Welcome to ChalleNGe Nottingham
ChalleNGe is a city-wide partnership of arts organisations, schools and young people. We collaborate to engage more children and young people in shaping arts, cultural and creative opportunities in schools and communities.
Contact cathy@challengenottingham.co.uk to join, share news, find opportunities and connect!
Families - creative activities
Families - creative activities
Families - creative activities
Discover organisations and groups that offer creative activities for children and young people in the city. Why not try something new? There are arts groups, dance classes, youth theatre and music opportunities all year around - to name but a few!
Read the OCTOBER HALF TERM Parents and Carers newsletter to see a host of creative activities for children, young people and families!
Teachers - connect with us
Families - creative activities
Families - creative activities
Interested in bringing more creativity to your classroom, or wanting to develop new opportunities for your pupils? From teacher events and CPD to long-term partnerships, ChalleNGe brings you regular updates and boosts your creative connections. 2024/25 Wallplanner
November bi-monthly enewsletter for Nottingham teachers: Primary newsletter and Secondary newsletter.
Latest News and Opportunities
Nottingham City of Literature: Share your thoughts
Make a Voice Box for your school or community group
Nottingham City of Literature: Share your thoughts
Nottingham City of Literature: Survey (Deadline Tues 31 Dec 2024)
Nottingham has been a UNESCO City of Literature since 2015. In 2025, it will be 10 years old.
Can you help shape the future of Nottingham as a City of Literature?
Words can empower young people, inspire new audiences, create international literary opportunities, and bring Nottingham’s UNESCO city of literature designation to life.
Click on the link and take 5 minutes to complete this survey for your chance to win a goodie bag worth £60!
Thanks!
https://forms.gle/7debCS5hK4hVfwnc8
Young people's views of Nottingham
Make a Voice Box for your school or community group
Nottingham City of Literature: Share your thoughts
Child Friendly Nottingham: Survey
(Deadline: Fri 21 Feb 2025)
Nottingham is working towards being recognised as a Child Friendly City. This means that the city is committed to improving the lives of children and young people within the city by fulfilling children’s rights as articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
To do this Nottingham needs to know what anyone under 19 who lives, works or studies in the city thinks and experiences now.
Please share these links and find ways to help your pupils and young people complete this 10-minute survey. Thank you!
Primary Age: Complete the Survey HERE
Secondary Age: Complete the Survey HERE
Post 16 Age (16-18) Complete the Survey HERE
Make a Voice Box for your school or community group
Make a Voice Box for your school or community group
Make a Voice Box for your school or community group
Child Friendly Nottingham
Voice Box Project
The Child Friendly Nottingham team want to support schools to promote pupil voice through engaging and creative Voice Boxes.
A Voice Box is a fun, uniquely designed post box to encourage pupils to share thoughts, ideas and feedback. is anticipated school leaders will respond to letters demonstrating that children’s views are taken seriously.
Make your Voice Box in any material you choose. There is also an option for schools to submit a character/front panel design that can be cut out of wood (£110) or cardboard (£85) for schools to decorate (Max size: 4ft x 4ft). Full instructions available.
Contact: Cathy.mahmood@ntu.ac.uk or Heidi.shewell-cooper@ntu.ac.uk for more information or to book a Voice Box.
For Teachers:
Culturemeets - Jan 2025
A-Z Directory for schools
A-Z Directory for schools
We bring teachers and arts professionals together for a termly online network called CultureMeets. We begin with 5min presentations from arts organisations about their upcoming exhibitions, workshops and resources before a themed discussion. See all past Culturemeets here.
Watch the Sept Primaries culturemeet
and book your place for the next ones in January 2025
Primary Tuesday 21 January 4-5pm
Secondary Thursday 23 January 4-5pm
A-Z Directory for schools
A-Z Directory for schools
A-Z Directory for schools
Nottingham's Cultural Rucksack encourages the development of high quality partnerships between arts, cultural and heritage providers and schools - embedding a range of rich and diverse experiences to bring your curriculum to life.
Nottingham's schools are signing up to become 'Cultural Rucksack schools' - supporting their pupils to feel connected and valued by their city. Find out more about becoming a CR school here.
Creativity Collaboratives
A-Z Directory for schools
Creativity Collaboratives
Nottingham's Creativity Collaboratives programme has involved 12 schools exploring and embedding approaches around 'Teaching for Creativity' over the last 3 years. Watch our Yr 3 FILM
Find out more about the Creative Practitioners and read our latest case studies.
See the Creativity Exchange website and Leading for Creative Thinking website for inspiration, links and resources.
City-wide collaborative projects
Art of Belonging
Child Friendly Nottingham
Celebrating Languages
Art of Belonging is a city-wide programme that seeks to welcome refugees and asylum seekers in Nottingham. The Art of Belonging Pledge has now been signed by 14 arts organisations and we have a growing network of creative practitioners who are being supported to facilitate sessions with new arrivals. From partnership projects with NEST (the Nottingham Education Sanctuary team) and arts venues, to the Refugee Roots regular creative programme and collaborations with Nottingham Playhouse, NAE and more - there are many ways you can support this work and get involved.
Celebrating Languages
Child Friendly Nottingham
Celebrating Languages
We're delighted to be working in partnership with schools, communities, arts partners and our two Universities to celebrate our diverse languages and dialects in Nottingham.
Thanks to funding from NTU, 8 partnership projects have been supported to explore new partnerships between arts organisations, schools and community groups to highlight and celebrate Languages within their work.
We are also excited to be the Community partner for a Co(l)laboratory and welcome Jack Benjamin as our PhD researcher.
Child Friendly Nottingham
Child Friendly Nottingham
Child Friendly Nottingham
Child Friendly Nottingham is a city-wide partnership programme to put children's rights into practice. Lots of organisations are supporting children and young people to have a meaningful say in local decisions, services and spaces. Training and resources from UNICEF are available for teams and organisations to get involved.
Over 9000 children and young people collaborated to choose 3 'badges' (areas to focus on) which are: Safe and Secure; Education & Learning and Healthy. 'Equal and included is the golden thread, linking all our work together.
RSE Day
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
Child Friendly Nottingham
Every year, we work in partnership with Catherine Kirk from Nottingham City Council on developing a collaborative schools project and resources for RSE day - a national celebration of RSE (Relationships and Sex Education). This year, the theme was 'Embracing Change' and we commissioned illustrator Hannah Sawtell to run schools workshops and design 6 postcards that were distributed to every school in the city. Check out the new website the Achieve Well Team, led by Catherine Kirk.
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
Connecting Notts is a Young Creatives Network - that brings together 16-15 year olds from ChalleNGe arts and community Partners to regularly meet, influence and plan events for young people.
Facilitated by ChalleNGe and Upstart Projects (who also run Voice Mag) members of Connecting Notts meet monthly (usually Mondays from 5-7pm) and plan 4 events a year for young people across the city, to better connect, network and shape arts opportunities for young people.
Bulwell Arts Festival
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
We believe that art opportunities should be on every child's doorstep, in neighbourhoods, schools and parks - as well as within the fabulous arts venues of our city. So we have been delighted to work in close partnership with Bulwell Arts Festival (hosted by One Vision Partnership) and Bilborough Arts Festival over the years - supporting local creative activities in community centres, schools and libraries in the run up to their annual Art festivals. Huge congratulations to Nicola Curzon and the OVP team on a fabulous Bulwell Arts Festival 2024. We love working with you!
