Creativity is Alive and Well!

Many people are familiar with ‘TED Talks’. TED is an organisation devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks captured on video. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design came together. Today TED Talks cover almost all topics — from science to business to global issues. The most popular TED Talks video of all time is a presentation delivered by Sir Ken Robinson from 2006 titled ‘Do Schools Kills Creativity?’ It has been used as a provocation for many educators and system leaders to consider our approaches to make sure that our ways of working with young people are intentional and provide our students with the skills, knowledge and understandings to not only contribute, but to thrive in the world they will step in to. At Penguin, we will continue to review our approaches to teaching and learning in-line with our values of ‘growth’ and ‘aspiration’.

Department of Education leaders Tim Bullard (Secretary of Education) and Trudy Pearce (Deputy Secretary of Learning) spent some time in our school recently and were able to enjoy hearing about some of the creations that our grade 2’s had dreamt up. Luca in grade 2 is on track to have a job working for Apple with his new phone technology. I was walking through 9/10 music when Liam & Bailey quietly performing REM’s classic ‘Losing My Religion’ - it absolutely stopped me in my tracks! Mackenzie and Jazz demonstrated their creativity and collaboration with a story they had written and published about ‘Mr Grining’s Invisible Shoes’. Our Friday ‘Green Penguin’ morning tea was a beautiful reminder of how special it is to have students across different age groups enjoying each other's company. Xanon, Georgia, Jaida, River, Logan and Ned provided some creative and entertaining laughs during our recess games together. Finally, Laiken & Lachie engineered an impressive beach hut during their recent class wonderwalk. I love the Maya Angelou quote "You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have." I feel that creativity is well and truly alive at PDS!