RSE Day 2021
The theme of this year’s RSE Day is ‘Faces’. Once again, there will be a national livestream featuring Nottingham artists, as well as content from around the country. Each artist will set a challenge for children and young people to work on and submit, linked to healthy relationships. There will also be the great RSE Day assembly to start the day off. Are you planning a special celebration in your setting? Let us know, email us, or on social media @challengenottm. We’d love to give you a shout-out on the live stream. You can register your involvement and receive more details about this year’s RSE Day. Keep up to date with any news, resources and updates about RSE Day on our website.
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Cultural Rucksack Update
The last few months has seen the Cultural Rucksack continue to develop and grow. The outcomes of meetings with school staff and arts and cultural providers across the City have shaped the development. The key points are outlined below:
From Schools
- A clear ‘core’ offer from providers enabling schools to integrate any offer into their curriculum design
- A Cultural Map of Nottingham to show where provision is located
- Promoting the ‘Core Offer’ through the ChalleNGe website and bi-monthly newsletters, including additional seasonal or date specific offers developed by providers
- A Wall Planner to summarise key dates and provider offers
- The development of ‘ArtsMeet’ events to introduce schools to providers
- Identify public places to exhibit Art
- Develop an ‘Arts and Cultural entitlement for all children and young people in the City’
- Develop an Arts and Cultural Education audit for schools, linked to Artsmark
- Develop a template Arts Education Policy or schools to use, this could also reference cultural education.
- Develop and build on existing support ‘hubs’ for schools.
From Providers
- Develop a greater understanding of how their provision can better serve the City schools in the delivery of their curriculum
- Develop a greater collaborative way of working with schools
- Look to develop longer term relationships with individual schools
This work will be underpinned by a pledge that both schools and providers can make.
The next Cultural Rucksack TeachMeet will take place on Monday 14th June, 3.45-5.00pm, book your place here.
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Date Specific Opportunities for Primary Schools
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Become a Primary Partner of Nottingham Playhouse
The Playhouse will work with up to five Nottingham or Nottinghamshire primary schools through a two-year period to embed drama and performance across all areas of the curriculum. Primary Partners will benefit from free visits to Nottingham Playhouse productions, backstage tours, teacher training, collaborative planning, school production support, the potential to work towards Artsmark status, and more. Find out more and apply to become one of the first Primary Partners of Nottingham Playhouse here or email. Applications must be made before 5pm on 21 May.
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Nottinghamshire's Lost Words
Natalie Braber, Professor of Linguistics from Nottingham Trent University, has received Arts Council funding for a project which aims to engage school children with local language and dialect. Supported by local artist, Hannah Sawtell and poet, Andrew Graves, they will be running workshops with local schools in July. This project aims to have an empowering and inspiring effect on young participants, using dialect to engage with poetry and illustration. The work produced will tour 6 Nottinghamshire Inspire libraries. To find out more please email.
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Sky Mirror Creative Writing Competition
The Sky Mirror at Nottingham Playhouse turns 20 years old this year. That’s 20 years of turning the universe upside down and giving an alternate perspective on the world. To celebrate, Nottingham Playhouse and Nottingham City of Literature are launching a competition for all budding writers. They would like to see poetry, non-fiction and short stories inspired by the Sky Mirror. There are fantastic prizes including theatre tickets and book tokens. Visit the website for more information.
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The Plesiosaur's Neck - Read On Nottingham's live Storytime
Thurs 27 May 2021 10.00am
Join local authors Jonathan Emmett and Dr Adam S Smith introducing and reading their brand new book at a live virtual event. The competition for children to draw a picture of the Plesiosaur, explaining what they think the Plesiosaur's neck was for, will also be launched at the event. Winners will receive a copy of the book, a dinosaur stationery set and a Read On Nottingham book bundle. Find out more about The Plesiosaur’s Neck and download an activity sheet on the website. Suitable for yeas 1 - 4. To register for the event email Read On Nottinham.
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Summer Mondays at New Art Exchange
FREE gallery workshops for Primary and Secondary schools. NAE are so eager to see school students back in the galleries that they are offering four free workshops for four classes from different schools, on a first come, first served basis. To guarantee covid-safe practice these will take place on Mondays when the gallery is closed to the general public. Get in touch to book a place.
