‘Return to School’ Arts Award Support fund

The ‘Return to School’ Arts Award Support Fund provides grants of up to £1000 to schools and education settings, currently registered as Arts Award Centres, with trained advisers to support them to pilot, embed or develop Arts Award and creative activity during the current challenging climate.

The Covid-19 emergency has required us to ask, ‘what is a post-Covid-19 world going to look like?’ We are in a period of huge change and the current crisis is having a significant impact on schools and our regions’ children and young people. There are many questions to consider and changes to be made. The Mighty Creatives wants to support creative activity, involving Arts Award, within the Education sector in these challenging times. Creativity is essential in supporting the wellbeing and mental health of both pupils and staff and we want to help ensure the continued inclusion of arts and creativity in school.

It is expected that the young people you work with through this grant will successfully complete their Arts Award through this fund. Meaning completing a successful moderation for Explore, Bronze, silver or Gold levels and submitting names to Trinity for Discover certification.

Who is eligible?

We welcome applications from schools who are currently Arts Award Centres or at least have a trained adviser within your setting. You can be at any point along your Arts Award delivery journey. You must:

• Have at least 1 trained Arts Award Adviser within school
• Be an Arts Award Centre
• Be able to complete moderation by an agreed date for the level and young people you are working with
• Participate in a 121 support session and provide TMC with updates along your delivery journey
• Provide us with an end-point report (including completing out collective outcomes tool which helps us monitor equal opportunity data of the beneficiaries) or attend a digital end-point meeting
• Provide equal opportunities data regarding your organisation and your staff.  You will also be required to provide equal opportunities data regarding any beneficiaries of the work as part of your end point report.  Templates will be provided to assist with this process.

We welcome joint applications from schools and individual artists/organisations who plan to work together to deliver as part of this funding.

How much can you apply for?

Schools can apply for a grant of up to £1000. Value for money will be considered when assessing applications. We will also consider the level of planned delivery, amount of young people involved, requirements of the young people involved and the individual plan of each school to develop and move forward with Arts Award during the current challenging climate.

We will also provide each school with a ‘121 support session’ with an Arts Award specialist during delivery, to help with any challenges, discuss progress and provide support along this journey.

What can I use the grant for?

The grant can be spent on the following:

• Discover certificate costs and moderation costs at Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold levels
• Fees for workshops with a specialist or professional
• Arts Award Advisor training for additional staff at any level
• Additional adviser/staff time not already covered in school
• Materials and resources

You will be expected to set your own deadline for completion of your supported activity and will be asked to provide an end-point evaluation. All activity must be completed by 30^th July 2021.

You will need to clearly articulate the key outputs of accessing this fund.

You will also be expected to include moderation or certification costs in your predicted budget, even if you plan to use separate funds for this later. Without this, it’s not clear how you will enable young people to achieve their Arts Award.

If you are applying for the maximum grant amount, you will be expected to deliver a minimum number of awards against certain levels:

Discover: Minimum of 50 awards

Explore: Minimum of 30 awards

Bronze: Minimum of 20 awards

For other levels and grant amounts requested, we will take into consideration the amount of young people when assessing your application.

NB These numbers are guidance, if you feel your organisation has other considerations (e.g. working in a SEN setting or a small school) please get in touch with us. The number on your application will be included in your grant agreement with The Mighty Creatives.

More information on certification and moderation costs can be found here.

How do I apply?

To apply for this fund please download and complete the application form below. Return it to us at: artsaward@mightycreatives.streamstudio2.co.uk by 4^th December 2020.

If you have any questions about this offer or wish to speak to someone within the Arts Award team for any further information, you can reach us on 0116 2616 834.