Category Archives: Creativity

Creativity, Enrichment, Personal Development, Taskmaster, Taskmaster in School, Teaching, Teaching and Learning, Teamwork

What’s So Good About Taskmaster Club? ORACY

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Week 3 — Oracy: Speaking, Listening & Thinking Out Loud

In education, we often celebrate reading, writing, arithmetic – but too often we forget the power of talk. That’s where oracy comes in: the ability to express ideas clearly, listen deeply, reason with others, and adapt language to different contexts. For many young people, that’s just as important, if not more so, than any other skill.

With its team-based, often chaotic, always creative structure, Taskmaster Club offers a brilliant environment for oracy to flourish. Teams must plan, defend, revise and sometimes persuade one another that their strange idea is “the one.” In doing so, they practise real-world communication and develop confidence, clarity and collaborative thinking.

Below: how Taskmaster Club builds oracy — and why growing oracy skills matters now more than ever.

What is Oracy — and Why It Matters

  • The term “oracy” was coined in the UK in the 1960s by the British educator Andrew Wilkinson. The idea was to give spoken language skills equal status with literacy and numeracy.cambridge-community.org.uk+1
  • According to the most recent report from the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England (2024), oracy should become the “fourth R” of education — as vital to children’s development as reading, writing and arithmetic.oracyeducationcommission.co.uk+1
  • Oracy means more than just speaking: it encompasses reasoning together, listening, adapting communication, arguing respectfully, and engaging in collective thinking.Artis+2Research Schools Network+2

In a time where clear communication, empathy, argumentation and collaboration are increasingly vital (in school, society and future workplaces), oracy is something we cannot afford to neglect.

What Research & Policy Are Saying (UK Focus)

  • According to the University of Cambridge’s educational research, when students are taught to reason together — to use talk to think with others — they become better at reasoning individually too.University of Cambridge
  • Studies show that purposeful classroom talk and oracy-recognition improve academic achievement, support social and emotional development, and build skills essential for life beyond school: confidence, expression, civic engagement and agency.ESU+2Research Schools Network+2
  • Recent national-level reviews (like that of the Oracy Commission) argue for integrating speaking & listening — across all subjects and extracurriculars — to prepare young people for a world where communication, discussion and collaboration are key.sec-ed.co.uk+2oracyeducationcommission.co.uk+2

In short: oracy isn’t just “nice-to-have”. It’s a foundational competence – socially, academically, professionally.

How Taskmaster Club Nurtures Oracy in Every Session

Here’s how the Club’s structure naturally builds oracy – often without students realising they’re “learning”.

  • Constant justification & persuasion: Teams discuss how to approach tasks, negotiate ideas, and defend why one plan is better than another. That builds clarity of thought — and the confidence to express it.
  • Collective reflection: After every challenge, participants talk through what worked, what failed, and what they’d do differently. That encourages listening, evaluation, and shared understanding.
  • Role-sharing & leadership language: Teams rotate roles — planners, doers, presenters — which gives everyone a chance to speak, lead, or support. That variety cultivates flexible communication styles.
  • Spontaneous collaboration under pressure: Many tasks are time-pressured, chaotic or absurd: teams must think quickly, adjust plans, and communicate on the fly. That helps build adaptability and real-world readiness.
  • Inclusive, low-stakes environment: Because tasks are playful and creative rather than “test-based,” students are more willing to experiment with ideas, make mistakes, speak up and learn from each other.

Why Oracy — and thus Taskmaster Club — Matters More Than Ever

  • With the recent push (via the Oracy Commission) to recognise oracy as the “fourth R,” schools and educators are being encouraged to embed speaking and listening skills across all areas of learning. Taskmaster Club is already doing this — in a way that feels fun, not forced.
  • As workplaces, communities and societies become more collaborative, global and fluid, strong communication, confidence, and the ability to reason with others are increasingly vital. Oracy helps equip young people for that reality.
  • For many learners — especially those less confident in writing or those from under-resourced backgrounds — oracy provides another route to express their thinking, show their knowledge, and contribute meaningfully. It’s equitable, empowering, accessible.

