Lead Creative Schools

About your School

Welcome to our online application process. In this section we need some basic information about your school.

Before completing your application you are advised to read the Lead Creative Schools Prospectus.

Information provided in this form will be shared with researchers employed to evaluate the Lead Creative Schools Scheme. Successful schools will also be required to provide additional monitoring data throughout the period of the initiative to help monitor and evaluate the scheme.

School Name

CEFN SAESON COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

School Address

AFAN VALLEY ROAD
CIMLA

City

NEATH

County

Neath & Port Talbot

Postal Code

SA113TA

School Telephone Number

01639791300

	School E-mail address

	CefnSaesonComprehensiveSchool@npted.org

	Website address

	http://www.npted.org/schools/cefnsaesoncomp

Please tell us your local authority code (3 digit number) and your school establishment number (4 digit number)

If you do not know these numbers then you can find them by visiting EduBase, the register of educational establishments in England and Wales, maintained by the Department for Education.

	School Name

	CEFN SAESON COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

	Local Authority Code

	4064

	School Establishment Number

	671

If you are unsure of your 'Government Region' please use our online postcode lookup tool to find out.

Government Region

Neath (South Wales West)

Your lead contact at the school This should be the head teacher or a member of your senior leadership team who is able to answer questions about your application to be a Lead Creative School

The person named here must be authorised to answer all queries and to sign all documents relating to this application to be a Lead Creative School.

Title

MRS

First Name

BETHAN

Last Name

MARKS

Job Title

HEAD OF DRAMA

Address

AFAN VALLEY ROAD
CIMLA

City

NEATH

Postal Code

SA113TA

County

Neath & Port Talbot

Telephone number

07989477034

E-mail address

cssc-staff.bm@npted.org

Your Proposal

In this section we're asking you to tell us in detail about why you want to be a Lead Creative School.

The information we need from you must be broken down into the following sections:

Why you want to be a Lead Creative School, and how you will mobilise your school community
Developing the creative skills of learners
Your vision and school development priorities
Literacy, numeracy and reducing the impact of deprivation on educational attainment?
Your capacity as a school to deliver the programme effectively

It's important that you follow this structure and the guidelines on the information you need to provide as it helps us compare like with like as part of our assessment process. Please read our guidelines and the Lead Creative Schools Prospectus so you'll understand what we're looking for. Please make sure that you cover every aspect of each section as best you can.

Why you want to be a Lead Creative School and how you will mobilise your school community

Please tell us why you want to be a Lead Creative School.

We are constantly striving to improve pupils learning and experience in Cefn Saeson and in 2014 2015 had our highest ever GCSE results.

The creative Arts is an area that we hold to be of great value at Cefn Saeson. As a school we have a busy calendar of performing arts events, packed with concerts, shows, talent competitions, community and transition event to name a few. The art and technology departments are also busy hosting displays, projects and working collaboratively with other departments to provide, scenery for the school show, historical displays and other school based projects. The scheme would give us the opportunity to not only develop our areas of strength but also help improve and develop both staff and pupils creative capacity. We are excited at the prospect of extending our experience within this area, and having the opportunity to offer pupils experiences that we would perhaps not have the expertise to offer within our school setting.

Our aim is to inspire, engage and enthuse each pupil and develop staff in every subject area and provide an accessible and attainable curriculum for all pupils regardless of ability or social background; broadening horizons and opening up opportunities that prepare them for life beyond of school, into the world of work, college or university.

We are an improving school, looking for new ways to improve at all times; this scheme will help us continue to improve and move forward as a school and will help us provide an innovative and imaginative approach to learning creatively which will become embedded into each curriculum area.

Please tell us how your teachers responded to the opportunity to participate in the Lead Creative Schools Scheme and if any teachers have expressed an interest to have an active role.

Initial staff responses have been very positive.

As a staff body it is agreed that the benefits of giving pupils the opportunities provided by such scheme are excellent. Staff have seen pupils grow in confidence and character and although these projects have been much smaller that the Lead Creative Practitioner Scheme, attainment and motivation has been raised. The results of such projects have not only been beneficial to the pupils but also to the staff who have gained greater experience and a wider skills base to improve their practice within the classroom and give them valuable links within professional/local communities.

