Discover how to apply for a £2,500 bursary!

Application deadline: 10am on Monday 11^th October 2021

Are you connected to a network of schools interested in working together to develop your arts provision? Then our Group School Offer programme of support could help!

After the huge challenges of the last year, this programme will bring the opportunity for collaborative working, to build new partnerships and to re-energise for the coming year. It’s also a brilliant chance for a group of schools to focus collectively around a priority area, such as wellbeing.

The bursary is intended to pay for staff cover costs to enable the Specialist Arts Lead to have a devoted time to develop arts provision across the network.

As part of the offer, groups of schools involved in the programme will have access to:

• Free tailored briefings on how Arts Award and Artsmark can benefit your group of schools, delivered to Senior Leadership Teams by The Mighty Creatives.
• Free Arts Policy development workshop to enable your schools to strengthen their arts and cultural offer and evidence a strategic commitment to offering a broad and rich curriculum (in line with changes to Ofsted’s Inspection Framework).
• Project management support for the development and evaluation of your programme.
• Free ‘in house’ Arts Award training in your setting for a minimum of 6 school representatives.
• Artsmark Development Training for a minimum of 5 schools – a bespoke visioning and planning day designed to meet your school development priorities.
• Promotion of your school group’s success through the development of case studies to be promoted throughout the East Midlands by The Mighty Creatives.

This programme is an opportunity to develop strong strategic connections within a network of schools, encouraging greater collaboration and building connectivity for future partnership working. Artsmark, Arts Award and the development of school Art Policies are the main tools used to achieve this, and in turn can support schools taking part to improve their arts and cultural provision, strengthen leadership, and encourage greater peer support across their network.

Who can apply?

This offer is open to schools in the East Midlands who:

• Can demonstrate an established relationship with a group of other schools (at least 5) who are committed to developing arts activity across their network.
• Can commit to at least 5 schools registering or re-registering with Artsmark by December 2021 and attending an Artsmark Development Training Day by Spring half term break 2022. To find out more about Artsmark here.
• Have support from their Senior Leadership Team or Governing Bodies for their involvement in this work.
• Have accessed pre-application support from The Mighty Creatives.
• Applications are welcome from schools and organisations throughout the East Midlands but are particularly sought from DfE Category 5 and 6 Local Area Districts (listed in FAQs in supporting document, downloadable below).

Timeline and Key Milestones

10am Monday 11^th October

Deadline for applications.

15^th October 2021

Applicants informed of outcome.

November/December 2021

Agree timetable of activity with TMC

Artsmark and Arts Award briefings for Senior Leadership Teams (delivered by TMC).

All schools register or re-register with Artsmark and book Artsmark Development Day training date by end of  December 2021.

First grant payment (£1500)

Spring Term 2022

Attend Artsmark Development Training

Initial meetings with TMC Consultant to begin work on Arts Policy development.

Attend Arts Award training (March)

March 2022

Evaluation meeting with lead school.

Final grant payment (£1000)

How do I apply?

If you’re interested in this offer, please get in touch for some pre-application support. You can contact the Artsmark team directly at artsmark@themightycreatives.com or by phone 07725 660 525. We advise you to look at application questions before we arrange a pre-application call so we can support any areas you are not sure about.

You can apply by clicking the button below and completing our online application form.

The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 11^th October 2021.

Check out our other funds!

We have another fund open at the moment – The Mighty Creatives Network Grants, aimed at supporting new networks of schools to support staff development and training opportunities. We can let you know about this and advise if this fund would be more relevant in the pre-application conversation.