Insights into inspirational arts practice in schools: A whole-school journey to celebrating creativities and releasing the imagination

Aims The University of Cambridge Primary School (UCPS) is committed to developing a broad and balanced curriculum with the arts (dance, music, drama) playing a central part in its vision. To inspire children to learn through creative activities (Craft et al., 2012) and to encourage them to release their imaginations (Greene, 1995), the school organises focused arts-based learning weeks to provide opportunities to learn in and through the arts for children and the adults who teach them. The school commissioned its own piece of artwork by Ruth Proctor called ‘We are all under the same sky’. This inclusive message, that across the world we view the sky which is at once the same and different, motivated the following arts exploration. Our broad aims were: to explore creativities in teachers’ professional development to bring teachers and artists together and build better awareness of the experience of arts learning for children to creatively explore expressions on the the