Many staff have expressed an interest in being involved in different capacities. The Head of English, Literacy/Numeracy Coordinators and Ass. Head responsible for skills who are keen and motivated to be involved(to name but a few). In addition, many departments, including, Music, Drama and Art were excited about the prospect of having 'creative practitioners/agents' possibly working within their departments and were happy to aid/facilitate in any way. Administration staff and non teaching staff area also keen to facilitate in any way possible (teaching assistants have expressed an interest in helping in workshop session if necessary and the admin staff with aid with the budgeting and secretarial aspects of the scheme).

One of our higher level teaching assistance who has experience in the creative arts is also very keen to be involved in what ever capacity deemed necessary.

The key aims of the scheme link closely to our school development plan and we intend, if successful to use the initiative to raise standards in boys' literacy, (specific focus on writing and reading) especially underachieving and disengaged boys within the FSM and WIMD groupings. The Head of English and literacy coordinator are very keen to be involved and believe it to be an excellent opportunity to raise standards, attainment and enthuse otherwise disengaged pupils; It is also the primary focus of our School Development Plan (SDP).

Depending on the outcome of the initial creative agent meeting selected members of these staff will be asked to participate in the induction of the scheme(most likely literacy coordinator) . Staff involved will also be given extra time to plan, implement, reflect and evaluate the scheme and spend time with the creative agent when needed. School funding will be adjusted to reflect the cover needed as mentioned later in the application. Timetables can be arranged in the summer term to allocate additional PPA time to those staff involve in the project.

As a Lead Creative School your teachers and learners will be working with a range of external partners including a Creative Agent and Creative Practitioners.

Please tell us:

what opportunities working with external partners might bring to your school
how you will mobilise your school community to engage with external partners
what challenges you might need to overcome.

At Cefn Saeson we have worked with a number of external agencies and both staff and pupils embrace visitors with a professional and caring manner. The English department works closely with the Library and benefits from any workshops that they have to offer. The Drama department has an excellent working relation shop with Pontardawe Arts Centre and are first to be offered any free workshops due to the excellent pupil response and excellent communication skills and reliability and support by departmental staff. These are just a few areas displaying the positive approach staff takes to external agencies and this is shown across the school.

Pupils are also given many opportunities to participate in a variety of extra curricular offered by many departments across the school. However, these extra curricular activities are often attended by the same pupils, often girls and often pupils from a more affluent background. I hope that working with external agents (who aren't necessarily the faces that pupils see on a daily basis) will inspire and engage pupils who wouldn't ordinarily undertake such activities (maybe because of a lack of confidence, acceptance or just because they may be out of their 'comfort zone').

I would hope that in the first instance, looking at and engaging a target group of pupils may engage and inspire them to not only improve their literacy skills but also help them to gain confidence and motivate them to participate in school life more fully, especially if they are involved in the planning as they will take pride in their ownership of the project.

Developing the Creative Skills of Learners

Please tell us:

Why you feel it is important to develop the creative skills of your learners
How you will engage learners in planning, delivery and evaluation in your work as a Lead Creative School.

It is highly evident that within our school the pupils who are involved in creative activities also achieve more, they are engaged more fully in school life and are better prepared for life after school. The research surrounding creativity in learning also supports this approach (Donaldson (2015), Smith (2013), Robinson (2010)). It is intended that by facilitating our target group of boys to develop creatively they will not only improve and develop their literacy skills but also have a more positive engaged approach to school and the school environment. Inspiring them to engage an participate more fully is all aspects of school life will hopefully have a more positive effect on their learning and self esteem and also i pact positively on the learning and experiences of the other pupils surrounding them.

Pupil voice is used across the school in a variety of ways, through questionnaires, workbook questions or verbal questioning within the classroom, these strategies (that pupils use regularly) could also be utilised to give pupils a say in the planning, delivery and evaluation of the project; this will also give all pupils a voice. We are a small school based in a fairly rural setting, from time to time pupils lack confidence (possibly more so from the target group selected) in sharing their ideas and opinions in front of their peers or/and with external people (initially), using different methods of pupil voice will ensure that all pupils have a say. Research also shows that boys engagement is improved if they find material relevant to them and we hope that they will be fully involved in the planning process. Learners will work closely with the School Coordinator and will also meet, discuss and plan with the creative practitioner and any creative agents that are allocated to the school as having a sense of ownership of the process will be beneficial to the outcome, what ever it may be.

