It was wonderful to see parents participating in the creativity workshop this morning delivered by Ajarn Alex and Ajarn Mary Ann. The goal of the workshop was to highlight the importance of creativity in our Education System and how it is vital for students to develop creative thinking skills in order to meet the demands of top universities and international business.

Parents participated in many hands-on activities to explore the different cognitive and leadership skills they value and want to see in their students by the time they end their Education. Much of the workshop made strong connections between creativity and links to the skills and attitudes the parents wanted for their children. Participation was high, there was a lot of energised engagement and parents engaged in important dialogue about the strengths of Prem and of an IB education. By the end of the workshop many of the parents had changed their thinking in regards to creativity as they participated in an I used to think and now I think activity.

Some examples were:

I used to think that creativity and the disciplines were not important but now I think that creative thinking and the disciplines are important.

I used to manage the time at home with school assignments but now I think that I will try to give more time to be creative with the Arts to nourish them to be more effective with their learning.

I always agree that the Arts are important for any human for better achievement and now I will try to adopt it more into our daily lives

I used to think that creativity is connected to the Arts but now I think that creativity is in all aspects of life, it is a skill and an ability.

I used to think that creativity is something natural you are born with but now I think that creativity can be trained and nurtured.

I used to think that creativity means having to make something new in art but now I think that all subjects need creativity and it can include new or renewed ideas.

These are wonderful accolades at the end of a successful and engaging workshop.