NOW I OWN

In 2021, four CARE schools, around 100 students, several principals, teachers, education assistants and a group of creative practitioners took a leap of creative bravery with FORM. They were trialling a program that had already experienced success in some of Western Australia’s public schools, but which had not before been delivered in a CARE school environment.

Since then, participation has grown to include several other CARE Schools across the Perth Metro area. The bold experiment has challenged a further 500 young people each year to reframe their relationships to life, to learning and to each other through discovering what it’s like to have the Five Creative Habits of Learning in their personal toolkit: imagination, persistence, inquisitiveness, collaboration and discipline.

The year-long program has brought about tangible impact to wellbeing and agency amongst young people, culminating in incredible annual student showcases, which have been displayed at venues such as Council House in Boorloo/Perth and the Old Customs House, Walyalup/Fremantle. Further than the classroom doors and beyond what students thought they could do: we've coined these exhibitions NOW I OWN, A Celebration of Creative Bravery.

Championed by AISWA, the program is underpinned by FORM’s Creative Learning Innovative Assessment (CLIA), and designed and delivered by FORM’s Creative Schools for CARE schools. CARE Schools support the education of secondary aged students who are unable to or have difficulty accessing mainstream education. CLIA aims to provide young people with practical ways to demonstrate their learning, while inspiring new approaches to learning by embedding creativity in teaching and assessment practices.

"It helps you discover some of your passions. It makes you think of more ideas, and it helps you to work your way around problems. It makes you look at problems from different perspectives.”

“It is definitely learning, but it is fun. You don’t think of it as learning, but it is. If more lessons were like this, people would do more learning."