The Lead Creative School Scheme aims to promote new ways of working with innovative and bespoke programmes designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning. It supports schools to address their individual challenges, school development priorities and key issues.

Please tell us your most important school development priorities and how being a Lead Creative School might help you address these.

The most important school priority as outlined in the School Development Plan (see attached) is to address the gender gap and the underachievement of boys focusing upon raising accuracy in literacy and improving key stage 3 level 5+ attainment. (DATA)

If we are successful in our application to become a Lead creative school it is our intention to work with our creative advisor and implement creative strategies to improve the engagement and attainment of boys literacy. A target group of 20 - 30 Year 8/9 boys have already been identified using CAT scores, Teacher assessment benchmarked against national literacy and numeracy data.

We hope to look at reading and writing as the main focus of our first year project. We are enthused at the prospect of working with external creative agents and practitioners and are excited to see how (through creative collaboration with the pupils and creative agent) the project unfolds and what the results may be.

We hope that through working with creative practicioner that this will continue to engage and inspire pupils in consecutive years. It is hoped that involved staff will gain development in their own skills from the course and be empowered to become more creative practitioners within their own classroom and will continue to develop this good practice.

Depending on the outcome of the project success will be measured by pupils voice, teacher assessment data benchmarked against national literacy and numeracy scores. After the first year project evaluation the success of the project will be discussed within SLT and contribute to the school evaluation report and development plan.

Please tell us the importance given to creativity in your teaching and learning strategy or plans and the key issues you wish to address through a creative approach to teaching and learning.

As aforementioned, we are an improving school, looking for new ways to improve at all times. Teaching and learning is a key area and we value the sharing of good practice highly. We are making strides towards addressing the recommendations from the Donaldson report. We hope that this scheme will help us provide an innovative and imaginative approach to learning creatively which will become embedded into each curriculum area.

Pupil voice is used across the school in a variety of ways, through questionnaires, workbook questions or verbal questioning within the classroom. Staff adapt and change schemes of work according to pupil voice, pupils are placed centre stage in their own learning in order to ensure that they undertake an engaging, enjoying and relevant education.

Pupils within the school have the opportunity to work collaboratively, learning and creating together explore and learn together. We would like the pupils to work with the creative agent and the forefront of the project, empowering them by giving their own ideas under the guidance of the creative agent.

We hope that the project will not only have a positive impact on the target groups used within the projects but that this develop and enhance our creative pedagogy as a school.

Please tell us what staff skills you would like to develop through being a Lead Creative School.

As a school we are working fairly well within the five suggested competencies highlighted in the 'Self-Assessment Competency Framework for Creative Practitioners who work in educational settings to develop the creativity of children' (2015). However, there is certainly room for improvement. We would like to develop staff to become more confident in their creative thinking, becoming more creative in the classroom and providing more insightful and less prescriptive work within the classroom.

Although the sharing of good practice is utilised regularly across the school (through learning walks, staff meetings, through working parties, triads) an area for development would be the introduction of 'Creative Agents' this is an area that will more whole staff training and possible sharing of good practice from external creative agents staff will be encouraged to reflect on the creativity in their own classrooms/departments, thus having a positive impact on creativity within the classroom and will have a positive effect on creativity across the school. These 'creative activities will hopefully become an integral and inherent part of each lesson.

This Self Assessment will be used as a guide to ascertain staff creativity and once scrutinised the results will be used to develop staff into further creative practitioners.

Please tell us if you have contacted your Schools Challenge Adviser about your application and if so any comments they made.

We have spoken to our Challenge advisor and he supports us fully in our application.

Literacy, Numeracy and Reducing the impact of deprivation on educational attainment

Please tell us how your school will use participation in this scheme to support improvements in any or all of the following: literacy, numeracy and reducing the impact of deprivation on educational attainment.

We intend the primary focus of the project will be to raise boys literacy attainment with the specific focus on writing and reading. The target group will include FSM and WIMD pupils.

