Best practice in teaching and learning in the creative arts at Key Stage 2

For this report, the Welsh Government asked Estyn to examine standards and provisions for the creative arts at Key Stage 2. Inspectors visited a sample of 20 schools across Wales where good practice had previously been identified. The report includes case studies of best practice for other schools to consider. We hope that these will stimulate discussions both within and between schools in order to promote the best practice in teaching and learning across Wales. In the schools that the team of inspectors visited as part of this best practice survey, leaders share a passion and a vision for the creative arts. They believe that the arts inspire, stimulate and motivate pupils to think imaginatively, to persevere, and to respond positively to challenges. In these schools teachers and leaders find ways to teach the creative arts well within the Primary curriculum. They are clear that although pupils’ experience in the arts may not always be measurable, it’s nonetheless valuable. However in around half of around a random sample of schools surveyed, leaders have recently reduced the time assigned to the creative arts. In many cases this is because they believe that devoting resources to the arts detracts from improving measurable outcomes in literacy and numeracy.
-	Dwi’n meddwl fel rhan fwyaf o ysgolion cyfrwng Cymraeg mae yna draddodiad o gelfyddydau greadigol yn gryf yn yr ysgolion. Y gwahaniaeth i ni oedd ceisio dynnu fe mewn i’r cwricwlwm ac mae’n braf iawn gweld adroddiad Donaldson wedi cyrraedd nawr. Mae e’n dangos ffydd yn greadigrwydd athrawon a disgyblion i ddarganfod dysgu ei hunain. Mae rhaid i blentyn, yn arbennig yn yr ysgol cynradd, teimlo wedi cyffroi yn yr hyn sydd yn digwydd yn y dosbarth. Mae’n allweddol. 
-	Our school takes a very positive approach to music. Music’s given a priority, it’s also a whole school philosophy so all the teachers regardless of their own ability will have a go at music.
-	Well our school’s had difficulties with the budget and cuts are inevitable however singing requires very little resources but results in high participation levels. It’s important that schools recognise the value in singing and the impact it can have on pupils and their wellbeing. 
-	Mae safonau lles disgyblion yn dda neu’n rhagorol ym mron pob un o’r ysgolion arfer orau a gafwyd ymweliad. Dywed disgyblion a staff yn yr ysgolion hyn bod y celfyddydau creadigol yn cael effaith gadarnhaol iawn ar wella lles disgyblion. Mae gan lawer o ysgolion dystiolaeth dda o effaith y celfyddydau creadigol ar wella safonau llefaredd ddisgyblion. Yn rhannol, mae hyn oherwydd bod ei wneud a celfyddydau creadigol mewn ffordd fuddiol, yn rhoi profiadau cyffroes i’r disgyblion i siarad amdanynt. Mae’r celfyddydau yn aml yn cynnig cyd-destun ysgogol i ddisgyblion i ddefnyddio a datblygu ei meddau llythrennedd. 
-	We’ve seen a big improvement in behaviour within the school and particularly in the hall setting when we’re singing. The children’s concentration levels are developing nicely along with their listening skills which is having a great impact on the classroom activities. Also wellbeing surveys have identified a trend in singing and music contributing hugely to the pupils’ happiness and enjoyment of school. 
-	Being a multi-ethnic school with a high number of different languages spoken within the school, dance is a really great way for the children to be able to communicate during the PE lesson through creating their own dance, working together as a team. I would say that the children are much more motivated when it comes back to the classroom because they’ve explored actions, they’ve explored language through dance and that’s given them the enthusiasm and given them something to cling on to when they are actually writing and describing these scenes within their writing. 
-	Mae angen dysgu meddwl, mae angen dysgu’r plant sut i feddwl, sut i ddehongli, sut i ddod i farn, ac wrth wneud hynny, maen nhw’n datblygu i fod yn unigolion annibynnol sydd yn medru rhoi barn ar sail ffaith yn hytrach na bod nhw’n meddwl am rywbeth heb y ffeithiau. 
-	We measure the impact with looking at the skills that they gain in music and looking at how they go right the way across the curriculum, for example, their listening skills, their ability to work as a team, their thinking skills, their decision making and then you also have skills such as literacy, numeracy all these other skills and they link together and they’re integrated.
