If you asked someone to list the most “creative” subjects in school, maths would most likely not be at the top of their list. But there are actually plenty of opportunities for students to be creative in maths, argues Rhian Jones, headteacher at Ysgol y Faenol primary school in Bodelwyddan, Wales. In fact, she suggests that encouraging students to appreciate the more creative elements of maths can help them to access learning in the subject.

She explains to Tes how an emphasis on creativity has transformed maths teaching at her school.

Tes: People tend to assume that creativity only happens in art or English, but do you think otherwise?

Rhian Jones: Creativity is an important component of many subjects that you wouldn’t automatically associate it with.

My school has been involved in the Lead Creative Schools (LCS) scheme, led by the Arts Council of Wales. Before taking part, we had a narrow definition of what creativity is, but the scheme helped us to become familiar with what are called the “creative habits of mind” - creative skills that are transferable across subjects, such as “challenging assumptions” or “using intuition”.

Once teachers become familiar with these skills, they realise that not only is creativity broader than the traditional definition but it is not a fixed attribute - it is something that can be developed.

In your own efforts to put that understanding into practice, you have implemented a more creative approach to maths. What did you do?

We placed the creative habits of mind at the heart of our planning and started to take a project-based approach. This process was supported by LCS creative practitioners (creative specialists hired by the school), who co-planned and co-delivered lessons with the teachers.

For example, one project involved us working alongside a film director to make a comedy film of disasters that occurred in a “bustling bakery”.

To make the learning experiences more authentic, we visited a real bakery and provided students with a budget to purchase the required ingredients from a local shop. The teachers set mathematical problems for the learners to provoke discussion and help learners think of ideas for the disasters.

Students conducted different investigations based around mathematical processes, including: weighing and measuring (making biscuits and cakes, and scaling up the quantities, considering what they might taste like if the quantities were wrong); time (exploring what happened if cakes were under- or overcooked); factors, multiples, remainders (investigating how to share out the biscuits evenly to ensure all the customers had some); and mathematical patterns and sequences (decorating the biscuits).

The children were enthused by the investigations, which focused on encouraging them to talk, discuss and find ways to record and represent their thinking. They loved being actors in the film, which included the disasters inspired by the maths investigations. The film also involved lots of cross-curricular work, such as literacy (script writing) and digital skills.

Was this new approach a big change from what the children were used to?

In a traditional maths lesson, the focus is often on getting the answer and on the “product” of the learning. Through this project-based approach, however, we have shifted the focus on to the process, so that has been a change.

However, the learners have quickly adapted to this shift. As their confidence in sharing their thought processes has grown, they have begun to lead their own learning in a more meaningful way. They are now beginning to think like mathematicians and are far more engaged in the subject than they have been in the past.

Did you face any other challenges in implementing this new approach?

Changes in staffing have provided some challenges. We have been committed, over a period of years, to changing our culture and changing our mindset but, as a small village school, any staffing changes have a significant impact. It takes time for newly recruited staff to become familiar with the creative habits of mind and to have the confidence to embed these in their practice.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also presented some difficulties. Freedom of movement around the school has been restricted owing to the need to minimise contact. This limits spontaneity and pupil-led learning.

Developing the creative habits of mind through distance learning was a definite challenge for staff. The lockdown period also highlighted that there is a need to do additional work to raise awareness of the importance of creativity among parents and the wider school community.

As a first step, we shared more information with parents about creativity and its benefits. We also shared practical ideas for developing creativity during lockdown and have now incorporated the creative habits of mind into our annual school reports.

What have the results been so far?

The level of enthusiasm and engagement from the pupils has been greater than expected. There had been a large gender gap, with boys performing significantly less well than girls in cognitive ability testing. But since placing creativity at the heart of our curriculum, we have seen this gap lessen considerably.

There has also been an improvement in literacy skills and oracy, anecdotally and as evidenced in our data.

Non-cognitive skills, particularly those relating to motivation, interpersonal interaction and perseverance, have also shown improvement, and our measures show that pupil voice is now considerably stronger than it used to be, too.

If other schools were to try to incorporate more creative elements into their maths teaching, what would your top tips be?

A shift away from a high-stakes accountability culture is definitely a good starting point. Empowering the workforce and giving them the freedom to develop their own creativity is essential. If practitioners have embraced the creative habits of mind themselves, then they will be more likely to have the confidence to develop these with the learners.

Beyond that, my advice would be to remember that embedding creativity in maths, or in any subject, is an organic and potentially slow process. It is about long-term goals rather than quick fixes.

But the good news is that children are already naturally creative and inquisitive. We are simply capitalising on that to give them the confidence and skills to be able to positively shape their futures.

Rhian Jones is headteacher at Ysgol y Faenol primary school in Bodelwyddan, Wales

This article originally appeared in the 6 August 2021 issue under the headline “How I...Get creative in maths lessons”