Creativity in schools!
Bilborough Summer Festival is encouraging all local schools to get involved in the city's Child Friendly Creative City programme - supported by Arts Council England and over 22 arts and cultural partners across the city.
Schools are being supported to embed creativity in the classroom and take children and young people on more visits to galleries, museums and theatres - with a commitment to the city's Cultural Rucksack! This year, a collaborative schools project with Artist Katie Sandoval is inviting every pupil to make a butterfly - to help us spread colour and creativity in outdoor spaces.
Invitations from Schools 2026!
We're delighted to be working with Artist Katie Sandoval this year, on a collaborative schools project.
Get involved by downloading the templates here!
Many thanks to Bluecoat Primary for hosting our creative practical session for local teachers and community group leaders - to help get as many butterflies made as possible - so that the activity could be run across lots of schools and groups!
School participation in 2026...
What art and sculpture would you design for a brand new forest?
Local artist Michelle Reader is working with Bluecoat Primary Academy, delivering creative workshops in drawing, sculpting, and making with recycled materials. Together they will explore what Nature they want to celebrate and what stories they want our forest to tell. Workshops will take place at the school with Year 3 pupils on Tuesday 30th June, these are not open to the public but Michelle will go on to produce a sculpture informed by the children’s ideas for the ERANDA Pocket Forest for everyone to enjoy!
www.michelle-reader.co.uk
Bluecoat Primary
Glenbrook Spencer Academy
Glenbrook Spencer Academy will be proudly taking part in this year’s
Bilborough Arts Festival by hosting a special art gallery for students and their parents. The gallery will showcase a range of creative work inspired by the natural world, reflecting how Glenbrook embraces nature.
Melbury School
Thurs 2nd July, 3.15-4pm
This year each class at Melbury has been working on different
art work which we are delighted to exhibit on Thursday 2nd July from 3.15 to 4pm in the school hall. Come along and enjoy the students’ masterpieces.
Nottingham University
Samworth Academy
Once again, we’re working with the Deaf base at NUSA, with Artist Rebecca Buxton leading a painting techniques workshop with pupils.
Oak Field School and
Woodlands Academy
Oak Field School and Woodlands Academy are collaborating once again during Bilborough Summer Festival. Pupils will share art skills, which will encompass a wide range of garden art inspired by nature. Bluecoat Primary will also take part in a music workshop with Oak Field pupils. The workshops for pupils will be held at Oak Field School on Monday 29th June from 10am-11.30am.
Portland Spencer Academy
Thursday 2nd July, 3.30-4pm
Portland Spencer Academy is proud to be part of Bilborough Arts Week, with our students collaborating in house teams to create unique pieces of art. Each team will design and produce artwork inspired by the theme of nature, reflecting something meaningful and important to their house identity. Come and celebrate the creativity, teamwork, and imagination of our pupils through these vibrant and thoughtful creations. All welcome.
School participation in 2025...
Brocklewood Primary
“Brocklewood Primary School is committed to developing a rich and inclusive arts culture, ensuring that all staff, pupils, and families understand that “The Arts” encompasses not just visual arts, but also music, drama, dance, and more. Alongside strengthening our curriculum, we provide a wider breadth of opportunities for children and families to engage with the arts purely for enjoyment.
Through after-school clubs, partnerships, and our vibrant Brocklewood Arts Festival, we have created meaningful ways for the whole community to experience and celebrate creative expression. Our work reflects a belief that the arts are a vital and joyful part of learning and life, and we are proud to keep building on this commitment for the future. We believe that by embedding creativity across all areas, we help our pupils grow in confidence, cultural awareness, and a love of learning. We currently hold a gold ArtsMark, proudly!”
Bluecoat Primary
Bluecoat pupils are looking forward to displaying their art work at Harvey Hadden during Festival week. Their exhibition will be on the theme of ‘community’. Using Harvey Hadden as an art gallery is an exciting new development for Bluecoat, Harvey Hadden and the Festival!
Glenbrook Spencer Academy
As part of the exciting Bilborough Arts Festival, Glenbrook Spencer Academy are proudly presenting a vibrant art gallery for pupils and parents that celebrates the power of teamwork. Inspired by our new school motto “TEAM”, each year group will join together to create large, bold, collaborative art pieces that show what we can achieve when we work together.
Nottingham University
Samworth Academy
Rebecca Buxton, the Deaf artist and author of Prickelus Gets Caught, visits NUSA’s deaf students with her hearing dog, Reba. Her workshop will focus on looking at illustrations and how to draw emotions, make characters and the importance of detail.
This is a school-only event.
Oak Field School and
Woodlands School
Oak Field and Woodlands School are collaborating to make festival art, to celebrate Bilborough Summer Festival. Each school will share art skills they have learned, which will encompass a wide range of festival art forms to showcase pupil skills.
The workshop will be held at Oak Field School at the ‘Welcome Cup Café’ from 10am–11am, on Wednesday 2nd July. The general public are welcome to join in with the workshop, whilst enjoying at drink at our café.
