Developing creative abilities in primary school is usually treated as a separate educational goal, yet creativity rarely appears in isolation from other twenty-first-century competencies. This article analyses the development of creative abilities in primary school pupils through the lens of the 4C competencies: critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. Using a theoretical and comparative analysis of international assessment programmes (PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, EGRA and EGMA) and of major frameworks of twenty-first-century skills, the study shows that the four competencies are mutually dependent: a pupil generates an idea (creativity), evaluates it (critical thinking), refines it with peers (collaboration) and presents and justifies it (communication). On this basis, the article identifies the core skills that underpin creative ability at primary level, namely independent thinking, divergent thinking and practical creative skills in six domains, and proposes a staged model in which imitation of a model serves as the entry point and the four competencies are combined within a single pedagogical process. The integrated implementation of the 4C competencies is argued to be a key condition for the effective development of creative abilities. The framework is intended for primary school teachers, methodologists and researchers, and it provides a basis for future empirical validation.