A lesson from the past? Steward Street school, creativity and spirituality

Catherine Burke & Ian Grosvenor

Research Summary

This research is a case study of an inner city state school that for a decade (1940s–
1950s) attracted the interest of many educationalists, policy makers, researchers, artists and various press and film media. The school concerned was Steward Street school in Birmingham, where successive headteachers placed creativity and spirituality at the centre of education. The researchers argue that if new, positive educational practices are to be developed, cases of experimental or idealistic schools from the past or present need to be studied. Teachers and others should look at these critically, but they may be inspired by them. Studies of ‘different’ schools should open up questions about what is currently assumed to be ‘good’ in education. These schools need to be understood as complex – their stories can be told in different ways, from different perspectives – but they might offer signs of how education can be improved today. Steward Street school became a beacon for those who believed in the transformative power of the arts. The material will be of interest to RE teachers or any teachers seeking to build child-centred, creative pedagogies in order to encourage learners’ creativity, independence or aesthetic development, or who are simply interested in doing things ‘differently’.

Researchers

Catherine Burke & Ian Grosvenor

Research Institution

University of Cambridge & University of Birmingham

What is this about?

This is about Steward Street school, an infant and primary school in inner Birmingham and how it became a cause celébre during the 1940s and 1950s.
The success of the school was associated with two radical headteachers, Arthur Rushington Stone and Ken Scott, who placed creative arts (Stone) and later spirituality (Scott) – rather than reading, writing and arithmetic – at the heart of pupils’ experience of school.
The ‘experiment’ inspired various educationalists for decades. Its story can be told from different points of view, but might still inspire teachers and others today. The school was surrounded by factories, smoke and post-war urban decay, but the staff were determined that children should be nurtured through experiences of beauty. Other radical measures, such as the removal of all forms of punishment, were added as the ‘experiment’ developed.
The ‘experiment’ lasted for about a decade, failing to survive Scott’s departure and the pressure caused by the 11 plus examination from 1945 onwards.

What was done?

The researchers analysed all of the available documents pertaining to Steward Street school: school log books, admission registers, a punishment book, a pamphlet written about the school by Stone for the Ministry of Education, Birmingham LEA records and examples from international literature on creative arts-based education that had influenced practice at the school.

Main findings and outputs

Stone was appointed headteacher in 1940. He shared an educational philosophy with the then Senior Staff Inspector for Primary Education, Louis Christian Schiller, according to which children were inherently creative and their creativity inclined towards beauty.
Children should be encouraged to paint, build, make and dance: these needs were innate, teachers should simply structure and channel them.
In 1941, there were 7 visits to the school to observe its approach; by 1948 this had increased to 247 (HMI, universities, Birmingham LEA, the BBC, various teachers, the Ministry of Education).
Scott succeeded Stone In 1945. Seeking to build on Stone’s legacy, Scott introduced various policy changes, aiming to emphasise children’s spiritual development primarily. He sought to take away fears of failure, punishment, and freedom; to study children’s behaviour and home life; to use the energy of arts-based learning in pursuit of the more general ‘business of learning’, e.g. by using movement to teach arithmetic; he removed all forms of punishment and setting or comparison between pupils, in order to improve their self-esteem. He introduced school Games and provision for those with special needs. Assemblies were conducted by children (though he gave an address); no piece of art was displayed until six months after its execution. Academic achievement increased and pupils’ efforts appeared to intensify (they wrote booklets of stories, gave lectures, held debates, and contributed to school policy through class councils).
Steward Street’s ‘story’ can offer ‘signs’ of how radical educational experiments could be possible today.

Relevance to RE

The story of Steward Street could offer inspiration to RE departments or teachers who aim to do something radical, different and imaginative in the service of children’s learning and well-being. Many RE departments make use of creative arts approaches to RE – painting, drama, etc. – which could be extended and developed. Ways could be sought to increase pupils’ choice over activities and their responsibility for organising their own learning, at levels appropriate to their ages and abilities. In relation to the removal of the fears of failure and freedom, some ungraded, unassessed work could be introduced into the curriculum. Departmental setting policies could be re-assessed.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is a study of one particular school, based on the belief that in-depth consideration of particular schools can raise interesting educational possibilities, especially if those schools are ‘different’.

Find out more

The Steward Street School experiment: a critical case study of possibilities, British Educational Research Journal 39. 1 pages 148–165 (published online 10 January 2013), DOI: 10.1080/01411926.2011.615386

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/01411926.2011.615386/abstract