Greenfield Community College are always keen to praise their students and celebrate their many outstanding achievements. The spotlight is less often focused upon the excellent teaching practice and strong leadership that prevails at Greenfield. To make an exception, Executive Headteacher, David Priestley was one of only two headteachers invited to speak at the prestigious SSAT Conference (Schools, Students and Teachers Network) recently where he addressed over 1000 educationalists.
The conference entitled ‘Pure Imagination’ was held at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham and focused on the qualities needed for imaginative but practical leadership and how a culture of imagination can be embedded within schools. Mr Priestley was asked to take the main stage and share his experience of leadership and how he has successfully used creativity and imagination to develop the Greenfield organisation.
The experience gave Mr Priestley the chance to expand upon the many extraordinary opportunities that are on offer for students at Greenfield Community College and how the journey of the school has made the most of a creative approach to education. This has included a range of projects and strategies that encourage students to think creatively including theatre residencies, whole student campaigns through ‘Time for Success’ lessons, the role of student leaders and the use of a personal development book and journal.
“It is important for us to create an environment for learning that is meaningful, engaging, relevant and accessible, which is why we invest significant time in the arts including creative programmes designed by Greenfield Arts that support school improvement. We continually aspire to ‘imagine and re-imagine’ what it would be like if we are to fully develop the potential of our students as confident self-led learners” said Mr Priestley.
