Halley House School is awarded £10,000

The school's current art room

Halley House School’s specialist art provision is strong, that it has been recognised by the Goldsmiths’ Centre who decided to award them funding to improve their art room. The school's art department applied for a grant for new art benches and stools, and bespoke storage for art materials.

The renovation will transform the current room, and the new environment will be more sensory and facilitate different learning styles and needs. The new fittings will be bespoke and modular, and teachers will have the ability to move and shift them around in order to create different spaces according to lessons’ aims and objectives, as well as the children’s different learning styles.

The Goldsmiths’ Centre is dedicated to high-quality teaching and training, opening up routes into apprenticeships, further education, and employment within the jewellery, silversmithing and allied industries. Driven by their vision to provide access for future generations to the jewellery industry and other creative career opportunities, they care deeply about supporting creativity and material engagement in order to pass on craft knowledge to new generations.

Toby Mills-Bishop, Headteacher said: “We are beyond delighted that Goldsmiths’ Centre has awarded us this funding, recognising the quality of our art provision. The art curriculum supports different learning styles, and this grant will help us to enrich and widen our artistic activities providing more exciting opportunities to Hackney children. We are now planning the renovation works with a deadline to hopefully complete them by Easter 2025. Huge thanks to our art department who has created this opportunity for the school.”

Julia Skilton from the Goldsmiths’ Centre said: “Having seen the importance of the art provision at Halley House, we are delighted to support a school with the vision to shape young people’s relationship with materials and creativity. We hope that their approach to link this provision across the curriculum will be an example for other schools to build upon.”