My Primary School is at the Gallery

We are delighted to announce that our residency schools for 2025 are City Quay National School and Broombridge Educate Together National School. For the duration of their residencies, each class will be based in the Millenium Wing Education Studio and will use the whole Gallery as their classroom to explore subjects across the curriculum including art, Irish, English, maths and history.

Introduction

My Primary School is at the Gallery is a residency project designed to make meaningful, long-lasting connections between local primary schools and their National Gallery. Kindly supported by SMBC Aviation Capital, the initiative aims to work collaboratively, flexibly and sensitively to the needs of DEIS schools, often managing substantial educational barriers, to actively broaden access to the arts.

Delivered twice per year, students and their teacher join us for a co-developed residency that places the class at the heart of the Gallery. Students attend their full school day at the Gallery with all subjects being taught through art and creativity. 

At the end of the residency, the children are encouraged to share their learning often by, but not limited to, creating a public display. The wider school, family and friends are also welcomed to the Gallery to celebrate with the class, an important aspect of the programme.

About the project

The residency programme is adapted from international model My Primary School is at the Museum which was originally conceived by architect Wendy James, and developed in collaboration with the Department of Education & Professional Studies and the Cultural Institute at King’s College London. The project was developed against a backdrop of threatened museum services, a shortage of school places, and ever-growing evidence to support the range of benefits of learning in cultural environments and through collections. It tested the benefits of co-locating primary and preschool classes for extended periods of time within a museum. The initial project consisted of a number of pilot residencies, and the detailed research report identified benefits including:

• For children: increased confidence and improved social and communication skills; greater engagement with and sense of ‘ownership’ of local cultural spaces and places.
• For museums: a deeper understanding of younger audiences, enabling the development of more relevant, engaging programmes; an extended use of their spaces and collections.
• For schools and teachers: examples of creative ways in which to deliver the curriculum and confidence using out-of-classroom spaces.

My Primary School is at the Gallery is currently open to local DEIS schools through an invitation system.

Contact Us

If you would like to learn more about our residency programme, please contact Rachel Burke, Schools Officer and Erin Laidlaw, Schools Fellow : [email protected].

My Primary School is at the Gallery, supported by SMBC Aviation Capital, Schools Partner.