ROHBridge

TeachingSchool Investment

Introduction

The Royal Opera House Bridge is one of ten organisations nationally that are funded by Arts Council England for three years (2012-15) to ‘connect children and young people to great art and culture.’ We do so through facilitating and developing cross sector partnerships between the cultural, education and public sectors. Our work is focused across a specific geographical area: North Kent;Thurrock; Southend on Sea; Essex ;Hertfordshire ; Luton ; Bedfordshire.

We are particularly keen to engage children and young people who have restricted access to arts and culture whether this is due to limited infrastructure or other economic, social, physical and geographical challenges.

Within the RoyalOperaHouseBridge’s annual core budget, we have additional funding from Department for Education to support Teaching Schools in their development and leadership role.

The ROHBridgeTeachingSchool fund

For the first time, we are inviting any TeachingSchool in our region to apply for a grant of up to £7000 to strengthen and develop cultural learning across their alliance in the Autumn and Spring terms 2014/15.

As a Bridge organisation, we exist to ‘connect children and young people to great art and culture’. We believe effective TeachingSchoolleadership is a vital component of our mission and so we are working with the Department of Education to support Teaching Schools in their development and leadership role, particularly where this will result in strengthening quality cultural education and provision for young people.

How the fund might be used

We are keen to support Teaching Schools deliver against their six core aims, and to foster partnerships between alliance schools and the cultural sector.

Our definition of cultural learning is very broad and includes young people engaging with museums, libraries and heritage sites as well as all art forms including film and digital media and the development of technical backstage skills.

Over the past two years we have funded a variety of programmes that include;

  • a Young Cultural Ambassadors Programme with The Wroxham Transformative Learning and AlbanTeachingSchool Alliances in Hertfordshire
  • the development of a creative curriculum with The Pilgrim Learning Teaching Alliance in Bedford
  • developing and implementing a range of creative approaches to literacy across two alliances: New Horizons and Medway Teaching School Alliance
  • an Early Career Teachers action research programme on creativity and literacy with 15 schools within the Billericay Community Trust Teaching School Alliance and AngliaRuskinUniversity

If you would like to recruit a project manager to support your activity, this cost can be built into your proposal. We are not however able to fund staff cover.

Selection criteria

All planned activity must be needs-led and proposals must be driven by clear aims and specify desired outcomes that relate to one or more of the Teaching School’s DfE Big 6:

  1. play a greater role in training new entrants to the profession
  2. lead peer-to-peer professional and leadership development
  3. identify and develop leadership potential
  4. provide support for other schools
  5. designate and broker Specialist Leaders of Education (SLEs)
  6. Research and development

Outcomes must evidence increases in children and young people’s participation and engagement withculture and demonstrate improvement in the quality and impact on the teaching and learning in the alliance.

Any proposal must clearly articulate a strategy for disseminating the learning and impact of the programme of work.

How can I ensure my proposal is strong?

  • Demonstrate a clearly articulated need for your activity
  • Identify a member of the Senior Leadership Team who will champion this programme within the school and the Teaching School Alliance
  • Present a strong partnership model (working with at least three members of your teaching school alliance and one arts/ cultural organisation)
  • Explain how you will ensure you have the capacity to deliver this activity
  • Tell us how participating schools could engage with Artsmark
  • Describe how you will evidence progression in your participants’ learning
  • Describe how participating schools could embed the gaining of Arts Award into the proposal ( five levels available)
  • Evidence the outcomes of your activity. You must be able to outline your approach to evaluating this activity and how you will assess the impact of what has been achieved
  • Articulate how you hope to sustain the activity in the longer term, and how the impact could be disseminated across more schools within the alliance
  • Demonstrate understanding of the Arts Council’s new Quality Principles for work for, by and with children and young people. See

What is the application process?

This is an open call for application from any TeachingSchool within the ROHBridge area.

NB This is not open to Teaching Schools which have previously received more than £4000 funding from ROHBridge over the last two years.

If it would be helpful, the Head of the ROHBridge team is available in June to support and facilitate needs-led development discussions amongst interested schools in your alliance prior to submission of a proposal. There is no charge for this service. Her email address is .

The deadline to submit your application is 7th July 2014

  • Teaching Schools can apply for a minimum of £5,000 and up to a maximum of £7,000*.
  • All applications will be reviewed by a small ROHBridge panel. We will endeavour to feedback on all final proposals by 14th July 2014.
  • All activity must be completed by 15th March 2015
  • Please submit your final proposal by e-mail to Hannah Ferguson, Administration Co-ordinator -
  • Once the application is approved you will be issued with a legally binding agreement detailing the terms of our investment, including our monitoring and reporting processes.

*The total sum for ROHBridge investment in one TeachingSchool alliance is £7,000. Therefore if you have already been in receipt of ROH Bridge investment youwill only be eligible to apply for the remaining sum - you need to deduct the amount you received from £7,000 to find out want you are entitled to apply for e.g. if you have had £3,000 investment then you can only apply for max £4,000.

About RoyalOperaHouseBridge

Our vision is;

To empower a generation through connecting children and young people to a sustainable cultural offer that has children and young people at its heart.

By 2018, we aim for successful delivery of our programme to result in:

  • fair and universal access across the ROH Bridge Region, so that all children and young people can engage with culture on their doorstep;
  • high quality provision with clear progression pathways that is responsive to the local needs and priorities;
  • a motivated children’s workforce and wider community that values the arts and culture and recognises the benefits of cultural engagement for CYP;
  • a sustained legacy for ACE’s investment in Bridge, delivered by a wide range of cultural, learning and community partners.

The ROHBridge strategy for 2014-18 includes 4 priorities;

  1. Cultural Entitlement

We believe that every child and young person has the right to access a broad, quality cultural offer that is responsive to their needs and interests and provides them with progression opportunities. We aim to secure that right for young people through our work with schools and cultural organisations.

  1. Cultural Ambition

We aim to shine a spotlight on the diverse characteristics and achievements of the East region in order to raise its profile, challenge perceptions and draw in investment.

  1. Advocacy and Influence

Through our research and communication functions, we aim to develop a strong voice that influences policy and advocates effectively for sustaining and strengthening arts and cultural learning for children and young people. Our work includes taking steps to increase the influence of excellent cultural learning champions across the ROHBridge region.

4.Young Cultural Leaders

Our fourth and final priority changes annually. In 2014-15 it is focused on the development of Young Cultural Leaders. In 2015-16, the priority will shift to digital engagement and outdoor arts as support for young cultural leaders becomes embedded in our wider work.

What is Arts Award?

Arts Award is a range of unique qualifications that support anyone up to 25 grow as artists and arts leaders, inspiring them to connect with and take part in the wider arts world through taking challenges in an art form - from fashion to film making, pottery to poetry.

Through Arts Award young people gain a nationally recognised qualification enabling them to progress into further education and employment. Arts Award has five levels, four of which (Explore, Bronze, Silver, Gold) are accredited qualifications on the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). Arts Award Discover is an introductory level.

You can find out about Arts Award here If you would like help to develop embedding Arts Award into your proposal then please speak to our Arts Award programme manager, Jen Farrant

What is Artsmark?

Artsmark is Arts Council England’s flagship programme to enable schools and other organisations to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision. It is delivered by Trinity College London and 10 regional Bridge organisations drive participation.

Any school, college or youth justice organisation in England can apply for Artsmark.

To find out more visit . If you would like to discuss how this might support your proposed programme please contact our Artsmark programme manager