CUREE are currently conducting an evaluation of The National Gallery City Year Project.
The City Year Charity challenges 18-25 year old students from diverse back grounds to act as City Year Volenteer Mentors for a year. They are placed in schools within the UK, to support student from challenging backgrounds. The aim for mentors is to act as ‘near peer’ to the student. The City Year Project has been organised in partnership with the National Gallery and has been run for the past three years. The project aims to to engage school students who would not usually visit the Gallery and might not otherwise consider the relevance of the collection in their own lives.
The National Gallery and The City Year Charity identified the schools to be involved in the the City Year Project in September 2017 and have since held their first teacher/mentor introduction session in November 2017. The project is set to end in April 2018, following the ‘Take Over Day at The National Gallery’ showcase. There are five secondary schools involved in the project, each with a cohort of around 10 students. There are also 10 mentors involved within the project that are placed within the schools. The evaluation of the prior years project has been made available to CUREE.