-	Pupils’ standards are best when their teachers are knowledgeable and confident creative artists as well as good classroom practitioners. We’ve asked schools, local authorities and the regional consortia to provide more training to support teachers who are no specialists so that they can develop their knowledge skills and confidence in order to deliver the creative arts well. In the most successful lessons, teachers have a thorough and comprehensive subject knowledge which they use to set high expectations of their pupils. They teach with energy, pace and enthusiasm. Teachers encourage pupils to make their own decisions and to take risks. They use a wide range of well-chosen resources including ICT. Where teaching is less successful, the planned activities don’t always challenge pupils well enough especially the more able and often in these weaker lessons teachers direct and constrain the learning too much. Pupils are afraid to experiment for fear of getting things wrong.
-	If you get it wrong it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you hear something your way then someone hears it another way then that’s what they hear it like.
-	I think to never be afraid, always be enthusiastic, accept the fact that it will be chaos. Accept the fact that to start with when you compose you won’t be able to hear yourself think, you have to have clear sets of rules aswell, we have the Code of Silence a bit like the Pirates Code which then also then brings in the skills of respecting people. You can’t be playing at your loudest if somebody’s trying to work with a group next to you so that’s also quite a useful skill to bring in. 
-	Well, I really, really like music because there’s no right or wrong answer because if you play the notes, brilliant, if you don’t it’s just jazz.
-	Fel strategaeth, mae defnyddio drama, mae defnyddio ffilm, mae defnyddio cyfryngau, mae’r effaith yn syth. Rydych yn gweld y llygaid yn goleuo fynnu, rydych yn gweld y plentyn yna sydd efallai yn dipyn bach yng nghefn y dosbarth weithiau. Rydych yn gweld nhw’n syth, yn eisiau cymryd rhan ac yn rhoi hunan ymlaen y dosbarth ac yn cynnig syniadau, yn cynnig geirfa. Geirfa rydyn nhw efallai ddim yn sylweddoli sydd ganddyn nhw, a dwi’n meddwl mai cyfryngau celfyddydol yn gallu bod yn arf cryf o gwneud hynny. 
-	Heddiw, dwi wedi dysgu ychydig bach mwy am dychymyg a bwlch i gadael chi meddwl tu fas y bocs bach mwy yn lle meddwl am pethau eithaf cyffredin, pethau anghyffredin. 
-	We have identified several more able and talented pupils simply through our singing sessions and providing programs for these pupils to develop at their level our LSE pupils initially found the experience of whole school singing quite overwhelming but we now have full participation and in fact some of our pupils in the Learning Support Centre classes have taken the lead roles in our concerts. 
-	Un peth effeithiol ni ‘di bod yn defnyddio yw’r ap Neopad ac mae hwnna’n rhoi cyfleoedd i plant wedyn i pleidleisio trwy pôl, ac mae hwnna’n rhoi’r adborth o ganran i’r plant wedyn. Felly pob perfformiad maen nhw’n cynhyrchu maen nhw’n gallu gweld pa agweddau mae angen i nhw wella a beth wnaethon nhw’n dda, felly mae’r holl pethau yna yn gwella ei hunanhyder, hunan-barch a’r daith o sut i fod yn berfformwyr gwell.
-	Yn gyffredinol, mae ansawdd y cwricwlwm ar gyfer y celfyddydau creadigol yn dibynnu’n ormodol ar siawns, yn hytrach na chynllunio’r cwricwlwm yn gadarn. Yn y rhan fwyaf o’r ysgolion mae’r ddarpariaeth ar gyfer y celfyddydau creadigol yn dibynnu’n ormodol ar bresenoldeb athro brwdfrydig yn brith y staff, sydd â medrau a gwybodaeth arbenigol. Yn aml, mae cynllunio gan athrawon yn talu sylw da i amrywiaeth eang o brofiadau creadigol diddorol, ond ym misg yr enghreifftiau gwannach nid yw’r cynllunio’n talu digon o sylw at blygiad medru disgyblion yn gynyddol. 
