LONDON.- Tate today launched Tate Schools, a new online platform for teachers to bring the nation’s art collection into classrooms across Britain. This bespoke new website offers free resources for teachers and students to use in their lessons, inspired by the world-class art in Tate’s collection.

Pupils from Orkney to Penzance can now take part in activities and challenges featuring works from Tate’s national collection to help encourage confidence and self-expression. The platform’s development has been guided by teachers’ input to equip schools with the tools they need to bring art to the classroom.

Director of Tate Maria Balshaw said “Art can be transformative for children, improving visual literacy, empathy, and creative thinking. But we know that teachers’ time and resources are stretched thinner than ever, and that makes it increasingly difficult to take school trips to museums and galleries.

“We want to remove as many of those barriers as possible, making Tate’s collection accessible in the classroom as well as in our galleries. At a time when the government is reviewing the national curriculum, initiatives like this show how a new generation of British creative talent can be inspired by the work of the world’s greatest artists.”

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "I've been clear that we want the arts to be accessible for everyone and that philanthropy is crucial to that mission. Thanks to the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, this new platform will help young people to engage with our nation’s outstanding artistic works and to discover their own creative voice."

Tate Schools launched the website with a workshop at Vicarage Primary School in East Ham, London, today using a variety of the website’s resources to lead activities and classroom discussions on art.

Zenab Bhuta, Arts Specialist and Lead at Vicarage Primary School, says: “With Tate Schools, teachers are in very good hands. It’s amazing an institution like Tate is bringing their broad and varied collection of art into the classroom to engage and inspire children. For any teacher to have a platform ready made for them with step-by-step creative activities to explore in their lessons is an incredible resource.”

Ali, a pupil at Vicarage Primary School, says: “I like how on Tate Schools you get to discover all the artists and see the different ways they’ve painted things around them. It really gives you the opportunity to draw and be creative and discover what you want to do and how you can become an artist.”

Every year, Tate works with hundreds of teachers to welcome over 140,000 schoolchildren into its galleries, offering them unique spaces for creative learning and inspiration. Tate Schools, supported through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator for Arts and Culture programme is designed to bring that experience into the classroom, providing a host of digital resources, tools and activities for their lessons.

The resources are aligned with curriculum goals across primary and secondary education, with a focus on adaptable content that helps spark curiosity and connection. The platform has also been developed with SEND features at its core to ensure its innovative activities are open to all learners.

Features on Tate Schools include:

• Step-by-step making activities that explore Tate’s collection and encourage students to discover new materials, techniques and art-making methods.

• Fun, energising 10-minute art challenges that support schools to inject creativity into every school day and help pupils to be playful and curious in classrooms.

• SEND-first immersive activities, which invite digital making by layering colours, engaging with sound effects, and exploring different art-making materials.

• Artist Stories’ films which are designed to prompt thoughtful discussions and encourage confidence, self-expression and critical thinking.

• Discover Art resources which offer a visually stimulating guide to Tate’s collection organised by medium and technique to enrich and expand classroom discussions.

• Digital drawing tools for the classroom to support collaborative making and experimentation.

Tate Schools builds on Tate’s ongoing success in connecting young people with art. This includes the newly redesigned Tate Kids website, where 4 to 12-year-olds can play free creative games and quizzes, watch videos about artists, find art activities, and share their own art. In 2024, the site was viewed 5.6 million times, with children playing Tate Kids’ art games over 3 million times.

For young adults, Tate also has the world’s largest youth membership scheme of any museum in the world, Tate Collective, which offers all 16 to 25-year-olds entry to all Tate exhibitions for only £5. Today there are over 180,000 active members of Tate Collective, with hundreds more joining every week.