‘Tell Me the Story’: Reframing creativity through student voice in specialist and mainstream settings

DR NIGEL MATTHIAS, HEADTEACHER, KING’S ACADEMY LORD WILSON, UK; VISITING FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON, UK ‘Tell me the story of a time when you were successful in school’: this simple prompt opened a window into the complex internal worlds of boys in an SEMH (social, emotional and mental health) specialist academy, revealing that their creativity is inextricably linked to emotional safety and tangible outcomes. While traditional arts often led to frustration, this study found that students thrived in low-stakes environments such as role-play, where they could experiment with identity without consequence, or in the higher-stakes logic of esports (electronic sports), where they demonstrated rapid thinking. These findings suggest that educators should consider non-traditional domains (Mumford, 2003), recognising that a student’s ability to, for example, modify a recipe or coordinate a digital team can constitute profound creative success. Context and methodology The resea