​Why creativity should be nurtured in schools

Mark Ronan, Headmaster of Pocklington School, on why innovative skills are increasingly valued...

Creativity is now one of the top three qualities sought by employers from the world’s largest economies – and rightly so. Pupils who leave school armed with the confidence to think independently and laterally have transferrable skills valued in any workplace, which is especially relevant when you consider many of the jobs they’ll secure do not currently exist.

When Pocklington School launched an appeal for a new Art and Design Technology Centre, we braced ourselves for concerns that its facilities would only benefit ‘arty’ pupils, as opposed to budding scientists or engineers.

In the event, the supportive responses included a veterinary surgeon who credits carpentry skills with his success and a dentist citing design technology – along with numerous former pupils who have risen to the top of their creative fields, achieving considerable commercial success along the way.

That’s why at Pocklington School our teaching is slanted towards nurturing the imaginative flights of fancy delightfully common to Prep School starters, so their creative spark is channelled to embrace each year’s curriculum demands, rather than extinguished by them.

We are very proud that a number of our Sixth Formers have been awarded Arkwright Scholarships, an industry-supported scheme to identify and nurture future leaders in engineering and technical design. You might think engineering requires precision – and indeed it does – but the skills of innovation and adaptability are also vital if a company is to remain in a market-leading position.

Employers seek creative staff

Employers from the world’s largest economies have predicted that creativity will be even more highly prized by 2020. Respondents across nine industries rated it among the top three most desirable qualities in a future labour market in a survey for World Economic Forum report ‘The Future of Jobs’. The employers said creative people would be particularly in demand to figure out ways to apply new technology and create new products and services.

The appeal for our new £2.5million Art and Design Technology Centre has been successful enough for work to begin. When complete, it will be large enough to inspire the pursuit of traditional arts and crafts, as well as provide cutting-edge facilities for digital imaging, editing, animation and computer-aided design, and manufacturing technology – all under one roof.

Just as the skills acquired while learning any subject can prove useful in another, so the fusion of traditional arts and crafts with modern technology is more likely to produce a commercially successful product. A common ingredient gelling them together is collaborative teamwork, and our art and design technology department was one of the first to recognise this when it opened in 1969.

The department has always fostered the cross-fertilisation of ideas while maintaining a watchful eye for new concepts and technology. A glance at some of the careers of former Art and Design Technology Centre students demonstrates the ‘real life’ value of this approach, which informs all its teaching.

Wide variety of jobs

Pocklington School alumni have gone on to design sets for Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics; lead the design of the new Silverstone circuit and pits facility; create apps; become a leading fashion stylist; and build a successful business designing furniture for the audio and TV industries – to mention but a few.

The creative industries are now worth £84.1billion per year to the UK economy, generating nearly £9.6million per hour, according to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It says the UK’s creative industries grew by 8.9% in 2014 – almost double the rate for the UK economy as a whole.

As a country, we have a great tradition of innovation. Ideas drive progress and are a key lever for prosperity. European Union analysis shows industries applying for more intellectual property rights generate more jobs, are more productive and pay significantly higher wages.

Valuable workplace skills

Our Art Department is living proof of the remunerative advantages of creative vision paired with business nous, because many of our staff are also commercial artists in their own right.

Successful arts students must develop the self-belief necessary to express themselves publicly and realise that failure is an important part of the creative process. The discipline of seeing a creative project through, along with the resilience developed when an idea has to be revised, are valued in the workplace. When pupils see their teachers go through the same process to successfully produce commercial products, it spurs them on.

Whatever the future workplace holds, resourceful, motivated employees who can think independently, problem-solve and remain at the cutting edge, will be increasingly prized.

Pocklington School’s teaching will continue to support the UK’s great tradition of innovation by nurturing creative, collaborative and entrepreneurial thinkers who will inspire and be inspired for life.

For more information about 
Pocklington School, see their profile on School Search.