Education Minister and Ireland Education and Youth
Minister Helen McEntee have invited primary, post primary and
special schools to apply to take part in Creative Connections, a
pilot creative partnership programme.
Part of the Shared Island initiative on tackling educational
disadvantage, alongside the previously announced RAISE programme,
Creative Connections aims to promote collaboration, encourage
creativity and enhance educational outcomes for children impacted
by social disadvantage in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Building on the success of the Creative Schools Partnership
Programme in Northern Ireland and the BLAST (Bringing Live Arts
to Students and Teachers) and Creative Clusters initiatives in
Ireland, Creative Connections gives children and young people the
unique opportunity to work with creative practitioners, bringing
creativity and the arts directly into their learning.
It will provide creative and collaborative learning opportunities
for 20 schools in Northern Ireland and 20 schools in Ireland to
work together in clusters, enabling students to weave creativity
into their lives and learning.
Welcoming the launch, Minister Givan said: “Creative
Connections is an exciting opportunity to bring the
transformative power of creativity into our classrooms. The
programme provides invaluable learning opportunities for our
children and young people, enabling them to work directly with a
professional artist on a bespoke project.
“By working together across countries, we can create a
model of collaboration and innovation that benefits students,
teachers, and communities alike.”
Minister McEntee TD said: “The substantial funding under
the Shared Island Initiative for Creative Connections shows the
extent of the commitment in Ireland and Northern Ireland to
enabling creativity to flourish in education.
“Creative Connections will give schools across the island
a unique opportunity to share learning, practice and community
with each other through creativity. The programme will enable
children and young people to work together, to express themselves
through being creative and to have fun.”
Expressions of Interest will be open from 7th February to 27th
February. Please find link to guidelines for expressions of
interest and application form here: https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/publications/creative-connections
Schools can contact the Department of Education at teachereducation@education-ni.gov.uk
for further information.
Notes to editors:
- About Creative Connections - The pilot programme will see
schools work in clusters of four, with two schools from each
country collaborating on bespoke creative learning projects. Each
school will be paired with a professional creative practitioner,
involving 40 practitioners in total. Participating schools will
include primary, post-primary and special schools. Joint
professional learning for teachers and artists will begin in the
coming weeks, with school projects set to commence in the 2025/26
academic year. All schools in Northern Ireland are eligible to
apply. The Department would particularly encourage expressions of
interest from schools supporting pupils living in RAISE
localities and will endeavour to ensure representation in the
programme from all such localities.
- The Shared Island Initiative - The Shared Island initiative
harnesses the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to
enhance cooperation, connection and mutual understanding on the
island. The Shared Island initiative is backed by the Shared
Island Fund, for delivery of all-island investment commitments
and objectives in the Programme for Government and the National
Development Plan. As part of existing cooperation, the Department
of Education and Department of Education in Ireland are
developing and introducing a pilot cooperation programme on
educational underachievement, comprising elements on teachers'
research exchange, creativity in schools, and supports to address
educational underachievement - https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c3417-shared-island/
- The RAISE Programme - The RAISE initiative will deliver a
range of education support measures to help address educational
underachievement and tackle educational disadvantage through a
whole community and place-based approach which will operate in 15
areas across Northern Ireland. Through the Shared Island
initiative, the RAISE programme represents an investment of up to
€20 million over the next two years, with the potential for
further funding - https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/articles/raise-programme.
