A three-year national pilot has shown that embedding teaching for creativity in classrooms can transform teaching practice, improve student engagement, and help rekindle teachers’ passion in their profession.
The Creativity Collaboratives programme emerged from the recommendations of the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, led by us in partnership with Arts Council England.
The Commission champions the idea that creativity should not be an optional extra in schools but should be nurtured across all subjects and education settings – not just within the Arts.
The Commission called for a national network of schools to work together to create the conditions needed to encourage creativity across the curriculum in classroom lessons.
Eight regional networks – known as Creativity Collaboratives – were formed, involving more than 100 schools across England.
This included primary, secondary, and specialist settings, such as pupil referral units, and early years settings.
Each Collaborative was supported by partner organisations, including universities in their regions, to co-develop creative teaching strategies and evaluate their impact.
Over three years, teachers and school leaders implemented these strategies and undertook continuous professional development (CPD) designed to embed teaching for creativity.
Teaching for creativity is an approach that focuses on developing pupils’ ability to think imaginatively, make connections, take risks, and generate original ideas across all subjects.
The programme has now been independently evaluated by a research team from our School of Education, using surveys, reflective portfolios, interviews, case studies and workshops.
More than 4,400 primary pupils, 1,300 secondary pupils, 500 teachers and 100 senior leaders took part in the evaluation.
The overarching evaluation report was authored by Dr Helen Cramman, Associate Professor, and Vic Menzies, Assistant Professor, both from our School of Education.
Its findings show that the Creativity Collaboratives pilot was highly successful in supporting teachers to develop new skills and confidence in teaching for creativity.
This led to measurable benefits for both staff and students.
The evaluation report recommends that the Creativity Collaboratives model should be retained with minimal change if rolled out nationally.
It recommends that future programmes should build on the pilot’s success by creating communities of practice focussed around teaching for creativity for teachers and leaders.
The report has been dedicated to the late Professor Simon James, formerly of our Department of English Studies, who sadly died in June 2025 after a battle with cancer.