-	Dance is taught through the path scheme, our theme at the moment is islands so the dance lesson is based on the hacker but then the children go on to develop their own tribal dance which is a celebration at the end of the myths that they have written within the curriculum. It gives the children the opportunity to explore dance within a PE lesson and explore the creativity within dance and then take this back into the classroom and apply it within the literacy curriculum.
-	Rydyn ni’n edrych ar ein cyd-destunau dysgu yn rheolaidd ac yn ceisio cynllunio ein gwersi celf sydd yn cwympo’n naturiol yn ôl y cyd-destunau dysgu. Efallai fydd y themâu celf yn newid bob hyn a hyn, ond rhaid cadw mewn cof bod ni’n adeiladu ar ein sgiliau a ddysgwyd yn flaenorol. Y peth pwysicaf yw ein bod ni’n ynni chwilfrydedd yn y plant ac yn ei hysbrydoli nhw. Y cyngor mwyaf allai rhoi rwy’n credu yw cynllunio gwersi celf sy’n berthnasol i’r cyd-destun dysgu.
-	One of the things when I developed the music scheme of work I tried to make sure happened was that the music scheme of work showed progress breadth across the curriculum also progress so for example when we’ve got year three children the appraisal questions and their responses and the types of musical terminology have been much, much simpler than by year six and so I made sure that each year level I sort of added in more and more musical terminology, the questions were more challenging, the composition tasks were more challenging and I worked with each group of teachers to make sure they fitted exactly were they felt their year group were.
-	Yn yr ysgol i ni’n teimlo bod hi’n bwysig iawn i roi cymaint o gyfleoedd i’r plant fel eu bod nhw yn cael blas ar brofiad. Mae dysgu thematig yn gryf iawn yn yr ysgol ac i ni’n teimlo trwy hynny wedyn bod y plant yn cael y profiadau yn y celfyddydau. Rydyn ni yn ysgol sy’n cystadlu ar lefel cenedlaethol ac mae nifer iawn o weithgareddau yna yn cael ei gwneud yn allgyrsiol, felly mae’r cwricwlwm wedi cael ei chynllunio mewn ffordd sydd yn caniatáu i agweddau llythrennedd a rhifedd, cael ei dysgu ar draws y cwricwlwm er mwyn datblygu y celfyddydau creadigol i’r eithaf. 
-	Very few of the schools visited share best practice in the creative arts and pool their resources where they do often these schools provide model lessons for others to observe or they host or deliver training sessions for colleagues from their own and other schools. However too many schools work in isolation and do not benefit from working with others. We’ve asked local authorities and regional consortia to help schools to identify, develop and share best practice in the creative arts. 
-	Mae ysgolion da yn darganfod ffurf o sicrhau bod disgyblion o deuluoedd tlawd yn mwynhau cymryd rhan ym mhob math o weithgareddau a celfyddydau, gan gynnwys ymweliadau i amgueddfeydd a safleoedd treftadaeth diwylliannol er enghraifft. Mae’r holl ddisgyblion gan gynnwys y rhai a all fod yn gymwys i gael prydau bwyd ysgol am ddim yn cael cyfle i ddysgu a chwarae offerynnau cerdd a chymryd rhan mewn cyngherddau, a digwyddiadau celfyddydol yng nghymuned yr ysgol thu hwnt. 
-	Mae yna blant yn naturiol yn derbyn gwersi offerynnol tu allan i’r ysgol, ond beth i ni’n llwydo i wneud fan hyn ydy gwneud e fel rhan o’r cwricwlwm ar lawr y dosbarth yn hytrach na rhywbeth allgyrsiol. 
-	Part of what we’ve tried to do with our school is to enable the children that wouldn’t necessarily be able to access musical instruments and lessons the opportunity. We have built up a small store of school musical instruments. We’ve used our poverty and deprivation grant to do this and also we use the poverty and deprivation grant to help support the peripatetic lessons in school. 
-	We’d like to thank the schools who took part in making this film. You can read their case studies as well as the full report on the Estyn website. 
-	Hoffwn ddiolch i’r ysgolion a gymerodd rhan yn y ffilm, a gallwch chi ddarllen eu hastudiaethau achos yn ogystal â’r adroddiad llawn ar safle Estyn.