible and see the processes they were a part of.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?
Student
The children have been very excited and engaged with what we are doing. They have a really good understanding of the Creative Habits now and are beginning to see how they affect their learning. One example that really proved we were making connections happened after the session we asked the students to design and make parachutes out of our rubbish collection. They had been challenged to fly a small model animal safely from the top of the slide to the ground. Many of the students found it difficult working in groups and one of the boys was in tears after the activity because they just couldn’t get their design to work. Diane sent me an email later in the week to let me know that this child had gone home and tried to redesign his parachute. He even had his dad give him a hand and they worked together on a few prototypes. He couldn’t wait to tell me how persistent he had been and all about the ways he had been crafting and improving his design.
“We are learning. We play games for warm-ups. We play the games to switch on our brains. It exercises our brain.” (Student)
“Creative Schools has helped me practice the green one (persistent) if somethings is hard you keep on trying. The cutting activity was hard, we had to cut a circle and then another circle and stick it together and get wool and tie it around. I saw other people doing the same thing and I thought I can also do it.” (Student)
“I’m learning how to design stuff and create something new. You think about what you want to do. You draw it and if it’s wrong you have to be persistent and draw it again. I feel happy after I try and trying again, and I feel proud.” (Student)
“The kids in my class are getting more creative. They all are doing creative stuff during golden time. Everyone used to go for board games before. But now they get post it notes and try to invent new things.” (Student)
“Shona is really good. You get to do things I never knew before. It makes me very very happy because I’m trying my best and listening and I’m being imaginative.” (Student)
Teacher
Diane has spoken about the difficulty in being able to take a backseat and let the kids work things out for themselves. With so much to pack into the school day, time is precious and allowing the kids the space and time to just roll up the giant ball of string as a group or work out the Pic collage software for themselves can be a luxury they just don’t often have. By allowing them to work out even mundane tasks that you assume they can handle, it has been really eye opening for Diane to see the extra skills they are picking up and the agency it gives them.
“They are so engaged. It’s so interesting to see them organising themselves and taking charge. It’s been a challenge for me to not step in and do the teacher thing and give direction but to give them a chance to self-manage. I’ve been using the 5 habits to point out examples during other areas of learning. It ties in with other approaches that we are working with.” (Teacher)
Creative Practitioner
Getting to know the children and their learning styles is always an exciting part of the Creative Schools program. No two classes of students are the same and I love the challenge of not only trying to find out what will engage them the most but making sure all the students feel seen and heard so they can learn best. Working in a flexible way and not planning ahead too far allows us to cater for the class’s needs and really focus on those surprising moments of curiosity and wonder that foster the most impactful learning. I can see we are all learning in each session even if it’s when a warmup doesn’t go as expected and we work out how to tweak it for success next week.
School
The school is supportive of the program and has booked Naomi (also a practitioner at Treeby) and myself to deliver a professional learning session. In term four we will be presenting a session on teaching for creativity for the teaching staff. We are looking forward to being able to talk about the program with other staff members and increase it’s visibility at the school.
Parents
Parents and caregivers learnt all about our program during the recent Learning Journey evening at Treeby. Displays were set up to showcase the work the students had been doing with Creative Schools as well as photos and experiments that were under way. Diane said the kids were excited to tell their families all about our sessions.
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