Bi-monthly Newsletters for schools
Primary
Don’t miss out! Subscribe HERE to our regular newsletters for early notification of new opportunities as they arise. Every term there are a host of activities in and outside of school for your pupils and school community. From time to time our Arts Partners can provide one off opportunities and tickets for events, using our mailing list too.
Every edition is full of a wide range of connections and contacts to enhance classroom creativity.
Here's the latest June 2025 edition.
Secondary
Read the latest June 2025 newsletter for Secondary teachers wanting to connect with the city's arts and cultural organisations. This is for all staff and subject leaders to find out about provision and what’s on the horizon for future planning. It is particularly suitable for curriculum, personal development/citizenship, creative and senior leaders.
There are opportunities, CPD, performances and creative opportunities across the curriculum so please share widely.
Sign up HERE
2024-2025 Cultural Rucksack Wallplanner
Open up this year's Wallplanner - an interactive pdf with links to Child Friendly Nottingham resources and CPD booking links.
Drama, Literacy and Poetry
Story Valley - 4 modules
Story Valley - 4 modules
Story Valley - 4 modules
Story Valley
Free
Explore resources from the Story Valley Academy - there's a teachers guide and introductory video on the Story Valley website.
The learning materials are based on pilot projects that ran in colleges in Edinburgh, Ljubljana, Nottingham and Leeuwarden.
Game Changers
Story Valley - 4 modules
Story Valley - 4 modules
National Literacy Trust
Free
Game Changers is a 20-session reading programme specifically designed for excluded secondary students.
You can find a variety of resources as a pre-purchase sample of the programme.
Sample resources aim to demonstrate the ethos that underpins Game Changers – as well as to indicate its level, format and content.
If you are interested in running practical football sessions alongside the classroom resources, you can also see a video trailer for these sessions.
Represent
Story Valley - 4 modules
Artployment
National Literacy Trust
Ages 11-14
Free
The Represent programme is designed for girls aged 11 to 14 in alternative provision. Using engaging texts and with a strong oracy focus, this programme aims to support communication skills, resilience and wellbeing.
Building on Game Changers, the NLT's existing work in alternative provision settings, this new programme offers mainstream secondary schools and alternative provision settings the chance to support girls and young women who have been excluded from, or who are at risk of being excluded from, mainstream education.
Artployment
Exploring Nature, Locality and Change Making through the work of D.H. Lawrence
Artployment
Ages: 14+
City Arts
Hard copies available via City Arts.
PDF available online
City Arts have assembled a toolkit promoting entrepreneurship to young people looking to enter the arts.
Read through these accessible, clear and flexible activities that cover subjects including: Branding, Finances, Return on Investment & Networking.
Exploring Nature, Locality and Change Making through the work of D.H. Lawrence
Exploring Nature, Locality and Change Making through the work of D.H. Lawrence
Exploring Nature, Locality and Change Making through the work of D.H. Lawrence
Ages: KS2
Nottingham City Museum and Galleries
Digital Resource
The resource booklet includes three themes to explore with your class: The colour of Nature, Mapping your locality and Being a change maker. Each theme includes
• An introduction to the theme and how it relates to D.H. Lawrence
• Lesson plans using writing and visual arts to explore these themes using poems and extracts of writings by D.H. Lawrence
• Video guides which lead you through each writing activity
• A resources list and step by step guide to the lessons
• Curriculum links, plus supporting resources if you would like to develop these into a wider scheme of work.
These activities can be used as stand alone sessions or as part of a longer scheme of work. Each are aimed at KS2 classes but can be adjusted for younger or older age groups. To download and view other supporting materials click the link below.
Nottingham City Libraries for Schools
Exploring Nature, Locality and Change Making through the work of D.H. Lawrence
Exploring Nature, Locality and Change Making through the work of D.H. Lawrence
Nottingham City Libraries have a wealth of resources for schools. Their website is packed with things to do for school classes: free ebooks and audio books, links to great free story/author sites, plus artist led sessions, theatre productions including related online resources and more. You can book library visits to your nearest library. Children and staff are able to borrow reading books and non-fiction titles to take back to school and share stories, encouraging learning and reading for pleasure.
