News and publications

Gem Thornton, Creative Learning Manager from Grimm & Co, reflects on their Teacher Development Fund learning journey alongside ten Astrea Trust primary schools in Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield. Their project, Chapter & Verse, aimed to support teachers to develop and embed multi-disciplinary arts approaches to teaching and learning, including immersive drama, music, poetry and storytelling.

Young at Art, based in Northern Ireland, reflects on their Creative Teacher programme, supported by the Teacher Development Fund. This project extends their existing professional development practice supporting teachers to use arts and drama based approaches across the curriculum.

Programme lead, Kathy Coates-Mohammed shares insights from this place-based project exploring how Kirklees’ textile heritage can be integrated into the curriculum. Supported through the Teacher Development Fund, the project sees five schools across the area team up with Hatch Projects, Kirklees Art Associate Learning Partners and the University of Huddersfield. Together they aim to build more creative approaches to learning and to create a place-based curriculum.

Jo Reil, project lead for Wise About Words, provides an insight into their learning journey as they move into the second year of the programme, supported by the Teacher Development Fund. A partnership between Norwich Theatre and eight primary schools from the Wensum Trust, Wise About Words focuses on helping teachers to develop the skills and confidence to embed drama-based approaches in the classroom and across the curriculum.

As we quickly approach the three year anniversary of Covid’s onset, Paul Reeve, CEO of Into Film and TDF Advisory Group Member, reflects on the pandemic’s ongoing impact and how its long tail is affecting the arts and education sectors.

We applied the Funders for Race Equality Alliance (FREA) racial justice audit tool to our UK grant-making in 2021/22, analysing our portfolios in terms of the proportion of grants and funds awarded in support of Black or minoritised-led organisations and projects. 

Ushi Bagga, Head of Programme – Arts, and Nina White, Data and Information Officer, reflect on the results of our latest racial justice audit.

This report explores what Just For Kids Law has achieved through a five-year grant through the Youth Strategic Investment Fund.