A national campaign for craft in schools
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.
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.
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.