Allchurches Trust awards grant to enable learning programme to continue

The Churches Conservation (CCT) Trust today announced that it has received a grant of £52,125 towards its learning programme for the forthcoming year from Allchurches Trust. CCT is the national charity protecting historic churches at risk and cares for 353 historic churches across England.

This generous, one-off grant provides CCT with a great opportunity to build a robust and sustainable funding model from 2019 onwards. Since 2012, CCT has run a highly successful Heritage Schools Programme across England in partnership with Historic England, and funded by Department for Education. Facilitated by three full time Heritage Learning Officers, this programme has actively engaged over 13,500 school-aged children and young people in learning activities.  The grant from Allchurches Trust has match-funded the ongoing support from Department for Education as part of the Heritage Schools Partnership.

More recently the work of the Heritage Learning Officers has extended to family learning with an engaging programme of events running during school holidays and throughout the year – from crafts to conservation and Shakespeare to star gazing – helping to increase family visitor numbers from 5% to 17% of all those who visited a CCT gateway church in 2017

Above, participants at an evening family workshop, ‘Neon Navigation’ at All Saints’, Cambridge © Adrian Powter

The Heritage Schools Partnership was awarded the Europa Nostra prize for Cultural Heritage (Education, Training and Awareness-raising category) in 2016, which is Europe’s most prestigious and respected award for heritage.

Peter Aiers, CEO, CCT says: “Our collection of churches is of exceptional artistic, historical and architectural merit which provides excellent opportunities for exploring core subjects such as history, geography, art, maths and science. We are very grateful to Allchurches Trust for match-funding our grant for the learning programme, which allows us to continue our work and enable a wider range of children and young people to creatively explore their local historic church as an inspiring place for learning outside of the classroom.”

Sir Philip Mawer, Chairman of Allchurches Trust, says “Allchurches Trust is pleased to be able to support the valuable work of the Churches Conservation Trust’s Heritage Learning Officers. We recognise the unique role they play in providing stimulating and creative learning opportunities for children and families at CCT churches, helping them to appreciate their significance to local heritage and as historic places of worship. We trust that our grant will help in the process of securing the future of these roles for many years to come.”

Find out more about our learning programme