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Aidy The Awesome
27 May at 9.30am. Online Event
Aidy is a normal 8 year old girl…or so she thinks! One day she discovers a family secret that changes everything. Aidy and her granny embark on an adventure that turns their world upside down. They even begin to question what normal is. After all, who wants to be normal when you can be SUPER! Teachers will receive a free superhero activity pack to help release the inner superhero of every child. Activities that promote self-esteem, keeping active and looking out for others. Get in touch for more information.
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Smart Transition Programme
Launches 7 June 2021
Help Year 6 pupils feel prepared for Year 7 with fun SMART activities. The activities have been created by the Nottingham Emmanuel School and are based on the book SMART by Kim Slater, a fantastic book set in Nottingham that pupils from at least six City schools will be reading together in their Year 7 tutor groups. Don't read the book yet, just download the tasks and follow the activities (with help from Kim Slater herself!) to help you get to know the book.
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Mat Collishaw Exhibition at Lakeside Arts
18 May – 5 September 202
Mat Collishaw rose to prominence in the 1990s as one of the defining generation of Young British Artists alongside his contemporaries Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas. Featuring his 2016 installation Albion – a ghostly apparition of the Major Oak – and The Centrifugal Soul, this is the first major exhibition of Collishaw’s work to be mounted in the city of his birth. Find out more: Lakeside website.
Zoetrope workshop, the life cycle of plants
Explore the Mat Collishaw exhibition at Lakeside, find out about early forms of animation and create your own optical illusion spinners in response to the exhibition. The group will then find out about the lives of plants and create a simple zoetrope animation to illustrate their findings. Suitable for KS1-2
Modelling Mini Beasts
Take inspiration from artwork in the Mat Collishaw exhibition then learn about mini-beasts and birds found in the environment at Highfields Park. Create clay creatures such as butterflies and beetles to take back to school and create a Mat Collishaw inspired installation in the classroom. Suitable for KS 1-2
Contact Lakeside to find out more.
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Lakeside Arts: Florence Nightingale Comes Home
20 May - 05 September
This exhibition sheds a new light on the Lady with the Lamp.
Historic Scenes
Using a mix of fabric and card, create flat card props to help tell the story of Florence, or other strong women or men from history. Thinking about gestures, create a tableau where the children need to focus on their physical positioning, body language and facial expression. Suitable for KS1 – KS2
Lady with the Lamp: Lamp Making
Visit the Florence Nightingale exhibition and explore her life and her influence on nursing, social reform and more. Learn about her dedication to round the clock care for patients, which led to her being known as “The Lady with the Lamp”. Celebrate the achievements of Florence by crafting simple lamps to take back to school. Suitable for KS1 – KS2
To find out more about the schools workshops please contact Lakeside.
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Lakeside Arts ‘The Eye as Witness: Recording the Holocaust' exhibition
Until 6 June. Free. A Digital Resource
We are all familiar with photos of the Holocaust, but who took these images? How does photography dictate our reading and understanding of WW2? Using cutting-edge technologies, a mixed-reality experience enables students to enter an immersive, virtual environment to explore Nazi photography. Themes of the show link to current themes such as, Black Lives Matter and Fake News. Resources are available for a fully digital experience, which can be accessed by students learning from home. Suitable for ages 9+. Contact Lakeside for more information.
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Discover The Amazing Trees In Wollaton Park
Meet some of Wollaton’s magnificent trees, learn to identify them and take a closer look at their leaves, flowers, bark and seeds as well as the animal life that lives on and around them. Fun practical science activities including measuring trees, comparing leaf shapes and bark patterns and finding out what woodlice like. You’ll see species of trees whose ancestors lived at the same time as dinosaurs and relatives of the tallest and oldest trees in the world.
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Lakeside Storytelling Sessions
Bring literacy to life with Lakeside Art’s storytelling sessions. Children are encouraged to join in the story using their imagination, props, and costumes. Using traditional oral storytelling skills pupils can explore themes, characters of traditional tales and myths. Suitable for EYFS, KS1, KS2. Email for more information.
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MoveMore
MoveMore offers a selection of videos and creative tasks which can be done in the classroom or at home and helps address the problem of limited space. MoveMore is made up of short 5 to 15 minute videos or tasks you can incorporate into lesson plans or use to wake up bodies and get the mind thinking creatively. Find out more on the Dance4 website.
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Lift Off: The Harley Art Framework
The Harley Art Framework is 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. It has its own equivalent of words and grammar. In the case of art these are visual qualities. The ones being emphasised in the Harley Art Framework are Line, Shape, Form, Structure, Colour, Pattern, Texture, Proportion, Scale and Space.
