Education

The British Film Institute (BFI) has announced a new package of industry support for awardees who can demonstrate that they are positively contributing to tackling the climate and ecological crisis.

Keir Powell-Lewis has been appointed Head of Environmental Sustainability to manage the fund, as part of BFI’s own net zero routemap.

The BFI National Lottery Sustainable Screen Fund has awarded £586,755 to industry leaders Julie’s Bicycle and BAFTA albert, to fund projects running over the next three years.

The funding will be used to support all BFI National Lottery awardees in building environmental understanding and action on positive environmental change.

Support for awardees will include tools and resources provided by each organisation, including open-access carbon calculators.

Julie’s Bicycle will offer support in the areas of audiences, screen heritage, skills, education, international projects and innovation and industry services.

BAFTA albert will aid in production across the wider screen sector, including film, XR/immersive and video games.

The funding will also allow the two organisations to further define the support needed to ensure that BFI awardees can track their environmental impact, seek sustainability certification and access relevant guidance on how to deliver projects more sustainably. 

“As the world faces a climate and ecological emergency it is vital we work with the screen sector with urgency to reduce the sector’s environmental impact and efforts to reach net zero,” said Harriet Finney, BFI Deputy CEO and Executive Director of Corporate & Industry Affairs.

“During the public consultation for our new 10-year BFI National Lottery Strategy and Funding Plan, the message was unquestionably that support for helping the industry tackle climate emergency was a priority and has been embedded as a core principle guiding our activities and funding.

“The range of tried and tested tools and resources developed by BAFTA albert and Julie’s Bicycle and their ambition, experience and expertise in further innovation and guidance for the sector will help us all work faster and better in contributing a positive impact towards tackling the climate crisis.”
 

Primary school children from four schools in London have built a temporary performance structure at South London theatre Brixton House.

Organised by architecture educator Matt + Fiona, the project, called Let’s Build, was designed to teach participants creative and practical building skills that are disappearing from schools.

The number of students studying design and technology at GCSE level has seen the steepest decline of all creative subjects, having dropped by two-thirds in the last decade.

"Design and build projects of this kind are invaluable in helping to fill the gap left behind," said Matt + Fiona co-founder Fiona MacDonald.

"They give young people the agency to shape their own environments and grow in confidence and their own identities."

The performance structures are made of timber and will remain in the theatre for schools and community groups to use for free. It will also be used as a rehearsal space for the Brixton House Youth Theatre.

Brixton House, which commissioned the project, then plans to donate the structures to any interested schools or community groups.

A new £6m programme aims to equip the UK cultural sector with the skills to develop projects using immersive technology.

The three-year XRtists programme is a joint initiative from the arts councils of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Creative Scotland, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The programme will begin in 2024, once a consortium has been chosen to run it. Applications are currently being invited from universities, independent research organisations, cultural organisations and creative businesses.

Plans for the programme include training and funding opportunities for artists and cultural organisations, including museums.

An annual industry showcase is also planned, which will support the "ongoing development and distribution" of immersive work.

The successful consortium will be expected to carry out research around new business models for immersive content.

Darren Henley, Chief Executive at Arts Council England, said the programme will "draw on the wealth of creative talent across our performing arts, galleries, museums and other cultural organisations to unlock new ideas and applications for immersive technology, while developing skills in these powerful emerging technologies across the cultural sector”.

AHRC Executive Chair, Professor Christopher Smith, added: “XRtists will build on previous investments to unlock further innovation and economic growth and will bring the power of immersive technology to new audiences and partners.”

A £4.5m government grant has been given to the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) to help decarbonise heating across its campuses in Surrey.

The funding will go towards investment in new technologies and increasing on-site power generation, which UCA says will help deliver a greater than 90% reduction in its carbon emissions from energy consumption over a ten-year period.

The work will go towards meeting the university’s commitment to net zero carbon emissions by the end of this decade.

UCA Sustainability Manager Scott Keiller says the university will develop plans in the coming months to replace its gas-powered heating with grounded source and air source heat pumps by spring 2025.

“We will also be significantly increasing our solar power generation to reduce our demand on grid electricity and adding sophisticated energy control systems and grid connected energy storage,” Keiller added.

The £4.5m grant comes from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

UCA says it will commit a similar amount of funding to the plans.

Schools are facing shortages of specialist teachers in key areas including drama, posing a threat to children’s education, Labour has warned.

Analysis found that more than one in five drama lessons were taught by a non-expert teacher last year, The Mirror reported. 

The teaching analysis follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement that he plans to get all children to study maths until the age of 18, despite a shortage of specialist teachers. He has so far failed to set out how he plans to resolve the shortage. 

In a speech to the NAHT union’s annual conference on Saturday, Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson vowed to hire more teachers using money raised by ending tax breaks for private schools.

Labour wants to axe these schools’ charitable status, which exempts them from charging VAT on fees. The party estimates that the change would raise £1.7bn per year for the state education system.

“Labour will recruit thousands more teachers to ensure pupils are taught by specialist teachers in each subject, and drive higher standards in schools. We will pay for this by ending tax breaks for private schools,” the party tweeted last week.

“Staff shortages are a growing problem, extend widely across many different subject areas and are impacting education on a daily basis,” said Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

“The expectation to have a specialist teacher at the front of every classroom is not an unreasonable one, but is not the reality for many pupils. Schools are increasingly being forced to turn to supply staff to cover for vacancies.”

This can be disruptive for students and also raises costs for schools, he added.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said there are 24,000 more teachers working in classrooms in England than in 2010.

“Conservatives are delivering higher standards for children by recruiting and training excellent teachers, helping them to fulfil their potential and grow the economy,” he said.

But the analysis showed that ongoing shortages of specialist teachers is also affecting other subjects, including physics, French, German and maths. 

African theatre company Utopia Theatre has secured dedicated new premises for its recently launched Youth Academy in Sheffield.

The Youth Academy launched earlier this year and will move from its current home in St Mary’s Church to the new venue in the coming months. 

Utopia Theatre will use the new space to host workshops and performing arts classes for young people of African and Caribbean descent, as well as those from other minority groups. It will also offer a mentoring and training programme. 

The new venue is a 171-square-metre former hairdressing shop unit, located on The Moor. It was secured with the help of Hammond Associates, a Leeds-based company that specialises in making empty commercial property available to artists, arts and community-based charities.

The new premises, which are being offered rent and service-charge free on a temporary basis by landlord NewRiver Retail, will be fitted with workshop and rehearsal spaces.

The theatre will also maintain its base at The Crucible Theatre, where it is a resident company.

“It’s important that our Youth Academy members, alongside our brilliant team at Utopia Theatre, feel a sense of belonging and ownership and I’m confident this will provide a fantastic collaborative, supportive and vibrant workshop and rehearsal space,” said Mojisola Kareem-Elufowoju, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Utopia Theatre.

“It’s also important for us to be able to play our part in the regeneration and re-use of The Moor in Sheffield, so bringing a new lease of life to this area of the city is a real bonus. 

“We are immensely proud of our Sheffield roots and it’s brilliant to be able to play our part in shaping the future of the area by making use of commercial space which is otherwise unused.”