Creative Thinkers in the Classroom (Year 2)
Over the past two years, Creative Thinking in Your Classroom has shown how creativity can completely change the atmosphere of a classroom. This educational programme has grown into a structured, evidence-based approach that helps children who learn differently - and, as teachers keep telling us, benefits everyone.
Across the project, 87 pupils took part alongside their teachers, exploring history, science and PSHE through art and design. They made clay coins inscribed with Latin, designed escape-room challenges to explain scientific ideas, and created large collaborative artworks exploring British Values. Many of these pieces were proudly displayed in libraries and on KCOM phone boxes - real-world recognition that their ideas mattered.
Teachers describe the difference as immediate.
“Engagement was really high all day. By the afternoon, pupils were linking outdoor learning with history, geography and science.”
“Before Creative Briefs came, I wasn’t teaching life cycles using an escape room. It’s brilliant.”
For many children, especially those with dyslexia or wider learning differences, the creative approach helped them show what they knew in ways that made sense to them. It gave them confidence, agency and motivation. One pupil said,
“If it was the normal way, people might not learn that way — everyone’s got different ways to learn.”
Our Imagine → Design → Share model has been key to that success. It gives structure without limiting creativity, guiding pupils through a professional-style design process adapted for the classroom. The result is purposeful creativity — children make choices, test ideas, and reflect on what they’ve learned.
Around 90% of pupils achieved an Arts Award Discover or Explore, and many schools saw a clear rise in confidence and collaboration. Teachers rediscovered their own enthusiasm too:
“25 minds are better than my one — it’s reminded me how exciting learning can be.”
Children gained Arts Award through this project - the image shows children with their certificates
The programme’s flexibility also allowed us to also extend to special schools, adapting sessions so that every child could take part. Male role models within the delivery team proved especially valuable, encouraging boys to engage and express themselves confidently.
Our work has been showcased locally and nationally, including an exhibition at the Royal Society of Arts in London. These opportunities have helped demonstrate that creativity isn’t an ‘extra’ — it’s a practical route to inclusion, wellbeing and achievement.
As we look back, we’re proud of what’s been achieved and grateful to the teachers, schools and funders who made it possible. The impact is clear in the words of one teacher:
“E’s more confident, L talks more, V chooses to stay in class rather than leave. That says it all.”
The image shows children from a different school with their Arts Award certificates - they are sitting in front of a display of their artwork in the school windows
