Creative Olympics – embedding creativity in the school curriculum

Created by Andrea Douglas

What did the school want to achieve?

The Green School hosted its second Creative Olympics, originally a project inspired by our collaboration with Mark Trezona and Creative Partnerships in conjunction with Arts Council England. It has now become a permanent feature of the school calendar and has transformed the nature of the school’s traditional activity days.

The aim was to deliver twelve creative challenges expressing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills, with students working collaboratively in groups and across key stages and subjects. Our goal was to embed creativity in the school curriculum and embrace the cross-curricular dimensions of the New Secondary Curriculum. We wanted staff and students to recognise that creativity isn’t necessarily about the traditional art forms but could be expressed in a multitude of ways throughout the whole curriculum with collaborative projects.

The Creative Olympics has multiple pedagogical opportunities; another aim was to provide student leaders with a voice in planning the event, to collaborate with subject leaders on the challenges and support in delivering them. On the day of the Creative Olympics the school timetable collapses and all year groups along with teaching and non-teaching staff participate in challenges. 

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