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Creative curriculum: inspiring young imaginations using the arts is just one of the ways Anna Warren teaches her pupils.
Photograph: Tom Finnie
Anna Warren
Thursday 14 February 2013 07.00 GMT
As a creative school, with a track record in fantastic English results, we are often asked what our
specific approach is: how do we teach through the arts yet manage to maintain such high
expectations from all our pupils? I'd like to share some of these approaches with you:
Immersion activities
How can children access stories, poems and other texts if their minds and imaginations not fully
engaged? We have found that immersing children in a range of creative activities before reading
the text means that they are fully prepared, and excited, about the reading journey ahead of them.
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2/26/2017 10 creative ways to teach English that deliver outstanding results | Teacher Network | The Guardian
Through painting, music composition, a film project, in role drama or sculpture, the kids have had
a chance to share vocabulary, ideas and concepts which gives their reading fresh meaning and
purpose.
Clear purpose
What's the point of reading and writing anything if you don't know why you're doing it? We aim to
provide children with a clear purpose to all reading, and especially writing tasks. Whether it's an
invitation to the headteacher to attend a class assembly, an email to an author or an article for a
school newspaper, our children know why the quality of their writing matters: because there will
be a real audience for their published work.
Professional publishing
One effective way of valuing children's work as well as providing a real incentive, is to plan for a
range of ways to publish their writing. Recent examples include a whole school bookmaking
project. Following a whole school Inset on bookbinding techniques, every class published their own
shared book; one example being an anthology of short spooky stories composed by year 6. Their
stories were mounted on handmade paper, accompanied with each child's art work (lino cut style
prints on metallic paper) with a dramatic paper cut out front cover. The effort the children put into
their work was immense, and the results were stunning as a result. The anthology has been
enjoyed by parents and other pupils and the children's pride in their work is clear to see.
Meaningful planning
Where possible, learning in English is linked with subjects within the creative curriculum we follow:
the international primary curriculum (IPC). Well in advance of teaching, teachers collaborate and
share their ideas for planning through a mind mapping process. Meaningful, creative activities are
planned for, ensuring that all staff members know exactly what the children will be learning and
why.
Focused on strategies
The teaching of reading is not easy. As children's fluency in reading increases, it's hard to know
what reading skills need to be taught, and when. We ensure that specific reading strategies are
modelled explicitly to the class; this provides children with a holistic bank of skills to draw upon.
This could include scanning a text, making an inference, predicting or creating a mental image. Our
teachers use 'think aloud' statements to model to the children how these skills are used, and how
they can help them become better readers. These strategies are then shared as a class, and then
assessed in follow up guided reading activities.
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2/26/2017 10 creative ways to teach English that deliver outstanding results | Teacher Network | The Guardian
Anna Warren is the English subject leader and the year 6 teacher at Holy Trinity and St Silas
School, London.
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2/26/2017 10 creative ways to teach English that deliver outstanding results | Teacher Network | The Guardian
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