(A Year 4 teacher becomes an ‘artist in residence’ at Coldfall Primary School.)
In particular, we talked about how teachers can learn to lead from the middle, a leadership trend on the rise in schools. This might include:
- establishing school-to-school networks and collaboration in which teachers, pupils and leaders can support, learn and innovate together. This can be on a local, national and international level:
- engaging students, families and communities in the conversation and collaboration; developing or reviewing systems in place that give them a ‘voice:’
- using data to support arguments and provide evidence. 'Data gangs' refers to the idea that groups of schools with clear commonalities – locality, pupil population, socioeconomic circumstances, feeder relationships – could potentially group together to build a fresh and powerful data picture of how the arts positively influence performance.
Pippa Gibb, Head of Drama at Bishop Douglass School (Barnet), transitioned to a new role and a new school in the middle of the CLC programme. Her project was about actively using what she was learning through CLC to establish herself as a leader while simultaneously raising the profile of drama and the arts.
Finding the Money
Session 2 was also where the inevitable conversation about funding and its limits truly took hold within our group, with all participants agreeing that finding new sources of money is a sure-fire way to grab the attention of SLT, governors, parents and colleagues. No one was blind to the fiscal challenges facing the state sector in particular, yet there was a perhaps surprising amount of optimism about ways forward, and no shortage of clever ideas and strategies.
Two CLC projects used innovative approaches to fundraising to drive their CLC projects. Lucy Williams, Head of Creative Arts at Erith School (Bexley), got her school onto an education crowd-funding pilot run by NESTA. In her project presentation, she talked about that effort and about how she leveraged existing community and London-wide resources to increase the ‘cultural capital’ in her school.
Kate Vetch, Music Coordinator at Coldfall Primary School (Haringey), used a different kind of crowd-funding model to support her innovative artist in residence project, in which the ‘resident’ artists were the children themselves supported by teachers trained by professional artists. The project, which involved every child and teacher and most parents, happened on £3,000 raised in tiny bits from parents and concerts: the cost per child was a mere £6 for a remarkable programme of work.
Maximising funding doesn’t always mean finding new money. Following are some other tips from our CLC about how to create financial space for arts and cultural activities in school:
- conduct a skills audit of parents relating to expertise, experience and skills in the arts. Some CLC schools had parents who were arts professionals, or very skilled amateurs, and who voluntarily taught regular sessions in or after school, thereby saving school funds:
- get onto the next agenda for your school’s next PTA meeting. Tell them what you need and why it is important (again, thinking broadly about school aims and challenges). Have a clear funding request ready for them:
- invite school governors to all arts and cultural events, including arts weeks, concerts, exhibitions, assemblies, etc. Cultivating good relationships with Governors means that the arts will be on their ‘radar’ when considering school budgets. Some schools have subject-specific governors…could you introduce the idea of an ‘arts governor’ to champion the arts and culture in your school?
- sign up to a variety of mailing lists from cultural organisations to ensure you are the first to hear about opportunities. Arts and cultural organisations sometimes run free ‘taster’ sessions, which are great opportunities to build your practice and learn about a venue’s offer:
- connect with local arts organisations, artists and businesses and invite them to serve as programme or project advisors or even as ongoing ‘arts champions’. Ensure they have opportunities to directly connect with your programmes.
Further resources
- Session 2 blog
Read here - The NESTA education crowd-funding pilot Lucy Williams participated in is called Rocket Fund. Lucy’s pilot stage has closed
Find out more - For a look crowd-funding in the arts, see this overview from ArtsProfessional
Read here - The Arts Award Access Fund awards up to £1,500 to trained advisers to support Arts Award delivery
Find out more - Both schools and their PTAs qualify for Awards for All, a Big Lottery-supported fund offering grants of £300 to £10,000 to support community-led projects, including arts projects
Learn more - The underrated backbone of all good fundraising is good stewardship: making sure supporters feel valued, in part to cement further support. Here’s a great primer on the subject.
Read here - A good think piece about developing effective middle leadership
Read here - ANDtogether - A New Direction's online index for London teachers to find and connect with world-class arts and cultural opportunities
Find out more
