The Paul Hamlyn Foundation offers grants of up to £165,000 to partnerships of schools and arts organisations. The Teacher Development Fund enables teachers and artist practitioners to learn and work together in the primary classroom to deliver high-quality arts-based learning opportunities.
The focus is on pupils who experience systemic inequity by supporting them to access and make progress in their learning.
It aims to do this through supporting teachers and school leaders to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence and experience. There is a two-year professional learning programme for participating teachers as well as a requirement for the learning to be disseminated more widely to embed the approaches in colleagues’ practice and the curriculum.
Projects can involve any of the following art forms: crafts; creative writing, including poetry and spoken word; dance; design; film; music; opera; photography; digital arts and media; theatre and drama; the visual arts; and cross-arts practices. The foundation also welcomes applications supporting arts-based approaches in all subjects.
Partnerships can be formed between state-sector primary schools and arts organisations (charities, community organisations, social enterprises and not-for-profit companies active in the arts). Each partnership must include one or more arts/cultural organisations; a minimum of six and a maximum of ten schools should be involved in each project.
Focus of fund/fund aims:
Funding for partnerships of schools and arts organisations to deliver arts-based learning in primary schools
Application deadline:
12 November 2025