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Get involved at Nottingham Playhouse
The Playhouse has a host of inspiring opportunities for primary school pupils to explore and connect with the world around them. Visit Nottingham Playhouse to see one of the shows or arrange a bespoke workshop with their experienced team at your school. They would love to work with you and your pupils. Find out more on the website.
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Book a backstage tour of Nottingham Playhouse
Give your students the opportunity to see what it’s like behind the scenes of Nottingham Playhouse, to understand the various roles in theatre and see the teams at work. Led by a member of the Participation Team, students will hear from professionals about what they do day-to-day and how their role contributes towards the productions. Find out more on the website or email.
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Schools ticket deals for Nottingham Playhouse performances
Discounts on school bookings will be available for productions of ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Red Riding Hood’ and the pantomime shows from this Autumn. In Spring 2022, ‘Red Riding Hood’ will also be touring primary schools. Please email for more information.
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My Black Identity Packs
Our Black Identity packs contain images and creative and educational media contents with hard copies, online and mobile device participation coupled with online based response and engagement platform. Fearless Youth Association are offering young people a chance to display their creativity an online exhibit, celebrating what their blackness means to them. The aim of this exhibit is for them to share their thoughts and feelings around identity.
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Shhh...akespeare!
An interactive performance/workshop for Key Stage 2 that can be experienced online or live in school. Shhh...akespeare! excites intrigued minds to explore the characters, narrative and language of Britain's most celebrated writer and breaks down barriers to understanding and enjoying the Bard's brilliance. A condensed Macbeth followed by fun reading, writing, acting, crafting and quizzing activities led by award winning Nottingham based Theatre Company, New Perspectives. For more information please email.
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Music In Nottingham Project
Did you know Nottingham is one of the most diverse cities in the country? We have an exciting mix of different cultures and each culture has its own music. To celebrate these rich musical traditions, Nottingham Music Hub have launched an exciting project called Music in Nottingham! They'd like you to share the music that is important to you, by interviewing your friends and family, or by sharing your videos and pictures. Details of how to get involved are on the NMH website.
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Exploring Diversity Through Art
The New Art Exchange’s Associate Artists have been devising dynamic art activity ideas for young people. They are now accessible for teachers, parents and young people to download from the NAE website.
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National Justice Museum re-opening for on-site school visits from 17 May
The museum provides award-winning, unique, curriculum-linked learning for children and young people in real courtroom settings, including at the historic Nottingham Museum. The Museum was once the site of Nottingham assizes and County Gaol. School visits to the Museum offer optimum learning experiences. Educational visits are suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities. Find out more about sessions and book your visit in advance on the NJM website..
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Blended workshops available at the National Justice Museum
The National Justice Museum is offering blended learning workshops to schools unable to visit their site. Working with you, their expert facilitators will deliver live, interactive learning into your classroom. Workshops are held via Zoom and Teams, and can even be delivered to students at home if your school has temporarily closed. It’s a simple process, and their facilitators will support you every step of the way with preparatory information and activities.. Find out more about sessions and book on the NJM website.
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Crime and Punishment Through Time Online Workshop
The National Justice Museum’s expert facilitators bring the museum to your classroom with this online workshop.
- Discover the history of Nottingham County Gaol
- Hear from infamous historical characters
- Explore some of our fascinating objects
- Examine the changes in prisons and punishments through time
Suitable for KS2. Find out more on the website.
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Motivational Mornings
Freedom Foundation deliver their Motivational Morning sessions as one-off assemblies, a series of sessions or as a programme of sessions for a small group of handpicked students. Using singing, song writing and movement, Motivational Mornings help students learn the importance of 'Facing the day in a positive way'. Students are taught tips and techniques on how to manage anxiety and takeaway the Motivational Morning Toolkit. This programme has demonstrated a positive outcome on attendance, behaviour, achievement and attitude. Can be delivered digitally and physically. More information can be seen here, or please email or call 0115 933 2370.
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Freedom Factory
Freedom Foundation deliver their 12 week Freedom Factory sessions in school time or as an after-school club. Using street dance and hip-hop, singing and song writing their 90 minute sessions with up to 30 children build confidence, resilience and aspiration, educate about the impact of social media on mental health and help children cope with common mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, depression and self-harm. Foundation programmes have a positive impact on curriculum and PHSE outcomes and can support PPE time. More information can be seen here, or for more information please email or call 0115 933 2370.
