Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Attain Academy Partnership, on behalf of the Chelmsford Teaching Schools Alliance, will lead this project, working with Essex Music Services and London Music Masters. Teachers will be supported to embed music-based approaches to learning, based on the Kodály method, across the Early Years and Foundation Stage curriculum, extending into Keystage 1 in the second year. The initiative aims to improve school readiness amongst pupils and to foster personal, social, communications, and language development.

School Without Walls aimed to transpose ‘school’ into an arts environment or cultural setting, inviting teachers and children to interrogate and reshape teaching and learning in and through the arts. The programme sought to transform teachers’ ‘philosophies as educators’ and give children ownership to explore and express their ideas and engage with the arts and culture in their locality. The project was run by the Bath Cultural Education Partnership – a partnership between 5x5x5=Creativity, the Egg Theatre, Bath Festivals, Mentoring Plus and Bath Spa University Institute for Education. This pilot project ran from June 2016 to July 2017.

In Wales, Cerdd Iaith/Listening to Language is exploring new approaches to music and language learning. Year 6 classroom teachers from ten primary schools in South West Wales are  working with orchestral musicians to pilot a new approach to the teaching of modern foreign languages through sound components such as pitch, rhyme, repetition and rhythm, embedding these within music. The project is a partnership between British Council Wales and BBC National Orchestra of Wales with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David School of Education and Communities, and Ein Rhanbarth ar Waith.

Southwark Teaching School Alliance and Shakespeare’s Globe are collaborating to train teachers and leaders in eight Southwark primary schools to incorporate drama techniques into their classroom practice. The project will see Year 1 and Year 3 teachers from each school take part in professional development led by Globe practitioners. Actors will work alongside teachers in their classrooms, using dramatic storytelling techniques to support the children’s development in speaking, reading and writing. The second year of the project will see the same teachers embed their learning into their school’s curriculum, leading their own professional development sessions for staff and creating a unit of work to incorporate the new approaches.

In Scotland, the Art of Learning programme focuses on supporting teachers to embed a range of arts-based practices which allow pupils to develop their executive functions and creativity skills. Pre-designed activities to develop executive functions are based on a theory of learning; these stress the value of complex tasks which simultaneously engage children socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually, and the importance of high-functioning learning. The project is formed of a partnership between Creative Scotland, Education Scotland, and Creativity, Culture and Education.

A collaboration between Grimm & Co and ten Astrea Trust primary schools in Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield, Chapter and Verse aims to support teachers to develop and embed multi-disciplinary arts approaches to teaching and learning, including immersive drama, music, poetry and storytelling. The project seeks to improve creative writing and Key Stage 2 writing outcomes, as well as children’s confidence, motivation and wellbeing.

Concordia aims to increase the confidence of teachers to lead singing with children so that they can successfully transform the learning environment of their schools. This project is distinctive in that it is school-led; the grantee is a primary school whose head teacher has a track record in singing and music and strong local school networks. Teachers and senior leaders from 16 schools across Newcastle are participating in the project.

In Northern Ireland, Full Steam Ahead is designed as a two-year intervention working with colleagues from ten schools to increase teacher confidence in using film and film making as an aid to raising pupil attainment in literacy, numeracy and information, communication and technology.

Valuing Voices targets continuing professional development and learning (CPDL) for primary arts teachers and school leaders. Ksent will work in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University and arts practitioners from Confidance, Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company and Turner Contemporary. Through exploring dance, drama and visual arts, teachers and arts practitioners will collaborate, co-learn and co-construct the curriculum, to benefit schools, arts practitioners and pupils with profound and multiple disabilities. Valuing Voices aims to empower primary practitioners as arts leaders in their schools, to be confident, innovative and creative. The initiative seeks to build a sustainable model of CPDL and to impact the wider network of schools within the Trust.

Milford Haven School Improvement Group aims to embed arts across the curriculum, providing both a context and a purpose for learning. Working with local partners, including Pembrokeshire Music Service and The Torch Theatre, teachers will develop arts skills and pedagogy to support them to meet the requirements of the new Welsh curriculum, which places emphasis on the role of the expressive arts, with confidence.