Practical Ideas to Boost Oracy in Your Club

If you run a Taskmaster Club (or are thinking of starting one), here are some concrete ideas to make oracy explicit — and build it intentionally:

  • At the end of each task, spend a few minutes debriefing: ask each team member to say one thing they liked about someone else’s idea, and one improvement they’d suggest.
  • Run tasks that require verbal presentation — so teams have to pitch their ideas out loud, describe their methods, or explain their thinking under a time limit.
  • Rotate roles deliberately — ensure quieter students get a chance to lead discussion, speak, or summarise the group’s thinking.
  • Encourage discussion of choices: when a plan fails, ask teams to reflect aloud on why, what they might do differently — celebrate “good thinking, even if the result was exactly what was hoped for.”
  • Use mixed media: some tasks should require strategy talk (planning, reasoning), others storytelling or performative explanation — giving varied opportunities for oracy development.

Final Thought

Oracy isn’t a luxury. It’s a human right: the right to think aloud, to express, to reason, to contribute. And in a world increasingly shaped by communication — between communities, workplaces, nations — oracy is as vital as reading, writing or arithmetic.

With its blend of teamwork, challenge, play and reflection, Taskmaster Club gives young people a rare gift: regular, joyful, purposeful opportunities to speak, listen and think together. It doesn’t just help them win silly tasks — it helps them find their voice.

Taskmaster Club materials:

Further posts in the ‘What’s So Good About Taskmaster Club series:

Creativity, Learning, Personal Development, Taskmaster, Taskmaster in School, Teaching, Teaching and Learning, Teamwork

Secret Tasks: The Unexpected Key to Obvious Impact

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Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Southway Primary School, where their Year 6 pupils have been running Taskmaster Club this term.

I was there to learn more about a collaborative project they’re planning with their neighbouring secondary school, TRS, and it’s an idea that’s simple but could well be extremely impactful. Older pupils from TRS will take on leadership roles, running Taskmaster Club sessions for the younger pupils and modelling collaborative teamwork and communication. It’s peer-led, it’s practical, and it’s the kind of initiative that quietly builds confidence in all age groups. I can’t wait to see what happens next and the ripple effect it has across both schools.

But that wasn’t the highlight of the visit.

The Teacher Who Introduced Me to the “Secret Task”

While speaking with a teacher who has been running Taskmaster Club with Post-16 pupils, she shared an adaptation she had made to the format. It was so clever, simple, and bursting with potential that I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

She had introduced The Secret Task.

While all of the teams were working on the same task, she privately assigned individual pupils an extra rule or personal mission to complete during the session. These were designed to shape behaviours, build skills, or push pupils slightly outside their comfort zones – all while keeping the playful spirit of Taskmaster intact.

The sorts of secret tasks she shared included:

  • Make sure your team uses your idea for at least one task today.
  • You must agree with everything everyone says.
  • Do not speak at all during the session today.
  • Sabotage your team’s attempt in some way. If your team win, they lose; if they lose, you gain bonus points; if you get caught, you lose points.

Each one requires a different kind of strategy, awareness, and self-management. And each one develops a different skill.

Why Secret Tasks Work So Well

What struck me most wasn’t just the creativity of the idea—it was the intentionality behind it.

Secret tasks give teachers an opportunity to:

1. Personalise the learning experience

Each pupil can be guided toward a specific behaviour, challenge, or strength. A quieter pupil could have a task encouraging leadership; a dominant pupil could be nudged toward active listening; someone who struggles with teamwork could be steered into building or repairing group dynamics. All while attempting the same task.

2. Strengthen inclusion and adaptive practice

We talk a lot about adaptations, but this is adaptive practice disguised as fun. It gives every pupil a way to participate meaningfully, even if their needs or strengths differ from their peers’. No one is singled out. No one is left out. Everyone plays.

