Building a Co-curated City-wide Arts Curriculum to Raise Academic Attainment and Wellbeing View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Kate Fellows  

The Leeds Curriculum is an arts-led, place-based curriculum for primary schools within the city of Leeds, Yorkshire, UK. It is developed as high quality teaching resource by over 50 arts organisations with communities and schools to raise pupil attainment and attendance across the city. It is being used by around 10,000 pupils in over 100 primary schools (pupils age 5-11). It is a co-curated partnership model, focusing on the action research question 'what stories do our children need to know about their city by age 11?' It covers multiple community histories and artforms and can be used to teach any school subject. It is freely accessible online. It is built on research and is replicable around the globe given the passion of arts and cultural educators. During the workshop, we will explore how we achieved success through co-creation, the challenges of working with multiple narratives (and the changing, dynamics of history, perception and interpretation) and the impacts the curriculum is having on pupils in the city.