Archive Project: The Creative Hub

Project Description

The Creative Hub

 

"The Creative Hub is a meritocracy that places visual literacy, the ability to think and the skills of visual expression at its heart."

The 'Creative Hub' was a unique experiment, originally funded as a pilot by central government to research the impact of arts-led projects on learning in English, Mathematics and Science by 10/11 year olds. The LEA invited pairs, groups or clusters of schools to form pathfinder research groups. These schools were supported and encouraged in the use of new technology to research, design, develop communicate and present their work in a variety of media. Projects were designed specifically for each school, with targeted impact on self esteem and attainment in core subjects, incorporating communication through a range of artforms. A class of Year 5 in each school started the projects in April 2002, and continued the work into Year 6 until April 2003. Projects were led by teacher and artist(s) in partnerships, and were evaluated throughout, and by SAT results in Summer 2003. Teachers, artists and pupils had first use of a new arts technology centre in Manor Hall called The Creative Hub, and acted as trailblazers, and providers of case studies, for other teachers and their Key Stage 2 classes.

"It's not the only time all the work's been fun, but one of the very few times!"

''It's built my confidence to perform. I used to hate going up in front of the class. Now I put my hand up to go first. I feel more confident in Art. Using willow helps you to be imaginative. It's easier than drawing. It's built my confidence in group work.''

"If you have fun learning, you remember it."

"We put all our ideas together and we work as a team – the ideas are better."

"When we danced like water, I felt like water. So I thought, what does water do?"

"Now we are researching in science and we are using the internet. When we've got projects we can use the internet at school at lunchtime. We've been doing this more since the hub. It seems more exciting now."

"I think we learnt more in a few days than in half a term. If we had this way of working it would inspire us to work more at home."

"We need to keep the subjects, but how we learn them could change. We still have to learn, but it's stretching the boundaries. Expressing things in our own words."

Funders and Partners