Portland Spencer Academy
This year for Bilborough Arts Festival, Portland will be exploring the arts with the theme of caring for the environment. Our theme has come from Pupil Parliament who want to raise the awareness of looking after our school and community. All week, we will be producing art work, posters and songs to showcase our learning through social media and around school.
Schools that took part in 2023...
Schools that took part in 2022...
Bluecoat Beechdale Academy
Bluecoat Beechdale Academy is delighted to be part of the Bilborough Arts Festival as a school that celebrates the arts and values creativity in all their pupils.
The school is showcasing their talented actors, dancers and artists with a performance of scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, beautiful piano recitals, dynamic dance pieces and participatory activities in the arts. The school partners with the Royal Shakespeare Company and is involved in a wide range of activities with the theatre company and the Theatre Royal and Concert Hall in Nottingham. Students are Ambassadors for the RSC and will be performing at Nottingham Playhouse this year and hosting the RSC’s performance of Twelfth Night in the autumn at the school. Bluecoat Beechdale Academy’s main production is A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a company of actors from all year groups, working with artists, theatre practitioners and set designers, all collaborating on what promises to be a fantastic production for the Autumn. For more information about the arts in Beechdale please contact Ms L Dee, Head of Performing Arts.
We are proud of all our pupils and the diversity in our school and local community. Staff and students support the strong culture of belonging, diversity and the wish to express our identities in a welcoming and safe environment.
As a School of Sanctuary the school embeds respecting diversity throughout the school and a stunning new exhibition celebrates the cultural life of everyone in our global community.
This commitment is contextualised within the community work that BBA has always engaged in over the years, and in most recent times with a local charity working specifically with refugees and asylum seekers – a message which is at the heart of what School of Sanctuary stands for. Community is also intended in how the school reaches out to parents and carers and celebrates the rich heritage and diverse roots that Bluecoat Beechdale boasts: on Thursday 12th May students came together in the ‘Express Event’ to celebrate 18 nationalities through poetry, dance, song, music, talks and the stunning art display created by year 11s. Parents and carers couldn’t have been more proud to witness these special acts and were reminded of how culture plays a central part in all areas of expression and communication. It was once again a perfect opportunity to raise awareness on refugees and asylum seekers, which will always be part of the Trust’s ‘Believe - Belong – Achieve’ ethos.
Our School of Sanctuary commitment:
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Learn: Find out what it means to be seeking sanctuary; and be actively involved in awareness raising.
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Embed: Take positive action to make welcome and inclusion part of the values of your organisation or community, to support sanctuary seekers and refugees, and to include them in your activities.
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Share our vision and achievements: let others know about the positive contribution refugees make to our society and the benefits of a welcoming culture. As a School of Sanctuary the school embeds respecting diversity throughout the school and a stunning new exhibition celebrates the cultural life of everyone in our global community.
Brocklewood Primary
Parents and the local community were invited to see artwork
on display on Mon 27th and Tues 28 June 2022, afterschool at
Fircroft Community Garden (opposite the school main entrance).
Each class in school made large canvas banners, choosing their own themes and colour palettes relating to nature. Resident Artist, Shamila Chady, also ran workshops for every child to make a clay pot to hold seed bombs. All pupils went to visit their exhibition in the garden and also did some beautiful observational drawings. A community clay workshop was also supported by Nottingham City Homes in the community garden!
www.brocklewoodprimaryschool.co.uk
Melbury Primary
Art is at the heart of Melbury. As an Artsmark school, we provide lots of creative activities. Our children's work is currently being shown at the Schools of Tomorrow exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary. For this year's Bilborough Arts Festival, we have worked with Lit Theatre Company to create a performance about the power of imagination with year's 5 and 6, while also completing Explore Arts Award. Some of the children's artwork was also exhibited at Bilborough Library as part of the local artists' exhibition!
Oak Field School
Wigman Road, NG8 3HW
Wednesday 29th June, 9.30am—11am
Oakfield invited the local community to view artwork created by students, whilst enjoying refreshments at The Welcome Cup Café. The work of artist Joan Miro ‘The Colour of My Dreams’ was the inspiration for the work created.
During the past academic year, Oak Field have worked with many inspirational venues and artists from Lakeside Arts, Southwell Minster, Bamboozle, Jingah and freelance musicians and artists from Europe and the UK. Their latest project was an exhibition inspired by the RSC schools project ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, where the local community attended an interactive exhibition.
Portland Spencer Academy
At Portland, we were excited to be part of Bilborough Arts Festival 2022! We regularly offer our children lots of opportunities to express themselves through different art forms. We invite artists into school and also value the importance of taking the children to museums and art exhibitions so they can experience a wide range of artwork produced by different artists. We work closely with different artists who come into school and open up a world of poetry and drama to the children.
At Portland, we had a wonderful time celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Each year group produced a piece of artwork to celebrate the event. This year, we are going to be celebrating '70 years of Portland'. On Thursday 30th June we held an event in our hall at school. Young voices and area band performed a song and we had an exhibition, demonstrating the 'Importance of Portland' to our children and their families. The exhibition showcased some wonderful artwork produced by each year group, influenced by different artists.