Heritage and History
City Museums and Galleries: Access Artefacts for Schools
Primary. The education loans service at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, ‘Access Artefacts’, has a collection of over 11,000 museum objects, all suitable for handling and available to use in the classroom. The collection covers a wide range of themes including social history, archaeology, geology, industrial history, the natural sciences and many others.
Art and Design
Lift Off: The Harley Art Framework
Make Nottingham Contemporary Your Classroom
Make Nottingham Contemporary Your Classroom
Ages 3 to 11. A resource designed to support teaching art in primary school. It provides developmental guidelines and art lesson ideas across the 3 to 11 age range.
The approach is based on a simple idea: That art is a visual language
Make Nottingham Contemporary Your Classroom
Make Nottingham Contemporary Your Classroom
Make Nottingham Contemporary Your Classroom
Suitable for all ages and abilities.
Bring Nottingham Contemporary’s exhibitions into your classroom through Virtual Reality. Free resources explore activism and women’s role in protest, the foundations of art – colour, line, shape, pattern and light, as well as fashion and performance. Access VR versions of our exhibitions here. Please email for more information.
Creative Schools Network
Make Nottingham Contemporary Your Classroom
Creative Schools Network
The Creative Schools Network was developed to support East Midlands schools to share ideas and expertise, profile excellent practice, and offer free training and workshops for those with responsibility for ensuring arts and culture thrive in educational settings. It's FREE to join.
NSEAD Resources
Cultural Learning Alliance
Creative Schools Network
Cultural Learning Alliance
Cultural Learning Alliance
Cultural Learning Alliance
The Cultural Learning Alliance champions a right to arts and culture for every child. They act as a backbone organisation for the arts and cultural education sector, and provide the analysis, evidence, and arguments that Alliance members and their wider sectors can use.
Creative Careers
Film Hub Midlands
Film Hub Midlands
Film Hub Midlands
Helping young people break into the film industry
From the tailored development workshops of BAFTA Connect to the BFI Film Academy short courses and everything else in between, Film Hub Midlands is a treasure trove of resources and opportunities for young creatives who aspire to a career in the TV and Film industries.
Discover!
Film Hub Midlands
Film Hub Midlands
For all young people with dreams of a creative career
Explore different industries and a variety of creative opportunities, apprenticeships and advice.
The Television Workshop
Young Creatives Nottingham
Young Creatives Nottingham
The TV Workshop that has launched numerous careers
The Television Workshop is a BAFTA award winning drama group and TV casting resource with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. Founded in 1983, and a registered charity since 2012, the group is based in Nottingham.
Young Creatives Nottingham
Young Creatives Nottingham
Young Creatives Nottingham
From workshops to awards and beyond
In addition to the annual awards event, The YCAs, Young Creatives Nottingham facilitates a blend of educational and vocational activities including work placements, learning workshops, training and mentoring opportunities within creative industries. In doing so, we help to a creative network of local talent and build pathways into creative careers.
Physical and Mental Wellbeing
A free guide: Wellbeing, Creativity and Young People
A free guide: Wellbeing, Creativity and Young People
A free guide: Wellbeing, Creativity and Young People
A free guide for Education Professionals
Created for education professionals – supporting students in the midst and aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic – this free guide explores the relationship between learning and wellbeing. It considers the positive impact of creativity on children and young people’s ‘learning brains’ and how this can help to strengthen young people’s wellbeing and resilience. The guide also includes a series of practical and creative activities that educators can use in the classroom.
The approach is based on a simple idea: That art is a visual language.
Download here
Achieve Well, Nottingham Healthy Child website
A free guide: Wellbeing, Creativity and Young People
A free guide: Wellbeing, Creativity and Young People
Nottingham Healthy Child Vision
The Achieve Well team want all children in Nottingham to be healthy in mind and body. We are committed to creating a city where every child thrives physically, mentally, and emotionally in order to achieve their full potential. Our vision for the Nottingham Healthy Child, created with children and adults, aligns with Nottingham City Council's commitment to become a Child Friendly City. The Achieve Well team encourage all schools in the City to commit to the Nottingham Healthy Child vision.