Creativity, Culture and Education
Paul Collard, chief executive of CCE
Charity Creativity, Culture and Education aims to bring the benefits of arts, culture and creativity to the hundreds of thousands of children in its programmes. Paul Collard, chief executive of CCE explains more about their work and why they are passionate about widening these opportunities:
"Arts and cultural experiences are essential to enabling children and young people to unlock their talent, realise their potential and can play a vital role in achieving the Every Child Matters outcomes.
"There is evidence that cultural experiences contribute in powerful ways to personal development, including enhancing life skills such as creativity, problem solving, self-discipline, teamwork and good communication as well as building confidence. These are the foundations for academic attainment and employability. And in the current economic climate, it is essential that no child is left behind through a lack of access to their own talents.
"Arts and Culture can also enrich, change and transform communities, including through strengthening families, increasing community cohesion and play a significant role in social and economic regeneration.
"Since its launch in 2002, CCE's Creative Partnerships programme has completed 8,520 projects working with over 1 million young people , involving more than 6000 creative organisations, over 54,000 parents and engaging over 90,000 teachers in local projects. The programme is designed to develop the creative and arts skills of young people across England. It does so by fostering innovative, long-term partnerships between schools and a range of creative arts professionals.
"Independent research and reports by many parties including the National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER), Ofsted and a Parliamentary Select Committee have shown that Creative Partnerships has a significant impact on everyone involved: young people, Parents, teachers and schools as well as creative professionals. Research has found that:
• 80 per cent of pupils who take part in Creative Partnerships enjoy their time at school more.
• 70 per cent of head teachers surveyed reported improved pupil behaviour
• 92 per cent of these teachers saw a marked improvement in pupils' confidence
• 91 per cent saw an improvement in pupils' communications skills
• Young people who took part in Creative Partnerships did on average 2.5 grades better in their GCSEs than similar young people in other schools.
"At CCE, we are taking a fresh look at arts and creativity in education as well as the potential for cultural opportunity to boost people's aspirations, achievements and skills. CCE's vision is for children's creativity to be encouraged and nurtured in and out of school and for all children to experience and access the diverse range of arts and cultural activity in England because these opportunities can dramatically improve their life chances. CCE is about making a difference to the lives of children and families and their experiences are at the heart of what we do. We promote the value of creative learning and arts and cultural opportunities by building a strong evidence base, stimulating debate and through the delivery of high quality programmes which achieve this on the ground."
Paul Collard, Chief Executive of CCE
