Education Minister Paul Givan 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.
Schools can contact the Department of Education at teachereducation@education-ni.gov.uk for further information.
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.
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.