Call-out for Schools: Cultural Match Programme 2024/5

Programme Outline

In our Cultural Match programme, early career teachers (ECTs, which can also include teachers in their first five years of teaching) will identify an existing or emerging need within their school.  They will be given a £3,000 budget to work with a Creative Producer and their pupils to address this need through a cultural and creative response.  Cultural Match will match up each school with a local cultural venue to develop a long-term partnership.   

We will provide teachers with an opportunity to work with a Creative Producer to look at how they can meaningfully develop arts engagement in school, to address the current needs of their pupils. We are inviting schools to submit proposals that identify a key issue faced by their school, and consider how arts and culture could be used to address this issue. We will then select 15 schools to work with a Creative Producer, who will challenge them to develop their cultural provision, from wherever their starting point, and support them in building relationships with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums venues and/or other cultural venues in the region. 

We will prioritise remote schools, those in areas of high deprivation, those experiencing poor transport links and those with barriers to engagement with cultural activity and allocate £3,000 per school for delivery of activity. This funding can be used to pay for coaches and visits to cultural venues as well as other project costs. 

We designed the Cultural Match programme because we know that cultural capital is a significant tool that young people can use to achieve success in life – broadening experiences and promoting character-building qualities and skills. Engaging in cultural activity increases confidence, encourages self-expression, and broadens understanding of the world. 

However, we realise that today’s early career teachers began their careers at least partially during the restrictions of the pandemic, which may have impacted on their confidence to work in partnership with the cultural sector to provide a wide range of opportunities for their pupils. This project, funded by North East Combined Authority, aims to increase the confidence of teachers in their early careers in creating partnerships with cultural organisations. 

Aims of Cultural Match

1. To connect children and young people, schools and communities with art and cultural opportunities and experiences in response to their needs.
2. To increase the participation of pupils in cultural activities, enable them to visit cultural venues, and increase cultural capital.
3. To identify and develop creative responses to key issues faced by schools.
4. To connect with ECTs and build their confidence in working in partnership with cultural organisations.
5. To include opportunities for ECTs to share the learning with their wider staff teams in school.
6. To culminate in the sharing of learning at a participatory event for all pupils or school exchanges. 
7. To enable North East Combined Authority and TWAM to further identify and understand the current key issues faced by schools, support schools to respond to this, and roll out findings. 

Criteria

Through this work, TWAM’s Regional Cultural Learning team are seeking to:

• Engage with 15 schools to submit proposals that identify a key issue faced by each school and how arts and culture will be used to address this. Schools must be located in either Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside or Northumberland.
• Focus work on remote schools, in areas of high deprivation, experiencing poor transport links and barriers to engagement with cultural activity. 
• Allocate £3,000 per school to deliver each project funded by North East Combined Authority.
• Host a whole-cohort half-day CPD session on the importance of cultural capital, the benefits of partnerships with cultural organisations, and how to broker cultural partnerships and embed pupil voice in planning and decision-making (6 November 2024).
• Have a requirement for children and young people to be involved in the planning for programme delivery (school led- supported by producer and matched cultural venue).
• Require schools to nominate an ECT who will lead on this work for their school, and to commit to them receiving mentor support in school to embed the learning from the project. 
• Require mentors to attend an online introductory CPD session (10-11.30am on 16 October 2024).
• Create a peer learning network of these teachers, who will meet regularly and support one another as the programme develops. 

Timescales

• Application deadline - Friday 27 September 2024 
  
• Grants allocated in October 2024 for work to commence
• Project development – October 2024 – December 2025 
• Introduction session for mentors to attend (online) - 16 October 2024 
• CPD session for ECTs and mentors (in person) - 6 November 2024
• Project delivery to be started by January 2024 and completed by July 2025 
• ECTs and mentors to attend 3 peer learning sessions during the year
• All schools to take part in either a participatory celebration pupil event or a school exchange by July 2025. 

Contact

If you have any questions or would like an informal discussion about this work, please contact: charlotte.dack@twmuseums.org.uk to arrange a call.

Please complete the application form and return to charlotte.dack@twmuseums.org.uk by Friday 27 September.