How Creativity and Play are vital for all ages

16 July 2025

As the Programmes Officer at A New Direction, I’ve been working on the Primary Arts Programme, across the In-Schools Touring and Masterclass strands. Working across this programme has revealed to me how creativity and play are hugely important not just for pupils but also for teachers.

On the Touring strand of the Primary Arts programme, we work with 10 creative and cultural organisations to visit 100 primary schools and SEND settings across London to put on a performance for pupils and engage them in creative workshops. This year, we worked with a range of artforms, from clowning to puppetry to visual arts.

Photographer: Andy Paradise

After weeks of planning, coordinating closely with the schools and arts organisations to arrange the logistics of visits, it was incredible to see some of the performers in action. Each session, pupils were treated to an hour of fun and interactive performance, followed by workshops that put their imagination at the centre.

Actors from Emma & PJ performed ‘The Shivers’ a theatrical adventure in which where a fox, a pigeon and a secret agent tackle misinformation. Students loved the combination of technology and physical comedy and came away with a great understanding of the central message to trust their intuition and look beyond face value. The performers then led a workshop on making disguises out of tinfoil and coming up with their own stories.

Clowns Without Borders delivered their ‘Piranhas and Bananas’ performance, which taught pupils they could speak up for what they believed was right. The story and humour were pitched perfectly to the pupils, who were totally entertained while also internalising the message that they could make an impact at their school if they raised their voices. 

Rosie Postie from the Postal Museum brought pupils into the fairytale world of The Jolly Postman before asking them to write their own letters to beloved characters. Rosie utilised many different techniques to keep pupils engaged throughout the performance, incorporating actions and Makaton to increase accessibility.  

Photographer: Eric Aydin-Barberini

Conductive Music blended storytelling and technology. In groups, pupils came up with their own stories and created sound effects to accompany them, and as the pupils’ confidence grew, they told wilder and wilder stories. Treating everyone’s contributions as valid allowed even the more reserved students to speak up and join in by the end. 

Meanwhile, Animate Arts built an incredible cardboard castle in the school hall with many interactive elements for pupils to explore. The pupils all made badges celebrating their unique skills and interests. Across each performance, the combination of acting, visual arts, and crafts activities made for a highly sensory experience that made each child feel important. For many pupils, this was their first experience with live theatre, and allowed them to engage their literacy, art and drama skills beyond the typical classroom setting, allowing for more spontaneity and boosting their individual ideas and creativity.

The Masterclass strand of Primary Arts provides six all-day CPD sessions at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. In the CLPE’s library, teachers hear from authors, illustrators and other literacy experts on strategies to develop pupils’ engagement with reading. In each session, the practitioners led a range of exercises that got teachers out of their comfort zones with delightful results.

Illustrator Ed Vere, when exploring the techniques used in picture books, demonstrated that you don’t have to be an expert artist to draw effective characters and create new stories. With storyteller Jan Blake, each teacher was encouraged to overcome the age-old fear of reading your writing aloud and was met with support and praise from the entire group.

Poet Matt Goodfellow showed how you can understand poetry more if you perform it, bringing in your own dialects and speaking patterns. In the final session, Kate Hopewell helped teachers quickly overcome their self-consciousness to engage in drama and make-believe, designing imaginary castles, coming up with new characters, voices and whole worlds. These exercises supported discussions from Darren Matthews, Primary Advisory Teacher at the CLPE to ground the creative exercises in the real-world issues that teachers overcome in the classroom. It was extremely gratifying to see adults play and be silly, while also understanding how it helps boost their comprehension of the books they may read with their class.

Across the In-Schools Touring and Masterclass strands of Primary Arts, both teachers and pupils are asked to step out of the boundaries of what they would normally do in the classroom. During the Touring performances and workshops, I saw pupils who began the sessions nervous and shy build their confidence and eagerly participate by the end, and making themselves heard.

Photographer: Eric Aydin-Barberini

Multiple Masterclass facilitators pointed out that often, when asked to draw, act or write poetry, teachers referred to themselves as someone who ‘can’t do that’ and acknowledged that they probably heard their pupils say the same about themselves. This built on the empathy that exists between teachers and pupils, showing that if these exercises could get grown-ups to join in, they could have the same effect on their pupils. Many of us adults who say we don’t want to read out loud, draw, or act, are repeating ideas about ourselves that we formed when we were children, possibly when we were the same age as the pupils on the In-Schools Touring strand.

The Masterclass sessions proved that by continually engaging in play and creativity into adulthood, we can break the limitations we place on ourselves. Additionally, by providing access to programmes like Primary Arts, we can help pupils build a sense of confidence and identity that is limitless.

Registration is now open for state mainstream and SEND schools in all London borough.