Craft Club :: Homepage

A national campaign for craft in schools

What is Craft Club?

Craft Club is the new campaign that pioneers craft in schools.

Get your school crafting! All young people deserve access to a full range of fun and rewarding craft projects as part of their cultural learning. We can help by uniting skilled and enthusiastic volunteers with schools through after-hours clubs. The generous support of our volunteers ensures Craft Club is available free-of-charge to state-funded schools and academies in England.

Knit 1 Pass it On is the first project for Craft Club, launched in 2009. Knitting clubs offer good value, accessible and creatively limitless craft projects for schools. Our resources for clubs will continue to grow as we add other yarn- and stitch-based projects and different crafts to build up a library of resources.

Stop Press! TRAINING will start this autumn!

Become a volunteer trainer

If you’re interested in attending one of our FREE volunteer training days and taking on a leading role, up-skilling members of your local volunteer network, please drop us an email. We will send you a job description and further information. We are asking trainers to undertake to pass on this training to their federation or local volunteer group.

We completed our first phase of Craft Club Volunteer Training for Trainers Days in Oxford, York, Cambridge and London by March 2010, and now our second phase of training is about to begin this autumn in the following locations:

Derbyshire: 9^th September 2010 FULLY BOOKED

Venue:Derbyshire House, Sherwin Street, Derby, DE22 1GP

Devon:14^th September, 2010 LAST FEW PLACES (BOOKINGS CLOSE THIS THURSDAY @ 12PM)

Venue:Longdown Hall, Longdown Nr, Exeter, EX6 7SN

Colchester: 29th September, 2010 *NEW DATE*

Venue: Firstsite at 15 Queen Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 2PH

Durham:14^th October 2010

Venue:WI House, Barnfield Road, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16 6EB

*More training dates will be announced soon!*

NB. Training days run from 10am-4pm, are FREE to attend, and include lunch and refreshments. Spaces are strictly limited, so register your interest now by emailing knit1@craftclub.org.uk or download the Application from the File Transfer area

For all our fantastic volunteer trainers who already completed Craft Club Training, don't forget your next step! Simply gather a few crafty friends to pass on your learning in your own local cascade training session. The more training sessions you hold, the more volunteers will be crafting in our schools. And don't forget to contact the Craft Club Team if you need any assistance.

You can also find out more about Craft Club at one of our talks at the following knitting shows. Don't miss out!:

ICHF Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts Show:

Westpoint Centre, Exeter, 23^rd September 2010, 1pm

The Knitting & Stitching Show:

Alexandra Palace, London, 7^th & 8^th October 2010, 2.30-5pm

The Knitting & Stitching Show:

Harrogate International Centre, 25^th November 2010, 2.30-5pm

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events soon!

Ofsted success!

Craft Club is hitting the right buttons with Ofsted! Their new school inspection framework was introduced by Ofsted on 1 September 2009, meaning that inspectors now make some additional judgements that emphasise 'community cohesion', partnership working and engagement with parents and carers.

Our pilot project at Lindens Primary in Sutton Coldfield just received an outstanding report from Ofsted, and our knitting club received special commendation for its role in delivering these outcomes:

“The school’s skilfully personalised curriculum is writ large. Displays are virtually all of pupils’ own work… the knitting project with the local Women’s Institute has resulted in a web of design where colour and form meld together to produce an eye-catching display. It also represents the school’s excellent partnership with outside agencies, which extends to its outreach work and sponsorship from the business community.”

Ofsted Inspection report: Lindens Primary School, 3-4 February 2010

Congratulations to Lindens Primary School, its staff, students and knitting community!

Craft Club in action

Recycled Rainforest Project, Lindens Primary School. © Lindsay Chalford-Brown, 2009

Teachers, pupils and volunteers are supported to set up clubs during lunchtimes or after-hours by offering advice and resources to inspire and motivate.

Volunteers

Working directly with volunteer organizations, such as the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) we help skilled volunteers make the transition to working in schools by employing experienced sector professionals to deliver quality training and support. Our experts also collaborate on teaching resources and practical ‘tips’ for our website.

Teachers

Craft Club addresses the government’s Every Child Matters agenda and ‘cultural offer’ through the extended services of schools by engaging and exciting learners beyond the classroom and national curriculum. Teachers can co-ordinate thriving clubs in their school with minimal planning and resources by working in partnership with their local volunteer organisation. We will support this process to help schools create the sustainable local relationships necessary for long-term success.

Students

Craft Clubbers can get stuck into original new projects in their after-school club. Crafting is a sociable activity - feed back to the website and share photos, videos and experiences with other clubbers. Designers and makers will select a winning project each term to celebrate Craft Club creativity.

Why craft?

Hyperbolic Coral Reef, close-up of work by Ildiko Szabo. © The IFF, 2008 As a national campaign to revive craft learning for the young generation, Craft Club is about reinforcing the value of craft in formal and informal education, not just as a vocational subject, but as a beneficial its own right.

Making and craft activity are creative and inclusive – everyone can be successful and have a great time! We believe that craft in schools should highlight the transferable learning qualities that are developed (creativity, planning, critical thinking, communication skills, self-management and enterprise) and acquired by handling materials, tools and ideas in various projects. These transferable skills make studying craft an excellent choice at Higher Education level and beyond, with a range of career options available.

Knit 1 Pass It On

Pass on your yarn skills to one other person, that's all there is to it

IMPORTANT CORRECTION:

Our recent announcement in the Craft Action Network e-bulletin provided a launch date for 'Sew It On', the forthcoming addition under the Craft Club umbrella. Please kindly note that the announcement of its launch on 25 November in Harrogate was premature. We are, in fact, still finalising the details at the present time and will confirm the exact details of the launch soon. Please email any questions to participation@craftscouncil.org.uk.

Make of the Week: Yo-Yo necklace

You might know these as Suffolk Puffs. They are very easy to make by hand out of circles of fabric, and you don't need a sewing machine. You can download the instructions here

The results are very professional-looking! Once you have tried this you can make more puffs and use them to decorate anything, from a plain T-shirt to a bag. Have fun and post up photos of what you have made to the gallery. These are some made by Hels Bels for the Summer Fair with her club Craft Revolution. Check out the Gallery!