Creative Learning

Earlier this year I had the great pleasure of being a Creative Practitioner at Rhws Primary School in the Vale of Glamorgan. The Creative Lead Schools Project is a 5 year partnership between the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government to place artists, designers, writers, musicians and makers with schools across Wales who need to solve a problem or build on existing practices with the help of creativity. I was chosen to deliver the brief of whether jewellery making can help improve numeracy skills for a Year 4 class. 
It's pretty impossible to make any sort of jewellery without any maths, measuring, counting components etc and pricing so I was sure it would be a great project to do.
Initially the class weren't sure about the jewellery making - especially some of the boys. But in the first session when the children tried the hand tools and played with beads and findings, they soon came around and ended up having a joyful time designing and making jewellery. It was fab and ended after a few months with a grand finale catwalk show and exhibition to the rest of the school and parents. The kids were enthusiastic and brilliant and I learnt that I enjoyed teaching as much as they did making. And learning. Happy to report that maths results improved...