Art Fund Teacher Fellowship Program (United Kingdom)

Through fully funded secondments, the Teacher Fellowships programme will give secondary school teachers the opportunity to work part-time within a museum with a Clore Learning Space, supporting the museum to develop their learning offer, increase engagement with schools in their area, and enrich curriculum-learning in school.

The Teacher Fellowships programme will build on two key phases of research and development. The first was a year-long pilot for the Teacher Art Pass, which included research on the barriers that teachers face in accessing and engaging with museums. These barriers include: museum learning programmes that are not developed or pitched appropriately for specific curriculum age groups; a lack of clear signposting to the information that teachers need to arrange school visits; a lack of curriculum-linked school resources for teachers to explore with their pupils alongside a visit; a lack of teacher time to plan school trips and evidence the learning value to their Senior Leadership Team; and a lack of school resources to backfill roles and help facilitate school trips.

The Teacher Fellowships will give teachers the opportunity to work directly within museums part-time, utilising their expertise to support museums and schools to address these barriers and increase school engagement. The idea for the Teacher Fellowships was tested through their second phase of R&D, which has involved consultation with teachers, museum partners and education sector professionals. Whilst helping refine their plans for the programme, this period of consultation confirmed the need and demand for Teacher Fellowships, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from each of these stakeholder groups.

Funding Information

• Total Amount Per Fellowship: £61,750
• The cost of participating in the Teacher Fellowships programme will be fully funded by Art Fund. This will include the cost of recruiting the Teacher Fellows; the salary cost to backfill their roles part-time within their school; a training, CPD and travel budget for each teacher; and the cost of teacher accreditation with the Chartered Institute of Teachers. In addition, £4,000 will be provided to each host museum to support the cost of managing and hosting the Teacher Fellows; and a budget of £15,000 will be provided to support the Teacher Fellow and their host museum to build engagement with schools, support school visits, develop new learning resources, and deliver museum-led activities in school. Expenditure for each Fellowship will be overseen by the host museum.

Teacher Fellowships Structure

• The research and development phase for the programme has shown that part-time secondments are likely to be more appealing to the school partners, ensuring that the teacher’s connection to their school is maintained throughout their Fellowship, and making it easier to backfill the teacher’s time whilst they are working within their host museum. Whilst the Fellowships will provide a degree of flexibility to the school and museum partners, their suggested weekly structure for the participating teachers will be: two days working directly within their host museum; two days teaching as normal within their school; one day of flexible time for additional work to build school and museum partnerships, support school visits, develop resources etc.

Role of Teacher Fellows

• During their part-time secondment within their host museum, the Teacher Fellows will:
  • Support their host museum and its staff to develop and improve their learning offer, ensuring that it meets the needs of local schools.
  • Arrange and support school visits for both their school and other schools in their local area, across a range of age groups.
  • Build lasting and deep relationships between the host museum and schools in the local area.
  • Develop curriculum resources which highlight the relevancy of the host museum’s collection to different areas of the National Curriculum, encouraging school visits and ensuring that these are as beneficial and enriching as possible.
  • Ensure the practicalities of arranging a school visit are as simple as possible, e.g., by creating and providing template schoolbooking forms, risk assessments, parental permission forms etc.
  • Work with the host museum’s staff, curators and artists to design and deliver museum-led activities within their school, enhancing the school’s learning offer in return. This could include a range of in-school activities across different areas of the curriculum, including specialist talks from curators and museum professionals, and career coaching for pupils interested in working within the sector.
• For the Teacher Fellows, this opportunity will build new skills, expertise and leadership experience amongst a group of ambitious mid-career teachers, supporting their ongoing professional development and leadership potential. They are also in discussion with the Chartered Institute of Teaching to explore how the Fellowships could support a professional accreditation, cementing the long-term impact for the teachers involved.

Outcomes

• Their ambition is for the Teacher Fellowships to have a measurable impact on school engagement with museums, enriching the lives and educational experience of young people across the UK. Through the programme, they aim to achieve the following outcomes:
  • Outcomes for host museums: 
    • Host museums will have a stronger understanding of what teachers want and need, enabling them to develop their learning offer and increase their engagement with local schools.
    • Clore Learning Spaces will be enlivened through new activity and increased school visits.
  • Outcomes for schools and teachers:
    • Schools will have increased engagement with museums – including their collections, programmes and staff – enriching school learning.
    • Teacher Fellows will have greater skills and confidence in embedding creativity and museum learning within their teaching, supporting their own pedagogical learning and development.
  • Outcomes for young people:
    • Children will have access to an enriched and more relevant learning experience, strengthened by collaboration and partnership with museums.
    • Children from all backgrounds will feel more comfortable and confident in museums, providing them with a greater sense of ownership and increasing the likelihood that they will visit in the future.
  • Outcomes for the wider museum and education sectors:
    • Collaboration between museums and schools in shared geographical areas will be strengthened, with learning and resources exchanged nationally via the Teacher Art Pass network.

Participants and Beneficiaries

• Their initial target participants for the Fellowship posts will be secondary school teachers based in state schools, with fiveplus years in the profession. The ultimate beneficiaries of the programmes will be pupils in both their school and other schools within their region. They aim to ensure a representative geographical spread, benefiting museums, schools and young people across the UK.

Who can apply?

• They will consider applications from public museums with Clore Learning Spaces based anywhere in the UK.
• They are seeking host museums that are passionate about developing their learning offer and increasing their engagement with schools. Host museums will be asked to demonstrate how the project will enable them to undertake a step change in their learning provision and increase their engagement with schools.

For more information, visit Art Fund.