Grants database

Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) is an international foundation, which is committed to promoting children’s creativity, both inside and outside the classroom. Working in partnership with CEDETI (a research institute based in Chile), CCE will develop an arts-rich primary curriculum in consultation with teachers. This work is part of a longer project exploring whether such a curriculum can help children from poorer backgrounds improve certain functions of the brain: enabling them to close the gap with more affluent peers.

Benjamin Dunks, the Artistic Director of Attik Dance (AD), is an honorary fellow of Exeter Medical School. He has developed Leap; a whole class approach to teaching dance in primary schools. This approach is based on current academic research linking motor skills to the development of working memory. AD wants to test if the Leap programme can increase teachers’ confidence in teaching dance and improve children’s working memory.

The Tetley is a new centre for contemporary art and learning located in the former headquarters of the Tetley Brewery in South Central Leeds. The Tetley will provide ongoing, in-depth arts programming to young people, who have previously had limited opportunities to engage in extra-curricular creative activities. They will have regular access to a significant contemporary art venue, where they will work alongside professional artists and be given opportunities to consider further education or careers within the arts and creative industries.

Based in Worcester, Collar & Tie (C&T) develops new creative techniques that mix participatory drama, learning, digital and social media in order to improve learning experiences and teaching methods. C&T will test the pedagogic potential of its online theatre education platform, Prospero, over one school year with four demographically different primary schools in Worcestershire. This will enable teachers to develop new ways of deploying Drama and ICT across the curriculum.

Writing on the Wall is a Liverpool-based community charity that promotes and celebrates writing in all its forms through a month-long annual festival and year-round projects. It will test whether working with schools to create a programme of creative writing and illustration workshops, with a super hero theme, can increase children’s attainment in literacy, their social skills, self-esteem and aspirations.

Following a small-scale pilot with Sheffield Hallam University in 2014, Complicite will evaluate a drama-based, whole class approach to maths to see if it improves children’s attainment.

This project will test the impact of creative arts-based approaches to Literacy in 7 schools in disadvantaged areas around Stoke-on-Trent, where the arts have been squeezed out of the school day. Artists and teachers will work in partnership to address specific areas of the Literacy curriculum through creative interventions. Staffordshire University will evaluate the project with a focus on children’s attainment in Literacy.

The University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre is the largest contemporary art gallery in Leicester and one of the largest in the East Midlands area. Attenborough Arts Centre will create a sensory workshop space designed specifically for children with special educational needs and disabilities. It will work with two special educational needs (SEN) schools to explore new ways to deliver the curriculum to these children using multisensory and kinaesthetic approaches to learning.

Based in Bridgend and Betws, Wales, Valley and Vale Community Arts delivers a range of creative work focusing on enhancing wellbeing for the local community. This project will offer drama-based learning workshops for girls with late diagnosed autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), many of whom attend an Alternative Provision Centre. This initiative seeks to develop both their own and the Centre’s understanding and use of drama as a helpful teaching method.

Fenham Association of Residents (FAR) is a leading community organisation in the West End of Newcastle. It works with young people to strengthen community cohesion, help them to overcome the challenges they face and to achieve their goals. This grant will go towards the salary of the Children and Young People’s Lead Worker. This will enable FAR to develop its work with young people further around its priority areas, whilst taking advantage of a newly renovated building. These priorities include: mental health, sexual health, education and training and diversity.

The Keyfund seeks to engage those who are vulnerable and facing complex barriers to progression and social mobility. It focuses on helping young people identify their passions and practically developing their skills and strengths for success. Keyfund plans to use 2015/16 to reflect, innovate and transition. This grant will support the CEO’s salary and contribute to two new posts. This will enable the organisation to focus on business development, marketing and promotions to build resilience for the future.

URPotential works to build community cohesion. Their four main areas of focus include: training, research and consultancy, direct delivery of youth work and volunteering. This funding will go towards a Co-Director’s salary. The grant will allow for an increase in hours for a young manager. The organisation seeks to be part of larger contracts and to ensure young people’s voices are heard locally and nationally.