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Nottingham City Libraries for Schools
Nottingham City Libraries have a wealth of resources for schools. The brand new 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. They also hope to be able to welcome back class visits to the library soon. 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.
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Access Artefacts
Access Artefacts is the handling collection for Nottingham City Museums and Galleries. It contains objects covering a range of themes including social history, archaeology, geology, industrial history and the natural sciences. With over 11,000 museum artefacts available to loan, this is one of the most comprehensive heritage and educational services available in the country. Find out more on the website or contact 0115 876 1420 or email.
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Area Band
Area Bands are beginner orchestral groups open to young people in city schools that have a Whole Class Ensemble or In Harmony programme in collaboration with Nottingham Music Hub. These bands are ideal for pupils (usually Year 5) who have completed one year of instrumental learning. Rehearsals are currently online, and they would love to welcome new members. Details of what's involved and how to enrol are on the NMH website.
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Active Recovery Hub
A new Active Recovery Hub has launched to provide schools, local authorities, and families with easy access to a central hub of more than 250 fun, free, inclusive activity resources to get children and young people moving before, during and after the school day. The hub will also be a useful tool to help with the planning of summer schools and holiday activity programme delivery. Find out more on the website.
Keep up to date with any new resources on offer the Resources section of the ChalleNGe website.
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Opportunities for Teachers, CPD and Networking
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Sign Up to Story Valley
Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature are looking for teachers, language enthusiasts, creatives, and/or people who work with refugees and asylum seekers to get involved in a new project, Story Valley, which launches in July 2021. It’s designed to enable students to explore literature written in languages other than English, develop creative literacy skills, and meet exceptional writers from Europe and beyond. The objectives of the project are to stimulate students to read, write, and speak in different languages and to use their creativity to translate oral history so that they can strengthen their literacy and language skills in a natural, non-formal way. If you’re interested please complete this form.
Music Leads Network Meeting
Tuesday 25 May, 3.30 - 5.00pm, using Microsoft Teams. Free.
The meeting is free to attend, and open to Music Leads and any other interested colleagues, The main focus of the meeting will be the new Model Music Curriculum. Places must be booked in advance.
Experimenting With Core Art Principles And Using Online Resources With Nottingham Contemporary’s Virtual Reality Exhibitions
Thursday 10 June, 1.30 – 4.00pm
A Nottinghamshire Creative Schools Network free CPD online session, in partnership with Nottingham Contemporary, focusing on visual art and design and technology. Charlotte Tupper, Associate Artist at Nottingham Contemporary, will run a practical workshop for KS1-2 experimenting with light and other important formal elements of art education including colour, shape, form and space. The Mighty Creatives’ Nottinghamshire Creative Schools Network is relevant for all Primary Staff in the Arts. Sign up for the session.
Printmaking CPD online session
Tuesday 6 July, 3.30-5.30pm.
Join us for a practical printmaking CPD online session supported by The Harley Gallery. More details will be released soon at The Mighty Creatives website or contact the Mighty Creatives.
Keep up to date with all CPD, training and networking activities using the Calendar of Events on the ChalleNGe website.
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In the Curiosity Project, pupils come up with questions that they're curious about and are paired with researchers and scientists who have expertise in that topic area. Pupils work with the researchers to conduct their own scientific investigation and receive CREST awards for their projects.
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The Mighty Creatives run a series of sessions to support your Artsmark Journey and deliver Arts Awards in school. Here are the upcoming dates:
Artsmark Development Day: Online Session
Wednesday 19 May Read more
Tuesday 15 June Read more
Artsmark Planning for Evidencing the Impact: Online Support Session
Thursday 20 May Read more
Artsmark ‘Stay Connected’ Support session
Tuesday 8 June Read more
Artsmark Statement of Impact: Online Support Session
Thursday 17 June Read more
Arts Award
Arts Award is a range of unique qualifications that supports anyone aged up to 25 to 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 digital art, pottery to poetry. Find out more on the Arts Award website.
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Opportunities outside of school will be detailed in a separate newsletter that'll be published in the next few weeks. Parents, Carers and Teachers will be able to sign up to receive it. You can also visit our Activities for Children web page to find out more about opportunities and activities outside of school.
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Can you spare one minute?
Please help us to review how we communicate with teachers by completing a four question short survey, it takes less than a minute! Thank you.
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Please share this newsletter with your colleagues and please add yourself to our mailing list to receive the newsletter bi-monthly by clicking on the link below.
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