Martin Heaney

Independent Evaluator

Evaluating Creativity for Life has been an immense privilege, not least in charting the progress of artist and teacher collaboration and pupil learning across different contexts and disciplines. At the same time, the scale of the programme in 26 schools across 2 counties has called for some careful scoping of evaluation activity and data selection.

The Final Evaluation report has the key objectives of assessing how far participating schools have progressed in placing creativity at the heart of teaching and learning and, secondly, to assess to what extent different counties and other agencies have placed creativity at the heart of strategies for young people. A cross-section of four schools in each county was selected for in-depth evaluation, with particular attention to the impacts on pupils of artist interventions and curricular change. The Creative Partnerships National Evaluation model was designated as a key evaluative tool both in these case study schools and across the programme. This model was supplemented by,
in many instances, schools’ own evaluations, as well as by observations and interviews.
The report also offers overviews of project activity in other participating schools and seeks to capture some of the transformative and problematic aspects of programme implementation. Where possible, thanks to the co-operation of individual teachers, quantitative analysis of pupil progress in literacy and numeracy is provided.

There is an emphasis in the report on the assessment of partnership dynamics, both between teachers and artists and at strategic programme levels. This reflects an approach to evaluation which has attempted both to apply creative tools to encourage dialogue and to capture more effectively some of the genuinely exciting ‘grass-roots’ changes of practice which characterise this programme. Evaluating creative learning is an ongoing professional concern.
If you would like to comment on the report, please email me at the address below.

Martin Heaney

martinh.1@btopenworld.com