Have a Go

Following our review, we are delighted to share that the funds are back open! And you’ll be pleased to know that the guidelines for the funds haven’t changed, and we will still always endeavour to support as many eligible applications that meet the criteria outlined.

What improvements have we made?

* We listened to your feedback and have reduced the amount of information that we ask you to complete when submitting your completion forms.

* We’ve created additional guidance for arts partners that wish to support schools submitting applications to our Go and See and Have a Go funds.

* We updated our approval/decline letters so that they provide more useful information when providing feedback about your application.

* We have improved the process for releasing payments. Applicants will now receive payment to their nominated bank account within 2 weeks of meeting their conditions of grant and accepting their awards.

The temporary closure of both funds was a direct result of the increased popularity of the funds. During the 2022/23 academic year, we received 375 applications for both Go and See and Have a Go funding. In comparison, during 2023/24 we were delighted to receive 894 applications! But, we realised we have still only reached 48% of all schools in Wales, so we knew there was still more to be done to make sure that the funds we have are reaching more schools in Wales and that as many learners as possible have the chance to be inspired and excited by the best that the expressive arts in Wales has to offer, wherever in Wales they live.

However, there are times when we receive more applications than we can fund. In these circumstances, we must make difficult decisions on which applications to prioritise. We will always look at the case that an individual school makes for funding, but, in a competitive funding round, we will also take into consideration additional information. In these instances, we will take into consideration:

* Schools that have not benefited from Creative Learning Cymru funding previously.

* The % of eFSM (eligible for free school meals) learners at the school.

* The % number of learners at the school that have already benefited from our funding.

* The language of the activity to enable learners of all backgrounds to experience arts in the Welsh language, as well as bilingually, in Wales.

* The geography of the school to facilitate equity of opportunities for all learners in Wales

* We want to fund a wide variety of creative activity that is being developed with schools. To increase fairness in how we are investing across the arts in Wales, Arts Partners cannot be named as delivering activity in more than three open Have a Go applications at any given time. Final reports must be submitted by the lead applicant to close grants before an Arts Partner can be named on additional Have a Go applications

* We will aim to invest equally across all five disciplines (art, drama, dance, film & digital media and music) of the Expressive Arts Area of Learning and Experience. We will continuously monitor the disciplines across local authorities to ensure that we are giving equal opportunities to all five disciplines across Wales.

We know that every school’s reason for applying to us for funding will be different and every school that applies to us can continue to make a case for funding to meet the needs of their learners. When making a case we would encourage you not to copy and paste marketing material into your application, but to really consider what difference our funding will make to teaching and learning in your school.

As always, we recommend reading the full guidelines to our funds before applying. Whilst we have not made any changes to the guidelines, we will be looking more carefully at the case you make for funding so please take care when submitting your application.