3. Encourage reflection and metacognition

Secret tasks aren’t just playful – they support deeper thinking. When pupils debrief afterwards, they start to notice how behaviours influence the outcome of a team task. They learn to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how their own actions shaped the group.

4. Maintain the magic of Taskmaster

Taskmaster thrives on chaos, surprise, and joyful unpredictability. Secret tasks add another layer of mystery that feels perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the format.

An Obvious Impact Through Subtle Means

What I love most is how quietly transformative the secret task can be. It’s a small tweak with the potential for huge impact. When used purposefully, it allows any teacher or facilitator to:

  • build confidence
  • develop communication skills
  • challenge assumptions
  • support social interaction
  • nurture leadership
  • encourage teamwork
  • and gently shift behaviours

…all without breaking the flow of the session or drawing attention to any one pupil’s needs.

This, to me, is inclusive practice at its best: playful, personalised, and powerfully human.

What Secret Tasks Would You Add?

I left Southway feeling inspired – not just by what they’re doing now, but by the possibilities these secret tasks unlock. I’d love to hear other ideas and adaptations people are using in their clubs, classrooms, or youth group sessions.

Sometimes the smallest twist creates the biggest shift. And sometimes, a secret task is the most obvious way to make an impact.

Creativity, Enrichment, Learning, Personal Development, Taskmaster, Taskmaster in School, Teaching, Teaching and Learning, Teamwork

What’s so good about Taskmaster Club? CREATIVITY

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Taskmaster Club is built on unpredictability, play and lateral thinking – exactly the conditions that let creativity breathe. Because the Club’s tasks rarely have a single “right” answer, teams must invent their own routes to success. That open-endedness, combined with a rich mix of music, drama, art and hands-on making, creates repeated, scaffolded chances to practise creative thinking — in other words, creativity isn’t an occasional add-on: it’s the curriculum.

Below we explore how Taskmaster Club develops creativity, what the academic evidence says (with a UK focus), and how these playful tasks nurture the kind of creative thinking young people need today.

Why Taskmaster-style tasks are great for creativity

  1. Open outcomes = generative thinking
    When tasks don’t prescribe a method or final form, teams must ask “what could this be?” not “what must this be?” That shift from replicating a model to possibility thinking is central to creative development: it invites hypothesis, experimentation and risk-taking — the very habits Anna Craft identified as core to creative learning (she coined and championed the idea of possibility thinking). Open University BERA
  2. Constraints actually help creativity
    Paradoxically, tight constraints (time, materials, silly rules) focus creative exploration. Taskmaster tasks often force teams to be inventive within limits — and research across creative pedagogy shows that constraint-driven tasks stimulate fluency and originality by encouraging lateral approaches rather than formulaic solutions. (See examples in creativity collaboratives and school-based action research.) ACE+1
  3. Multimodal practice builds creative flexibility
    Because Taskmaster tasks can require music, drama, visual art, spoken word, or engineered props, students repeatedly practise transferring ideas across modes. This multimodal practice is important: creative expertise grows when learners can move ideas between media, testing which forms best express a concept. The national Creativity Collaboratives and university-school partnerships emphasise this cross-disciplinary approach. Durham Commission on Creativity and Education | Arts Council England
  4. Collaborative creativity is richer than solo creativity
    Teams bring different perspectives and skills; this collision of ideas leads to novel combinations. UK scholars working on creative classroom practice note that well-structured collaboration helps students -externalise ideas, receive immediate feedback, and iterate – turning initial sparks into refined creative products. Professor Teresa Cremin’s work on creative pedagogy emphasises the value of teacher-facilitated but learner-led creative activity, where peer interaction and teacher support combine to sustain risk and exploration.
  5. Low-stakes play creates the behavioural safety to be bold
    Taskmaster Club’s playful framing reduces fear of failure. When “failure” is comical or temporary, learners are more likely to take original risks – which is where real creativity often happens. Research from school collaboratives shows that embedding creative tasks as part of a supportive school culture increases children’s willingness to experiment. University of Exeter News+1

Sir Ken Robinson: Creativity as a Human Right

No discussion of creativity in education is complete without Sir Ken Robinson, whose work transformed how teachers, schools and policymakers think about human potential. Robinson famously argued that “creativity is as important as literacy” — not as a slogan, but as a recognition that imagination and expression deserve the same value as traditional academic skills.

