Creative Leadership in Learning
An innovative Opera House program that supports creativity in schools
The Creative Leadership in Learning Program is an immersive, and deep way to engage your school community with Sydney Opera House.
The program works by engaging the full creative capabilities of the Sydney Opera House to activate deeper learning for students and to support your teachers to teach any subject through creativity.
Andrew Walsh, Teacher, Casula High SchoolCreative Leadership in Learning has revolutionised teaching and learning at Casula High School...the potential benefits to the teachers and students are limitless.
CLIL Program
The Creative Leadership in Learning Program takes schools on a journey of discovery, growth and learning through creativity.
This flexible program has three main streams of activity:
- An Artist in Residency Program, delivered in your school over Term 2 and Term 3, resulting in a creative outcome for students and the school community to celebrate.
- A Teacher Professional Learning Program, to develop confidence in teaching through creativity, held at both your school and the Sydney Opera House.
- An Amplified Festival, a showcase of your students’ performance on the stages of the Sydney Opera House, for schools participating in the Artist In Residency Program.
The Creative Learning in Leadership Teaching Artists are practicing creatives, theatre makers and artistic directors with backgrounds in education and creative learning.
Program Streams
Artist In Residence Program
The Artist In Residence Program is a 9-session project facilitated by Sydney Opera House Teaching Artists, who work with students to develop a creative response to a Sydney Opera House performance. In 2024 our Selected Performance for students to respond to is Game Theory - from the internationally renowned Joshua Monten Dance Company - a fast-paced and funny dance celebration of play, sport, big emotions, and the highs and lows of competitive games. Every session our Teaching Artists support students in their creative learning journey, with a process that is driven by child-led agency, critical thinking and creative play and exploration.
Program Structure
| Session 1 | Term 2 | Held on school premises |
| Session 2 | Term 2 | Sydney Opera House Game Theory Performance & Backstage Tour |
| Session 3 | Term 2 | Held on school premises |
| Session 4 | Term 2 | Held on school premises |
| Session 5 | Term 2 | Held on school premises |
| Session 6 | Term 3 | Held on school premises |
| Session 7 | Term 3 | Held on school premises |
| Session 8 | Term 3 | Performance Preparation |
| Session 9 | Term 3 | Performance held either at school or at Sydney Opera House w/ Amplified festival |
Teacher Professional Learning
Over six sessions facilitated by Sydney Opera House Teaching Artists, ourTeacher Professional Learning Program supports teachers in unpacking the Sydney Opera House Creativity Framework, a guide to embedding creativity and artistic perspectives into the classroom. Teachers learn to identify a range of creative perspectives and techniques that they can work with in the classroom to open up creativity for both learning and engagement. These interactive creative learning workshops are delivered both onsite in your school and at the Sydney Opera House, with a resource pack to help build lesson plans back in the classroom.
Program Structure
| Session 1 | Term 1 | Onsite at SOH - Centre for Creativity |
| Session 2 | Term 2 | Held on school premises |
| Session 3 | Term 2 | Held on school premises |
| Session 4 | Term 3 | Held on school premises |
| Session 5 | Term 3 | Held on school premises |
| Session 6 | Term 4 | Onsite at SOH - Centre for Creativity |
Amplified Festival
The Amplified Festival is a celebration of the students’ creative response and project developed with their Teaching Artist. As a final outcome in the Artist In Residence Program, students have the opportunity to take ownership of their learning and feel empowered in public spaces by performing on stage at the iconic Sydney Opera House. Family and friends are invited to celebrate the performance and achievement of the students, watching their creative response to the 2024 Selected Performance Game Theory.
Case Studies
Creative Leadership in Learning Case Studies: Lansvale Public School
Embracing the fertile unknown: Lansvale Public School.
Creative Leadership in Learning Case Studies: Casula High School
Transforming teaching: Casula High School.
Stream, read and listen
Lansvale Public School: Planet Home
What does home mean to you? In lieu of singing, students from Lansvale Public School came together and signed in Auslan the words to their original song, Planet Home.
Casula High School: Concealer
Concealer is a deep dive into the impacts of beauty on Australian young people today. Artist, Film maker and theatre maker Curly Fernandez worked with Year 9 drama students from Casula High as they responded to Rethinking Beauty, a talk from the All About Women festival in March 2020.
Kensington Public School: Flying Foxes
Musician and bandleader of the Vegetable Plot Luke Escombe worked with drama teacher Emma Fredman from Kensington Public school to write, record and put together this gorgeous video of three classes of students across 2021.
Lansvale Public school: The Hatch, The Children and The Paper Girl
Theatre Artist Alice Osborne and Composer and Film maker James Brown collaborated with Class 4/5L and classroom teacher Ana Langi from Lansvale Public school to create this spectacular film about friendship, adventure and the imagination.
Katoomba North Public School: The Mystery of the Mythical Creatures
Sophie Kelly, Performer, Theatre Director and Film Director, collaborated with Katoomba North Stage 2 Grevillias to create one of the highlights of 2020.
Lansvale Public School: Creative Ties
See how Creative Leadership in Learning benefits not only students, but also the wider school community.
Campsie Public School: Spooky Airport
Watch Year 3 kids from Campsie Public School take part in the immersive puppetry installation they co-created with artist Kay Yasugi as part of the three-year Creative Leadership in Learning program.
Liverpool Boys High reimagines the school curriculum with Sydney Opera House
What happens when the roles are reversed, and children are put in charge of their own education? The Sydney Opera House took over Liverpool Boys High in a radical three week program where regular lessons were replaced with workshops, mentoring and performances.
School kids write migrant family stories into song
Students from Lansvale Public tell history and humour with musician Luke Escombe
Liverpool Boys High rewrites the school curriculum with creativity
Principal Mike Saxon and his students are changing the way we learn.
Magicast: A Podcast
Burwood Public SchoolThis is what happens when you merge a magic show and podcast. Voice over artist and performer Kate Murphy worked with Teacher Trevor O’Neil and his year 5/6 class from Burwood Public School to create MagicCast! Kate and class responded to the theatre show The Great Illusionist, exploring magic, maths, performance, writing and so much more! Have a listen to this lovely and at times profound rumination on all things magic.
Katrina Faros, Teacher, Chipping Norton Public SchoolI will never forget this experience and the profoundly positive impact it had upon my students.
Michael Saxon, Principal, Liverpool Boys High SchoolThis is a program you can use to activate whole school change and make creativity the focus of what you do.
Frequently asked questions
Send an email to creativelearning@sydneyoperahouse.com and we will contact you to arrange a meeting to talk about the program and how it works in more detail. The Principal must attend this initial meeting as the Principal’s belief and investment in the program is crucial to its success.
Creative Leadership in Learning is delivered in both Primary or Secondary schools. We work with public schools, Catholic schools and independent schools. Many of the schools we work with are either classified Low SES or have a significant percentage of students from Low SES families. In 2020, we’ve worked with 8 schools.
The fee covers delivery costs of the program to the school, including artist fees, project materials, tickets to performances and back-stage tours. The school may need to cover additional staff to cover teachers undertaking the professional learning sessions as well as any travel costs to and from the Opera House.
Between 2018-2020 the Australia Council for the Arts has undertaken a major research project into Creative Leadership in Learning (CLIL). This research demonstrates that schools find real value in the relationship and that CLIL has positive impacts on students, teachers, schools and their broader community.