We have recently embarked on several projects that could also have benefitted from the inclusion of this scheme. There have been several maths support programmes that have run within the school targeting both Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils. In addition to this many opportunities have been made available (using the pupil deprivation grant) to FSM pupils; including, theatre trips, sports trips and other educational trips and experiences that both pupils and parents have expressed an interest in attending.

Both English and Science departments are keen to develop their higher ability learners through literacy and STEM projects, both of which will happen this academic year on a much smaller scale.

Your Capacity as a school to deliver the programme effectively.

The commitments of being a Lead Creative School are set out in the Prospectus for schools and include making a commitment to developing practice, to identify motivated teachers to participate and to identifying a School Coordinator.

Please tell us how you will create the capacity within your school to meet your commitments as a Lead Creative School.

As a school we are fully committed to becoming a Lead Creative School. Initial staff responses have been very positive and there are many staff, such as Head of English, Literacy/Numeracy Coordinator and Ass. Head (to name but a few) responsible for skills who are keen and motivated to be involved. In addition, many departments, including, Music, Drama and Art were excited about the prospect of having 'creative practitioners' possibly working within their departments and were happy to aid/facilitate in any way. Administration staff and non teaching staff area also keen to facilitate in any way possible, teaching assistants have expressed an interest in helping in workshop session if necessary and the admin staff with aid with the budgeting and secretarial aspects of the scheme.

Selected members of these staff will be asked to participate in the induction of the scheme. Staff will also be given extra time to plan, implement, reflect and evaluate the scheme and spend time with the creative agent when needed. School funding will be adjusted to reflect the cover needed.

The Head teacher has asked the Head of Drama/Head of Year 9 (Bethan Marks) to take on the role of Skills Coordinator Skills and will be accountable to the Head Teacher, Dave Cole. Bethan Marks has been asked to undertake this role as she is being developed as a future leader and the SMT would like to give her the opportunity to undertake this large whole school responsibility to develop her Leadership skills. BM is also undertaking a Leadership course and will be attending SMT meetings to feedback and discuss with SMT. BM will be expected to contribute to the writing of the School Development Plan (SDP) at the end of the first year, ascertaining the success if the project and informing the future (SDP) which we intend to link to the second year of the project. In addition to ensuring the scheme it is integrated into the wider practice of the school; she will be given regular opportunities to discuss the project at whole staff and Head of Department/Pastoral meetings, impacting positively, leading to sustainable and embedded practice and creating an environment throughout the school where creativity can thrive. The Headteacher is happy to release BM for approx. 15 days each year or more if necessary.

The Headteacher/SMT are keen to be involved in meetings with staff and the allocated Creative Agent and attend with the School Coordinator any network/ sharing good practice events to ensure the success of the project within the school.

Please tell us what other initiatives you are involved in, or have recently been involved in as a school, and what lessons have been learnt that you would want to apply if you are selected as a Lead Creative School.

The school has been involved in two community projects with the local feeder schools based on British authors. Last years project was Dylan Thomas and this year it is Roahl Dahl. The pupils have benefitted so much from this 'out of the classroom/ extra curricular' style of learning . It helps them to feel part of something bigger and puts their learning into context, not to mention the confidence it builds, especially in lower ability pupils.

We have excellent links between the English Department and local libraries team. Members of the team visit frequently
offer workshops and visiting speakers.

We offer many opportunities to both pupils and parents through SEG/PDG funding.

Our SLT and other staff work closely with the secure centre 'Hillside' and regular lead staff development and lessons within this facility. The Hillside staff are also part of our learning triads which enables sharing of good practice and skills across centres.

Communication is key in projects such as these. Through effective planning and excellent communication staff can be fully aware of the demands of the project and lesson disruption will be kept to a minimum.

Please tell us how your school approaches change and the challenges you feel you need to consider in order to bring about sustainable change in creative teaching and learning practice.

Due to recent change of responsibilities after the appointment of a new Deputy Headteacher there has been a substantial amount of change within the Quality assurance processes within the school. Following our Estyn inspection report we have a clear vision of and strategies leading teaching and learning forward. Clear communication of this vision to staff and their participation in forming, developing and implementing has resulted in the dramatic improvement of standards across the school. Through the development of the Triads of learning individual staff and departments have been encouraged to share good/best practice to raise standards and further develop staff as effective professional practitioners.

