Major Museums and Arts Organisations to Partner With TES to Transform the Use of Cultural Resources in Education

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150323/735838-aINFO )
     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150323/735838-bINFO )

TES is joining forces with Ed Vaizey, Minister of Culture and the Digital Economy, together with the British Museum, the V&A, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Arts Council England to help put the arts at the heart of the classroom and also support the teaching of the core curriculum with a variety of world-class cultural and digital materials.

Research has shown that the study of the arts and humanities boosts broader academic achievement whilst at the same time enhancing positive civic values.*

The pilot has the potential to make a significant impact on the status of cultural education in the classroom by placing a wealth of digitised materials into the hands of teachers everywhere.

The partners have made a strategic commitment to work together from June to ensure that hundreds of thousands of images, videos, classroom resources, artist and maker's guides, archive film clips and celebrity interviews, professional development materials and lesson packs will be accessible through the TES Resources platform, the largest, busiest and fastest growing online classroom resource bank in the world. Over 1 million free and paid resources are currently downloaded from the platform by teachers on any given day.

Lord Puttnam, champion of the project, and Chair of TES's cross-party Advisory Board said: "At TES we believe that teachers are, and always have been the real experts in education. By placing this treasure trove of rich materials directly into the hands of the teaching community we can inspire successive generations of students, hopefully reversing an overall decline in the study, and therefore the impact of the arts."

Minister of Culture and the Digital Economy, Ed Vaizey said: "This campaign has phenomenal potential and lies at the core of our vision for the future of cultural education. It is driven by the needs of teachers who are increasingly using digital resources in the classroom alongside textbooks. The project will allow cultural partners to significantly extend their reach both nationally and internationally, as well as assess the impact of their work with young people."

About the project 

The pilot will go beyond the hosting of existing and new materials on the TES platform, focusing on increasing the quality and usefulness of cultural resources in schools. It will look at ways of curating bundles of resources around subject specialisms, for example Shakespeare, and testing directly the impact they make in the classroom through data and dialogue with teachers.

Each participating organisation will be focusing on a key area. The British Museum has an acclaimed object-based approach to teaching and learning and focuses on history from many perspectives; the Royal Shakespeare Company excels in theatre and performance-based explorations of Shakespeare texts and has highly regarded professional development resources for teachers; and the V&A specialises in art, design and many aspects of technology, with materials that act as 'rocket fuel' for illustrating creative processes and practice.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Musuem said, "The British Museum is committed to showing how object based learning can bring history to life, as we have recently demonstrated in the 'Teaching History with 100 Objects' project supported by the Department for Education. Our 100 resources which are based on fascinating objects from 40 museums across the UK will now be able to be part of TES Global in this extremely exciting new pilot project, as we seek to make a reality of our ambition to engage all children with museum objects which tell both local and global stories."

School Reform Minister Nick Gibb said: "Equipping young people with a core knowledge of our nation's past is an essential part of preparing them for life in modern Britain, and that is exactly what our reformed history curriculum is doing. The Teaching History with 100 Objects, developed by the British Museum brings the wonders of our past into the classroom and is an outstanding resource which can only help to deepen that knowledge. I am delighted that museum collections will be included in this cultural resources project."   

Catherine Mallyon, Executive Director and Gregory Doran, Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company, said: "Enabling greater access to our work for more teachers across the UK and around the world is hugely important to us. We know that Shakespeare has a very special place in the lives of young people not just in this country but in territories all over the world; our research with the British Council suggests that 50% of school children in the world study Shakespeare in any given year. TES is already a vital distribution channel for our resources and we are looking forward to growing the range of materials available to teachers and students as well as deepening our online engagement with them." 

Martin Roth, Director of the V&A said: "It is so important that every child is taught the basics of design and making. Technical skills and knowledge of the designs of the past are fundamental in understanding how to turn wonderful ideas into reality. Design greats, like the late Alexander McQueen whose retrospective we have just opened at the V&A, spent long hours absorbed in the riches of the V&A's collections and combined this with a complete mastery of his craft, learning his legendary tailoring skills in Savile Row. Britain's creative industries are world class but in order to maintain that position we need to foster and support the next generation of designers and makers. The V&A is the nation's resource for art and design, founded to inspire creativity and that is why we are so pleased to be part of TES's pilot project to help and encourage cultural education in the classrooms and further extend our reach to TES's vast network of teachers."

ACE, together with two of its Bridge organisations (Artswork and CapeUK), will seek to test Ways in which the TES cultural partnership can be used to increase the impact and reach of its work.  

Peter Bazalgette, Chair, Arts Council England said: "A strong cultural education is fundamental to supporting creativity, innovation and free-thinking and is the incubator not just for great minds but is central to our thriving creative industries.  This pilot, from such a well-trusted source as TES, is an exciting step-change in how teachers might access some of the wealth of resources that are on offer; from some of the country's most inspirational arts and cultural organisations."

The pilot is being co-ordinated by project leader Alison Cole.

* The arts and achievement in at-risk youth: Findings from four longitudinal studies by Catterall, J. S., Dumais, S. A., & Hampden-Thompson, G. (2012). Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. 

Notes to Editors: 

About TES Global 

TES Global is a fast growing and global digital education company dedicated to supporting the world's teachers with a portfolio of tailored services. Our mission is to enable great teaching by helping educators find the best jobs, and providing all the tools and technology they need to excel. It is home to the world's largest online community of teachers, with 6.9 million registered users. For more information, visit http://www.tesglobal.com

About the British Museum 

Founded in 1753, the British Museum was the first national public museum in the world. From the outset it was a museum of the world, for the world, and this idea still lies at the heart of the Museum's mission today. The collection tells the stories of cultures across the world, from the dawn of human history, over two million years ago, to the present. Objects range from the earliest tools made by humans and treasures from the ancient world to more recent acquisitions from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, as well as the national collections of prints and drawings, and coins and medals. Exploring the collection with teachers and children and inspiring them to learn about the world through objects is a key part of the Museum's work in London, across the UK and internationally.

For further information contact the Press Office on [email protected] or 020 7323 8583

About the V&A 

The V&A is the world's leading museum of art, design and performance with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity. It was established to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Today, the V&A's collections, which span over 5000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium and from many parts of the world, continue to intrigue, inspire and inform. The V&A's Learning Department runs programmes, projects and activities that suit different levels of knowledge, different cultural and educational backgrounds, interests and learning styles in order to promote knowledge and unlock creativity. vam.ac.uk  @V_and_A

About the Royal Shakespeare Company 

The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. Everyone at the RSC - from actors to armourers, musicians to technicians - plays a part in creating the world you see on stage. All our productions begin life at our Stratford workshops and theatres and we bring them to the widest possible audience through our touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work made in Shakespeare's home town.

We encourage everyone to enjoy a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre.  We produce an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today's writers.  We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future.

Through our Education work we transform experiences of Shakespeare for children and young people. Our approach is rooted in a 130 year history of making theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and sharing that wealth of skills and knowledge with teachers and students all over the world. We build long term relationships with school, teachers and communities and particularly those who have the least access to Shakespeare, the RSC and cultural provision. We became the first UK theatre to broadcast its productions directly into schools and classrooms up and down the country. We work in over 14 countries world-wide and with around 450,000 young people every year.

For more information visit http://www.rsc.org.uk/education/

About Arts Council England 

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries - from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2015 and 2018, we plan to invest £1.1 billion of public money from government and an estimated £700 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. http://www.artscouncil.org.uk