ABSTRACT
Creativity was listed briefly as a skill to be encouraged in the first National Curriculum (NC) in 1989 and was, for some time, subsequently considered mainly in artistic contexts by educators. By the time of the New Primary Curriculum (NPC), which was published and withdrawn in 2010, creativity had been extensively discussed, defined and identified as a key skill to develop in all pupils and in all subject areas. Creativity was given major consideration in both the Rose (2009) and Cambridge reviews (Alexander 2009) and featured in all areas of learning in the NPC. The NACCE report (1999) stated that all of us have the capability to be creative if we are given the opportunity and it defined creativity as ‘Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value’. We may not all achieve the creativity of Beethoven or Einstein, but we are all capable of thinking imaginatively, for specific purposes, to create useful and original outcomes. These outcomes do not have to be artefacts, but may be ideas or processes or systems. Creative outcomes may result in discoveries in medicine, constructions in architecture or engineering, new ways to organise roads or logistics, or advances in artistic fields. In the classroom, this might start as discovering the best way to lay out a brochure using a word processor; finding ways to solve a maths problem with a calculator; using a graphics package to redesign parts of the school grounds; composing a jingle on an electronic keyboard for an advert; using a spreadsheet to organise a budget; or creating a digital gallery of pupils’ work for parents and friends to see.
