A question of creative education

On Saturday Jeremy Corbyn and the Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, will bring people together from across the education system to roll up their sleeves and find innovative approaches to tackling disadvantage at school. This is the question I submitted as I fear the focus on STEM in schools is leaving our children at a disadvantage in the future workforce:

"Although core subjects like maths, english and science are important, I strongly feel creative subjects are just as vital for a rounded education that inspires all children, ensures we have imaginative and innovative adults in our future workforce and strengthens our cultural offer as a country.

How will the National Education Service ensure creative subjects are at the core of any future curriculum?"

One of my proudest achievements to date is the creation of Reading's Cultural Education Partnership which works with our cultural and artistic community to ensure children in Reading have the chance to experience good quality art and culture.

A Return Visit To Henley Business School

Being Mayor is a wonderful experience.  You meet lots of interesting people, learn a lot of new things and make lots of new connections within the town.  In 2015 I was invited to the launch of Henley Business School and Huawei's HAINA trianing scheme.  

Recently I got another invitation to Henley Business School and the launch of their partnership with TECH Education Group.  It was an honour to be invited back to witness the start of this new relationship.

TECH Education Group is the largest ITC education provider in China.  Together with Henley Business School they will co-deliver a programme that embeds MSc programmes and Huawei Information Technology certification training.  Once students have completed the training they will be in possession of a very valuable expert-level qualification.

It was very encouraging to hear Minister Counsellor Yongli Wang (of the Education Section, Embassy of the P.R. China) mention how important creativity and imaginative thinking will be to the students who gain this qualification.  

I cannot stress enough how concerned I am about creativity being pushed from our National Curriculum in favour of core academic subjects.  I fear this is a short-sighted move and our students of the future will be poorer because of it.  We need leaps of imagination and creativity to have the ideas that will solve the problems facing the earth today.

I am pleased that, as chair of the Cultural Education Partnership in Reading, I can help plug this creative gap until we get a government that realises how important creativity is to our future.

Art for more than arts sake.

Some people see art as some thing to be admired, a painting on a wall or sculpture in a park but it does so much more than look pretty.  Today I visited a group of young adults improving their art skills and receiving information about underage drinking.

Reading's Community Alcohol Partnership and Diverted U18 have been running a series of manga workshops over the summer both on Facebook (here) and in group classes like the one I attended today.

 Local manga artist Stephanie O'Brien has been running workshops that teach young people how to draw in the distinctive manga style while producing short comic stories on the dangers of underage drinking. 

This is a great example of using art and creativity to engage young people and change their lives for the better.

Here's the Reading Borough Council press release from when the activity was launched:

 A MANGA drawing project aimed at raising alcohol awareness for 13-17 year-olds is launching this summer.
The project, which was previously held during the Christmas and Easter school holidays, hopes to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol consumption through art-based activities for young people throughout the summer period.

As before, the project, which is organised by Reading Borough Council’s Community Alcohol Partnership Officer, will be run by artist Stephanie O’Brien. She will be on hand throughout to help young people to create their own manga-style artwork with focus on the theme of alcohol awareness. Those taking part will have created their own manga-style comic book strip by the end of the project.
There will also be regular drop in sessions available for those involved in the project to go along if they wish to and get guidance for their art projects from Stephanie. A Facebook group – ‘Diverted U18’ – run by Stephanie, will also be offering daily updates on the project, guidance, and other competitions for the young project members.

Reading’s Lead Councillor for Culture, Sport and Consumer Services, Councillor Sarah Hacker said:
“This exciting diversionary project is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol abuse and to promote the responsible use of alcohol to young people in a creative and engaging way. It is something creative that they can do with friends as well to keep busy during the summer. This is a great example of how art can be used to improve someone’s well-being”

Reading’s Lead Councillor for Health, Councillor Graeme Hoskin said:
“Young people are especially susceptible to the damage caused by alcohol abuse. I hope that this fun diversionary activity will go some way to educate young people through something creative. It’s also a great way to keep young people engaged during the long summer period as well as to spread key health and well-being messages.”

Imagine: a future without creativity

I've just got back from the launch of Imagine at the University of Reading (more info here).  It is a fundraising campaign with the ambition to raise £150 million to enable the university to make a real-world impact with the research it does.

Part of the launch was a debate on this topic:

To dream and imagine: the impact of our research in the coming 90 years.

The panel contained experts in cellular and molecular neuroscience, integrative neuroscience and neuro dynamics,  film, theatre and television, leadership and leadership and organisational behaviour and meteorology.  At first glance they don't seem to have much in common but there was one theme that they all shared, the importance of creativity and imagination in research.

We were only discussing how important creativity was in the workplace in the Cultural Education Partnership meeting yesterday. One of the aims of the partnership is to increase the number of young people with qualifications preparing them for work in the  creative industries.  We started talking about what the creative industries are and I mentioned that creativity is important in many careers, not just those in the arts. This evenings panel discussion qualified my remark and all panellists agreed that creative thinking, and imagination, are vital when it come to designing experiments, theories and pushing our understanding of the world.

I mentioned in my farewell speech as mayor that I felt the arts were being pushed out of the school curriculum in favour of more academic subjects. Don't get me wrong, a good solid foundation  in maths, English and science are important but we must not stifle creativity. Creative thinking should be encouraged alongside these subjects and art and heritage are great ways to encourage a creative thought process.

I hope the work of the Cultural Education Partnership helps fill the gap in our children's education because, without creativity, we are limiting the scientists, experts and academics of the future.

You van read more about the Cultural Education Partnership here.

Deputy Mayor Diaries: Opening of Mad Hatters Pottery Painting Cafe

 I was delighted to be asked to open the Mad Hatters Pottery Painting Cafe in Tilehurst because I am a bit of a fan of pottery painting and my husband has been presented with many a hand painted mug designed but one of the boys.

The cafe has been created by Fiona Stevens and it sits happily in the Tilehurst Triangle area and easily accessible by the 17 bus!  As well as pot painting they also serve all the bits you would expect from a cafe.

It was opened on Saturday 18 April. I was made to feel very welcome by Fiona and her family and I was invited to paint a square on their giant pottery pig.  Luckily chairing the Arts and Heritage Forum doesn't require artistic skill!

With Fiona Stevens