Immersive Learning: the creative route towards a broad and balanced curriculum

‘Broad and balanced curriculum’ is a phrase that educators have heard a lot in recent years, but the funding and infrastructure to support this goal has not matched the rhetoric.

Policymakers are finally beginning to signal that the creative arts will be given the spotlight it deserves and teachers offered the space to explore creative practice that allows for cross-curricular, embedded and purposeful learning.

Primary practitioners do not need reminding about the value of creative pedagogy. I often hear from teachers how their instinct to introduce creative, narrative-led or play-based approaches is hindered by the time restrictions imposed by the current curriculum.

Since 2008, Punchdrunk Enrichment have worked to provide teachers with accessible opportunities to take a creative approach to curriculum delivery. Working closely with primary schools, we create immersive learning projects by repurposing theatre principles as educational tools to deliver transformative, playful and meaningful learning experiences.

In a nutshell, immersive learning wraps curricular outcomes in a narrative that takes place in the school setting. Students are cast as the heroes of the story and must complete mission-critical tasks (linked to learning objectives) to move the story forward.

In an immersive learning school, anything can happen:

• Tiny characters can escape from the confines of a picture book as children pen adventure stories to lure them back to safety
• A lost and found department may crash-land in a disused cupboard and ask the children to research the rightful owner of a long-lost relic
• An intergalactic travel agency could need the power of the children's imaginations to help them travel to their next destination.

These are just some examples of adventures that children have taken part in, but our creative approach can be applied to any curriculum challenge.

The impact of this exciting work has been analysed in a new report from The Centre for Education & Youth (link on the right), which shows that our approach has a range of positive impacts on creativity and imagination, students' engagement with learning, and positive attitudes towards themselves and their wider community.

A broad and balanced curriculum can only exist with the embedding of arts and culture, and space offered for teachers to integrate creative approaches to teaching and learning.

Based on our years of experience working with primary schools, we've created the immersive learning toolkit that will encourage teachers to adopt creative practices in their classrooms.

First steps are the most difficult to take, so this affordable and accessible resource contains lots of practical advice and creative exercises to help teachers devise their own immersive learning projects.

We know that time is short for primary teachers so there's no expectation that they should work their way through the entire toolkit before they can get something of real value out of it.

Here's our ‘This is the Place’ exercise, as an example:

This is the Place

Choose a place within school. It might be a nook in your classroom or a corridor that the children frequently use. Or it could be a space that you and the children rarely visit.

Spend two or three minutes observing the space. What do you notice? What can you see? What can you hear? What can you smell? Is it cold or warm where you are? Light or dark?

Now start to write down what you know about this space, starting with the facts. Maybe one of these is true of the space you are in:

• This is the place where the children wait before they are let into assembly.
• This is the place where people go when they need a little peace and quiet.
• This is the place that could probably do with a bit of a tidy up.

Next, think about all the things that could be true of this place in a fictional reality:

• This is the place where overnight, when the school is empty, a magical creature sneaks in and pinches supplies from the resources cupboard.
• This is the place where you can be overheard by a secret agency who are trying to infiltrate the school.
• This is the place where at exactly midnight a group of artists gather to share their work.

Finally, focus on one detail. It may be a scuff on the wall or a small hole in the ceiling. What is the story behind this detail?

• This is the place where two tiny people camped overnight. They were worried about being spotted so decided to camp in the ceiling so they were able to survey the area below.
• This is the place where a giant squid once roamed the corridors. You can still see the marks on the carpet from when they made their journey. An ink splodge here and a watermark there.
• This is the place where a creature lives. Look closely at the wall. You see these holes? That's where the creature keeps an eye on what's going on in the school.

Let your imaginations run wild. It may be that one of your creative findings could be the basis for your first immersive learning project.

punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk

The Centre for Education and Youth report can be seen at: cfey.org/reports/2024/11/the-enjoyment-and-impact-of-immersive-learning