Doing school differently

In March 2004 Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination ¹ and Shape Cambridge ² were invited to organise, manage and support pilot creative projects in two regions of Essex as a precursor to the launch of the Creative Partnerships ³ initiative in this authority. Ten interdisciplinary creative practitioners were recruited, who all had experience of working in schools and who would approach the projects from outside the usual structures of schooling within which teachers are required to work. The aims of the projects were to introduce the settings to the rationale and potential of Creative Partnerships; to maintain the momentum of the local community towards Creative Partnerships; and to excite further interest from the local schools and communities. The approach of the individual projects was to involve children, young people, their teachers and other educators in a creative response to issues around twenty-first-century schools and communities. At the heart of this ‘21st Century Schools’ project was a belief in the power of the collaboration between the creative practitioners (visual artists, architects, writers, engineers, photographers, dance and movement therapists), and the teachers and other educators with whom they worked.