Parents applying for a place for their child at the oversubscribed Fulbridge Primary School in Peterborough might wonder what they're in for when they wait outside the head teacher's office surrounded by ghoulish faces, bats, cobwebs, a skeleton in chains, a spooky story handwritten on the wall, and on the ceiling an inscription, 'The Dungeon Master has let you out of the dungeon this time, but if you dare return ...'.
It's all to further the creative curriculum as part of what is proudly thought of as the Fulbridge Way. Last September the school became one of 26 National Schools of Creativity named in the second round of a programme run by the Government initiative Creative Partnerships.
Fulbridge kicked off its participation by setting up themed corridors throughout the school festooned with artefacts, lighting effects and wall displays. There's a knight in armour, an Egyptian tomb, a Victorian classroom and parlour, a WWII Anderson shelter, a rumbling orange volcano, and, at Old Macdonald's Farm, a life-size fibreglass cow among assorted model pigs and ducks, as well as areas based on popular storybooks. The props, including the cow, have come largely from second-hand shops, and the ideas from the staff and children.
There are three classes per year group, and over three terms the children do three role-play topics. Each themed corridor represents a topic, and each topic ends with some kind of celebratory assembly or a show for families.
Creativity already has a six-year history at Fulbridge. When head teacher (and dungeon master) Iain Erskine took over in 2001 the school, in a deprived area of Peterborough, was in special measures, from which it emerged in 2003. That was when, on the advice of primary education consultant Roger Cole, he launched an arts-based creative network called Oasis, to which 33 local schools signed up to share ideas and learn from each other.
Mr Erskine explains, 'Part of our creative journey started from going back into the nursery and seeing how children could direct their own learning. Then we put that into effect in the whole school.'
As tougher economic times eventually limited what other schools could pay to subscribe to Oasis, it was wound down and Fulbridge applied for National School of Creativity status. For two years, the school receives £20,000 a year from Creative Partnerships and puts in £5,000 a year of its own.
'At a launch day of the National Schools of Creativity in Newcastle, we were asked to describe to other schools, in a speed dating arrangement, what was our unique quality that led to us becoming a school of creativity,' says Mr Erskine. 'We discovered that out of all the schools present, we seemed to be the only one that had taken a whole-school approach and developed our own curriculum without external funding and without using commercial initiatives or off-the-shelf creative packages.'
For a purpose
The funding enables Fulbridge to bring in quality storytellers, poets, dramatists, dancers and other artists to work on projects, with lots of children's input and 'ownership'. Children above the Foundation Stage have been making their own films and animations and getting involved in the national programme The Big Write with an emphasis on combining creativity with writing.
The younger children are focusing on 'writing for a reason', says Foundation Stage leader Karen Burton - in the same way as the themed corridors are role play with a purpose. She recalls how different things used to be back in the special measures days, struggling with pupils' behavioural problems. Now, the children wouldn't damage the themed artefacts, 'because they're used, they have a value - they're not just decorative.
'And at Fulbridge, nobody bats an eyelid if the staff or a child walks around dressed up in an outfit, because there's always a purpose to it - children know it's a special day with a theme.'
Ms Burton credits the head teacher's vision for the school's transformation, along with 'the staff who wanted to jump on board - we do it the Fulbridge Way. It works because we're all behind it, and we can see the results.' She thinks the old behaviour issues would come back if the school used supply teachers, but it has a policy to employ only highly qualified learning assistants alongside teaching staff.
New England
Fulbridge also has a children's centre, a paid-for nursery for nought to threes and a maintained nursery for threeto four-year-olds. The school is located in an area of Peterborough called New England, a name it lives up to with 32 different nationalities and 26 different languages spoken among the children.
Mr Erskine says about 20 per cent could be considered MENA, or Minority Ethnic New Arrivals, coming from the Eastern European populations drawn to the local agricultural industry. They include Roma children who have never been to school before. Many pupils in the White British category also have speech and language difficulties.
'Our visual approach is well suited to English as an Additional Language children,' notes Mr Erskine, 'but it works just as well for the Gifted and Talented.'
But the approach is not just visual; it has to be based on first-hand experience. Mr Erskine thinks that it is the school's job to compensate for experiences lacking in the children's day-to-day lives. Oasis aimed to 'open up genuine creative thinking processes, rather than simply using the arts to illuminate or enliven a curriculum area.'
'There are some more ideas pinched from nursery,' he says on a tour round, pointing out the book corner and 'interest corner' in the Year 6 classroom. The cookery area has served as a Continental Cafe in another themed corridor, now being transformed for a Tudor banquet where a staff member is painting antique gold lettering on the wall. 'We discover the hidden talents of the staff with the creative curriculum,' he hints.
Indeed, it's obvious that the adults have almost as much fun as the children in being creative, assembling props and dressing up. Fulbridge staff have played the troll for the Billy Goats Gruff, a mummy risen from the tomb, an alien crash-landed on the school field. After all, says Karen Burton, 'all teachers are actors, aren't they?'
BESPOKE APPROACH
Karen Burton likes the bespoke approach that the creative curriculum allows staff to take. 'It's better to custom-make it for your children, rather than to pay somebody else to,' she says. 'We do go on visits outside school, but you know you're never going to get quite what you want.'
She recalls that when they did an all-day Victorian topic, the teachers spoke like strict Victorians and the children were restricted to having just an orange for their snack. Later, when another project was being announced, one little girl moaned, 'Oh, no, it's not Victorians again, is it?'
'And that's the point!' Ms Burton says. 'It's different! It wasn't fun in Victorian times! Twenty-first century school is fun!
Some Year 2 children remember excitedly what their day in the Fulbridge Victorian room last year was like. 'We sat at desks, not big tables. The boys sat at the front and the girls sat in the back.' 'When you need to go to the toilet you have to say, Can I go to the office?' 'We wore dirty clothes and a hat. Mine was itchy.' 'We did washing with a mangle.' 'If you were naughty you had to stand in the corner.' 'We had a blackboard and had to do all sums and if you didn't you got smacked' (that is, staff had another child make pretend smacking noises). 'We counted in twos up to 20 and back.' 'We did country dancing in a circle - eight times in, eight times out.' And they dance to demonstrate it.
