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A Creative Curriculum – nurturing creativity and imagination at the Thomas Coram Children’s Centre. Introduction . Bernadette Duffy Head of Thomas Coram Centre for Children and Families Chair of the British Association for Early Childhood Education
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A Creative Curriculum – nurturing creativity and imagination at the Thomas Coram Children’s Centre
Introduction Bernadette Duffy • Head of Thomas Coram Centre for Children and Families • Chair of the British Association for Early Childhood Education • Author of ‘Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years’
Today we will be looking at the work we have been doing at Thomas Coram on:- • The importance of creativity for children • Being a creative practitioner • Creating an environment that encourages creativity • Working with artists and others to encourage a culture of creativity
England and the EYFS The aim of EYFS is to:- • Increase coherence, provide a flexible approach to care and learning and raise quality and play a key role in improving the life chances of all children • End the sometimes unhelpful distinction between care and learning and between birth-to-three and three-to-five provision. • Help us see children’s learning and development as a process starting at birth
The EYFS and Creativity 4.1 Play and Exploration • Learning through Experience • Adult Involvement • Dispositions for Learning 4.2 Active Learning • Mental and Physical Involvement • Decision Making • Personalised Learning 4.3 Creativity and Critical Thinking • Making Connections • Transforming Understanding • Sustained Shared Thinking 4.4 – 4.10 Areas of Learning and Development Personal, Social and Emotional, Communication, Language and Literacy, Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy , Knowledge and Understanding of the World , Creative , Physical
‘’Children’s creativity must be extended by the provision and offered support for their curiosity, exploration and play. They must be provided with opportunities to explore and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings, for example, through a variety of art, music, movement, dance, imaginative and role-play activities, mathematics, and design and technology.’’[EYFS 2007 Practice Guidance p 104] Practitioners ensure that children have the opportunity to develop the following aspects of creativity:- • Being Creative – Responding to Experiences, Expressing and Communicating Ideas • Exploring Media and Materials • Creating Music and Dance • Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play
What is creativity We have been influenced by Anna Craft s work on - “Big c ” and “little c” creativity ‘Creativity enables individuals to find routes and paths to travel...It is a process of conscious invention and describes the resourcefulness of ordinary people rather than extraordinary contributors.’ It is about:- • thinking along unorthodox lines • breaking barriers • using non-traditional approaches to problems. • making new connections
Through creativity we:- • Promote the full range of human potential • Explore values and ways of working • Understand our own and other cultures • Respond • Experiment
Why is it important Through their creativity children:- • Express their thoughts • Think about and create new meanings • Solve problem and gain mastery • Gain self esteem • Create their own view of the world
The creative process • Curiosity • Exploration • Play • Creativity
The role of the adult • Our role is to: - • create conditions within which children support children to be creative thinkers • develop children's creative thinking through our interactionswith them
Creating conditions which inspire children • Be aware of the nature and value of creativity and imagination • Be aware of the importance of equal opportunities and the need for equality • Be honest about personal prejudices and challenge our own assumptions • Value each child's representations • Encourage the children to use adults as a resource • Communicate with parents and others • Provide access to artists, crafts people, musicians, dancers
Developing children’s creativity through our interactions with them • offer children secure relationships which allow curiosity to flourish • be facilitators • recognise that the process may be more important than the product • value children's self initiated activity • work alongside children as a partner • be genuine and honest
Examples from Audit Are there :- • Outside spaces that complement the inside space? • Spaces for storing and displaying a range of equipment and resources • Materials organised in ways that encourage children to combine them in new and creative ways? • Materials and resources organised in ways the allow the children to take responsibility for their environment?
Part four :- Working with artists and others to encourage a culture of creativity
