I have just returned from this years' engage conference in Liverpool, themed around access and activism. I also enjoyed visiting some of the Liverpool Biennial, in particular Marvin Gaye Chetwynd's project Dogsy Ma Bone where she worked with 78 children and young people from across the city to create a film and live performances. Sally Tallant, Director of the Liverpool Biennial, kicked off the engage conference in an inspiring way by saying: "We don't have an education programme. Everything we do is education."

For me the best part of the engage conference was the plenary session chaired by Dr Henry Ward, Head of Education at the Freelands Foundation, which focused on the relationship between art and creativity and art's purpose within the school curriculum. I was blown away by Mike Fairclough's vision as headteacher at West Rise Junior School in Eastbourne where creativity is right across the curriculum. Here the children take part in Forest School lessons, including looking after water buffalo and building a roundhouse in the marsh land leased by the school. If I had taught at a school like this maybe I wouldn't have left teaching in primary schools twenty years ago!

Watch a short film West Rise: School by the Marsh here