He also emphasised that creativity is not confined to the arts: it is a mode of thinking that cuts across every discipline, powered by curiosity, divergent thinking and the willingness to try something new. Crucially, Robinson championed learning environments where experimentation, improvisation and playful failure are embraced rather than avoided.

Taskmaster Club embodies these principles beautifully. Its open-ended challenges, humorous framing, and celebration of unconventional approaches create exactly the conditions Robinson believed young people need to develop their creative capacities.

What the UK evidence tells us (short takeaways)

  • Possibility thinking matters. Anna Craft’s research established that the move from “what is” to “what might be” is a repeatable, teachable mode of thinking – precisely what Taskmaster-style tasks provoke. BERA
  • Creative pedagogy is most effective when it’s supported, structured and inclusive. Projects like the Creativity Collaboratives and university-school partnerships show that creative teaching yields deeper understanding and longer-term skill development when teachers scaffold opportunities and assessment recognises process as well as product. ACE+1
  • Teacher and peer support amplifies creativity. Teresa Cremin and colleagues emphasise that teachers who model risk, reflect openly, and give careful feedback help students sustain creative efforts beyond momentary sparks. Open University Profiles+1
  • Creativity connects to broader futures skills. National reports and interdisciplinary research (including engineering and design education) emphasise that creative problem-solving is essential for future workplaces — and school-based creative projects are a key route to develop it. Royal Academy of Engineering+1

How Taskmaster Club specifically nurtures those ingredients

  • Regular, varied practice: Weekly sessions give repeated opportunities to ideate, prototype and reflect — crucial cycles described in creativity research.
  • Cross-disciplinary prompts: A single challenge might require story, sound, visuals and a practical build — mirroring real-world creative problems that demand transferable skills.
  • Peer feedback and reflection: Debriefing after challenges turns fun into learning: what worked, what surprised us, what would we try differently next time? That reflective loop is essential for creative improvement.
  • Design for inclusivity: Rotating roles (idea generator, maker, presenter) and mixed-ability teams let different strengths surface; university-school projects show inclusive design increases all pupils’ creative confidence. Birmingham City University+1

Practical tips to amplify creativity in your Club

  1. Value the idea, not just the result. Highlight smart failures and surprising attempts in your feedback.
  2. Introduce micro-constraints. Short time limits or limited materials often spur greater invention than total freedom.
  3. Rotate media. Running a task that specifically requires music or drama helps pupils practise transferring ideas.
  4. Make reflection explicit. Use team reflection time after tasks: what’s one idea we’d keep, one we’d drop, one we’d try differently?
  5. Share and celebrate process. Put up process photos/sketches in school spaces – creativity sees greater uptake when its process is visible.

Final thought

Creativity isn’t a mysterious trait you either have or don’t — it’s cultivated through repeated, scaffolded practice, risk-friendly environments, multimodal tasks and supportive collaboration. Taskmaster Club offers a compact, joyful ecosystem where all of those elements meet. It’s not just entertaining: it’s a practical engine for building future-ready creative thinkers.

Further reading & resources

  • Anna Craft — background and the idea of possibility thinking. BERA
  • Teresa Cremin — creativity, teacher practice and peer-supported creative learning. Open University Profiles+1
  • Creativity Collaboratives / Arts Council England — school–university partnerships embedding creative pedagogy. ACE+1
  • Royal Academy of Engineering — on creativity and engineering education (practical, interdisciplinary creativity). Royal Academy of Engineering

Taskmaster Club materials: