Third round of Teacher Development Fund, offering grants of £150,000 for arts-based CPDL, opens for applications
The third round of the Teacher Development Fund opens today to support the delivery of effective arts-based teaching and learning opportunities in the primary classroom.
The Fund promotes partnerships between primary schools and arts/cultural organisations, providing effective continuing professional development and learning (CPDL) which supports teachers and school leaders to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence and experience to embed learning through the arts in the curriculum.
We expect to make six grants of up to £150,000 to partnerships of arts/cultural organisations and five to ten schools, who will work together for two academic years.
The Teacher Development Fund was first launched as a pilot programme in 2016 and has since funded 20 partnerships across the UK, with investment totalling £3 million.
Ciarán Kinney, Deputy Headteacher of St Patrick & St Brigid’s Primary School in Northern Ireland who participated in a TDF pilot project with IntoFilm, said: “Designed specifically with teachers in mind, the standard of CPD we have received is some of the best that I’ve witnessed. This is an intervention that has helped to raise children’s achievement.”
Catherine Sutton, Senior Grants Manager for Education and Learning through the Arts said: “By funding schools and arts/cultural organisations to work in partnership, the Teacher Development Fund has enabled some 400 teachers and school leaders to date to access high quality CPDL from artist practitioners. A range of creative collaborations have seen arts-based learning effectively embedded in the curriculum, and participating schools have reported benefits for both the teachers and pupils. We look forward to seeing the proposals for further collaborations in the next round.”
Applications opened on Thursday 5 September for projects beginning in September 2020. The deadline for applications is Friday 29 November 2019.