The TIME Project

TIME Extended aims to explore ways of empowering schools to develop and support their arts provision and ways of embedding the arts across the curriculum, to help inspire learning and attain higher levels of academic achievement.

In Year One of the TIME Project, our Year 6 children and teachers have collaborated with professional dramatists, artists, and musicians to enrich creativity across the curriculum. Throughout the year, pupils engaged in dynamic workshops that combined storytelling, visual arts, music, and movement, allowing them to develop new skills and deepen their understanding of cultural expression.

The project culminated in a vibrant Brazilian Carnival celebration, where pupils brought their learning to life through lively Samba drumming, energetic dance routines, and the creation of colourful costumes, masks, and puppets. This immersive experience not only showcased their creativity but also promoted teamwork, cultural appreciation, and confidence.

In the second year of the TIME Project, our children and teachers in Years 2 and 4 continued to be inspired by the creativity at the heart of the programme. Working closely with skilled dramatists, artists, and musicians, they enhanced their curriculum through hands-on workshops and collaborative projects. These sessions encouraged pupils to explore new artistic techniques and express themselves creatively while making meaningful connections across different subjects. The involvement of professional artists helped bring learning to life, fostering enthusiasm, confidence, and a deeper understanding of the topics studied.

What?

Following a pilot with Queen Eleanor Primary Academy in Northampton, HMDT Music is working with 6 schools across Lancashire for three years to:

• Empower teachers to embrace HMDT Music’s methodology of embedding activities across the curriculum using a combination of CPD training through artists’ workshops and delivery, leading to them being able to plan, develop and implement arts-based cross-curricular learning;
• Build a coherent skills resource bank which can be shared amongst schools and leave a legacy beyond the duration of the project;
• Further explore and validate the perceived link between such projects and ways of working and a rise in academic achievement as identified in the pilot model above;
• Expand the role of teachers as owners of the creative and delivery process as well as that of the students and us (and other arts organisations), without increasing pressure in the current education environment;
• Establish successful working partnerships with local educational organisations to develop a replicable model for regional roll-out and determine that the same methods are transferable in a variety of schools, localities and settings.

How?

Each school will receive a combination of training and delivery sessions working with artists in a range of genres including music, art (including film, photography, design) and drama. The aim is to build up skills of the staff across three years by training two teachers each year.

• In term 1, those teachers will receive a combination of whole class delivery sessions by artist specialists in each of art, music, and drama, building skills to embed activities across the curriculum which will be followed up by CPD training to reflect and consolidate skills learnt.
• In term 2, they will be encouraged to use the skills learnt, by leading their own arts based cross-curricular sessions in each of art, music and drama, for which they will receive specialist artist support. Again this work will be consolidated in CPD sessions.
• In term 3, the 2 teachers will develop their own mini projects in which they can access artist support to deliver sessions and explore new arts forms and ways of working.

Who?

The six participating schools are:

• Grange Primary, Preston
• Lytham Hall Park Primary School, Lytham St Anne’s
• St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, Preston
• St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Anderton
• St Wilfrid’s RC Primary School, Longridge
• Willow Lane Primary School, Lancaster

Partnerships

HMDT Music is working with:

• Heritage Learning Team of Lancashire County Council – project management
• More Music
• Burnley Youth Theatre
• Atelier Arts

We also aim to work with local and regional arts organisations and networks to assist with provision, build relationships (for the schools and us), develop a legacy and forums for sharing findings and dissemination of resources and learning.

Evaluation

Evaluation is at the core of TIME Extended and we are delighted to be working with external evaluator Colin Morley and the Centre for Research in Arts, Creativity and Literacy from the School of Education at Nottingham University, to set up, oversee and interpret a coherent framework for collecting evidence.

Head, Lytham Hall Park Primary School

The TIME project has awakened our school to the power of the arts and the importance of creativity within our curriculum. It has enabled our school to connect with inspiring artists, musicians and dramatists to support teachers in their approaches to planning and delivering high quality learning experiences. Incorporating the arts into our classes has seen an increase in our children’s motivation, engagement and self-esteem. The impact of this project is being felt across the school with renewed enthusiasm for the wider curriculum.