Staff are enthusiastic to continuously seek new and innovative ways of delivering a successful curriculum. Literacy and numeracy have been successfully embedded into schemes of work. However, as Dai Smith states in his report we feel that creativity has an integral role to play in engaging and helping pupils to achieve their potential in addition to developing as well rounded individuals and preparing them for life. We take on a number of PGCE pupils and NQTs each year and staff pride themselves on being reflective practitioners.

As we are a small school the principal challenges for further developing pupil creativity outside our own staff expertise and experience is the funding and the development of community links to network with other creative professionals within the local area. We strive to develop creativity within the curriculum and school however, the support and guidance provided by becoming a lead creative school would be highly invaluable and enable us to develop and grow as a school where good and best practice is expected/achieved.

In addition, being a being part of a professional learning community will not only enable us to improve our standards and provision but also to experience and share good practice with other schools across Wales. This may also be of great benefit to some departments who may struggle to embed creativity and to develop communications with same subjects departments in other schools to be inspired and enthused.

Please tell us who in the school will be the School Coordinator, their current responsibilities and how they will be freed up to engage in the Lead Creative Schools Scheme.

The Head teacher has asked the Head of Drama/Head of Year 9 (Bethan Marks) to take on the role of Skills Coordinator Skills and will be accountable to the Head Teacher, Dave Cole. Bethan Marks has been asked to undertake this role as she is being developed as a future leader and the SMT would like to give her the opportunity to undertake this large whole school responsibility to develop her Leadership skills. BM is also undertaking a Leadership course and will be attending SMT meetings to feedback and discuss with SMT. BM will be expected to contribute to the writing of the School Development Plan (SDP) at the end of the first year, ascertaining the success if the project and informing the future (SDP) which we intend to link to the second year of the project. In addition to ensuring the scheme it is integrated into the wider practice of the school; she will be given regular opportunities to discuss the project at whole staff and Head of Department/Pastoral meetings, impacting positively, leading to sustainable and embedded practice and creating an environment throughout the school where creativity can thrive. The Headteacher is happy to release BM for approx. 15 days each year or more if necessary.

BM has a reduced timetable this year and if we are successful her timetable will be smaller again next year to give sufficient programme planning, delivery, monitoring and evaluation time. The pastoral secretary and assistant head in charge of pastoral with take on her Head of Year role when she is off site or involved in project meetings, workshops etc. There will be some disruption to classes when BM is undertaking project work but money has been allocated for subject specialists to cover classes (as with the other members of involved staff) so as to keep disruption to a minimum.

The Headteacher/SMT are keen to be involved in meetings with staff and the allocated Creative Agent and attend with the School Coordinator any network/ sharing good practice events to ensure the success of the project within the school.

As aforementioned, one of the higher level teaching assistants has expressed a great interest in the project and due to her limited timetable will be utilised by BM to aid where necessary.

Project Details

We expect schools will be in the Lead Creative Schools Scheme for two years. The second year of funding will be conditional upon schools demonstrating that they have met the requirements of the scheme and that they have a clear plan for the next phase of their involvement before they receive their grant for year two. They can apply for the following funding - please note the amounts indicated below are the two year totals. For more information click here and go to pages 12 and 13.

Primary schools £10,000

Secondary schools £16,000

Using the amounts given above, please tell us how much your school is applying for

For currency fields please enter a number - do NOT enter any symbols, such as £, commas, or words, such as pounds. For example for £2,500 enter 2500

Amount Applied for:

16000

Lead Creative Schools have to commit to making a minimum contribution of 25% grant. Please tick where you think this funding might come from.

Creative Schools Contribution

Cash from your schools budget
Supply cover costs
Cost of your School Coordinators time

If you have ticked 'other' please provide more details below

Equalities

As a public body we're fully committed to increasing access to the arts and broadening arts audiences. We want the widest possible cross-section of people to enjoy and take part in the arts. In spite of the good work undertaken by many artists and arts organisations, we know that some people face barriers to their enjoyment of the arts. This is one of the reasons why we take Equalities so seriously.

We are required to collect and monitor information about who our funding is benefitting. This helps us report on our progress in addressing inequalities in the arts and helps us target funding where it is needed most.

The Equality Act 2010 talks about people with "protected characteristics" and we are collecting information about arts projects that are being funded to deliver activities specifically for these groups of people.

We are looking for information about particular groups of people you are targeting your activities for. At the current time we are gathering information about groups using the list included in The Equality Act 2010. We are therefore asking you to tell us if your activities are for people from a particular age group, disabled people, people of a specific race, religion or belief, whether the activity is for men only, women only or has a focus on sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity or gender reassignment.

Sex:

If your project specifically targets either men or women, please select an option from the dropdown list.

Male

Sexual Orientation

If your project specifically targets gay, lesbian or bi-sexual people or fosters good relations between people with different sexual orientations please select 'yes' from the dropdown list.

Gender Reassignment

If your project specifically targets people who have undergone or are undergoing gender reassignment, or fosters good relations between people who have and have not please select 'yes' from the dropdown list.

Pregnancy and Maternity

If your project specifically targets women who are pregnant, or on maternity leave, please select 'yes' from the dropdown list.

Religion or Belief

If your project specifically targets people with particular religious or other beliefs or fosters good relations between people with different beliefs, please select 'yes' from the dropdown list.

Disability:

If your project specifically targets disabled people, or fosters good relations between disabled and non-disabled people, please tick the relevant box/s.

Ethnic Minorities:

If your project specifically targets a specific ethnic group or groups, or fosters good relations between different ethnic groups, please tick the relevant box/s.

We try and find out more about the age group of people who benefit from our funding; children (under 16 years old), youth (16 - 26 years old), adults (27 - 59 years old), older people (60 and over) and projects for mixed age groups. Please tick the relevant box/s that apply.

(If your project involves working with children, young people and/or vulnerable adults, whether voluntary or paid, you must have a satisfactory Child Protection Policy. Our Children and Young People Protection Policy and Guidelines: give details of Arts Council of Wales's commitment to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people participating in the arts, and offers advice to client organisations on developing and appropriate policy.)

Age Group

under 16

Declaration

IMPORTANT

We may need to request documentation that is over and above that which is being requested at this stage. We reserve the right to request references if required. Please note that any misleading statements, whether deliberate or accidental, given at any stage during the application process will result in the application becoming invalid. You will then be liable to return any money already paid out as an Arts Council of Wales grant.

Award recipients are personally responsible for any tax liability arising from any award and are advised to check in advance of an award being made and to take appropriate professional advice.

Applications will be barred from the round if the applicant is found to have lobbied any of our National Advisers, Committee or Council Members.

DATA PROTECTION AND FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

It's important that you're aware of the Arts Council of Wales' obligations and responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to provide on request access to recorded information that we hold. One of the consequences of these statutory responsibilities is that information we hold about you may be subject to disclosure, in response to a request, unless we decide that one of the statutory exemptions applies.

If you send us information that you believe to be commercially sensitive or confidential, this will need to be clearly marked. It would help us if you could explain briefly the reason(s) and appropriate timescales you would consider confidentiality to apply. This will assist us, in the event of a request, to substantiate our reason for applying the necessary exemption should we decide it would be appropriate to do so. However, you can't assume that by marking information as confidential or commercially sensitive that an automatic exemption will apply. Other factors would also need to be considered at the time, such as the nature and scope of information requested and the timing of that request. (Freedom of Information rules assume that confidentiality/commercial sensitivity usually diminishes over time).

Sometimes information, data and material of any nature comprises Personal data or Sensitive Personal data, (as terms are defined in the Data Protection Act 1998). If this applies, we'll not disclose any such confidential information to a third party without your consent.

DECLARATION

By submitting this application form, you agree to the following statements:

I confirm that all the information provided in this application, and any material submitted in support of it, is truth and accurate.

I confirm that this application, if successful, will form part of the agreement with the Arts Council of Wales.
I confirm that as the head teacher I have read the commitments of being a Lead Creative School as set out in the Prospectus. I confirm that if successful my school is able to meet these commitments.

By ticking this box you are confirming that you agree with the above statements.

Yes

	Finally, are you, or any members of your organisation or group, employed by the Arts Council of Wales, or do you, or any members of your organisation or group, have a close family connection ('close' means parents, brothers or sisters, spouse/partner, or children) with an individual currently employed by the Arts Council of Wales?

	Please select:

	No