Beyond labels: Creative approaches to learning

With over a decade of experience in delivering arts, creativity and cultural education programmes with high learner outcomes, we decided to embark on one of our most challenging, needed and satisfying creative endeavours. Aptly titled 'Beyond Labels: In Young Men's Shoes', the project went on to became a ground-breaking touring exhibition of film, photography and the spoken word, managed by the school's extended services co-coordinator, who had secured external funding from a local arts organisation to deliver the programme. The project Research into schools that use creative approaches to learning has found that pupils 'tackle their personal areas of difficulty more steadily when they could offset them with achievement in an activity that gave them scope for self-expression' (Ofsted, 2010, p. 21). Creative approaches can also encourage pupils to reflect critically on the effect of ideas and actions (Ofsted, 2010). The aim of our project was to use creativity and arts - in particu