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The Fringe Be Inspired Fund is an opportunity for teachers and schools in North Edinburgh to receive up to £400 of funding at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The funds must be spent on accessing live performance, engagement with companies and opportunities for further experience and education in performance for your young people. 

You can be creative with how you use this funding – the Fringe has so much to offer!

When considering how to use your funding, think about: 

• how you could get the most out of a maximum of £400
• which age groups would benefit from this opportunity
• how it might fit in with their relevant curriculum
• what long-term benefits the school could see from this. 

The Fringe Be Inspired Fund is available for schools in North Edinburgh – and we want to know how yours could benefit from it!

Examples of how you could use this funding:

1. Taking a class to the Fringe

Hear from a teacher: 

Using the funds to take a class for a day out at the Fringe, there is always a lot of noise and excitement as the masses descend on the school theatre to register and get prepared for the day ahead.   

After a slightly noisier-than-normal tram ride for commuters, we arrive in the city centre and walk up the Mound to the Royal Mile. We identify a meeting point, after which pupils are given free time to explore and soak in the Fringe atmosphere. Selfies are taken, street performances are enjoyed, and lunch is eaten. This is often a highlight as pupils enjoy the freedom and the “free” lunch immensely!  

After we have done a few headcounts and checked the registers at least twice, we move on to the performance venue. In our case, the Assembly Rooms to see The Black Blues Brothers, an acrobatic show which is a massive hit with our young audience – some of our pupils even end up in the show and the cast gain legions of new fans as they pose for selfies afterwards. We then assemble outside for final checks before heading home.  

The young people are absolutely buzzing and offer excited feedback about the show and the day out they have had. The value of taking part in the Fringe project and the impact it has had on our school community is difficult to measure – there is a real buzz around the building as our young people really start to see the Fringe as being for them. The feedback from pupils is so positive and they really enjoy the performances, street performances and the lunch! But what we also see is how it makes them feel about the city they live in and the opportunities it affords them. If you get the chance to take a schools group to the Fringe – take it!

2. Bring Fringe artists to your school

Hear from a teacher:

As a History classroom teacher I hugely appreciated the opportunity to access an Edinburgh Fringe theatre show that was directly relevant to our course. The freedom to identify a production that would best suit the needs of my senior class was in many ways more useful than being signposted to a particular production. The context of choosing between hundreds of shows is pretty special! 

Not only were the pupils able to attend a performance, but a week later, the writer, producer and actors came into our classroom to talk through the main themes of the piece. This production team understood the learning intentions I wanted our pupils to engage with; it was tailored to the group rather than a generic experience. This made the whole process more rewarding and worthwhile. It meant we started our academic year with a creative and immersive set of activities. Our history topic was the Holocaust and I felt very lucky to be able to provide this special entry point to our exploration of some sensitive subject matter in history.

We estimate a cost of around £250-£350 for an artist to deliver a workshop or talk in your school, but your chosen artist may charge more or less than this. You will be able to chat with them about fees, but bear this in mind for budgeting purposes. 

How to apply

To apply for this funding, your school must be based in North Edinburgh. Just let us know:

• your school
• your role
• how you would use the funds
• the benefits this funding would have for your pupils
• the age group of pupils benefitting from funds.

We are looking for variety in applications, so be creative! Please send all applications to learning@edfringe.

Selection criteria

• Schools eligible for this fund must fall within a NE or NW Edinburgh Council locality.
• We will prioritise schools who rank high on the SIMD index.
• You must be a primary, secondary or ASN local authority school.
• Maximum one application per school.
• Senior management from your school must sign off on this application before submission.

Key dates

• Application deadline: 17 May 2024
• We will let you know if you are successful by 27 May 2024.

Please note: whatever you plan to do with this funding must be strictly related to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, whether it involves shows, performers or other Fringe artists. This means the activity will take place in August 2024. You can find details of shows and how to book on edfringe.com. 

Fringe shows register throughout the year; the first shows are already available to browse on edfringe.com, and more will be added on the following dates:

• 04 April 
• 09 May
• 12 June (full programme launch).

After 12 June, shows are added to the website on a rolling basis as they register.

If you are successful

If your application for the Fringe Be Inspired Fund is successful, you will need to send us a breakdown of your budget and details of how the money will be used. Evidence of payment (invoices from artists, ticket bookings, receipts for lunches etc) will need to be documented and sent to us too. 

In return for this funding, we require you to share your experience with us. For feedback, you might want your class(es) and staff to answer these questions:

• How did the Fringe Be Inspired Fund help to inspire you?
• What was the most memorable part of your Fringe experience?
• What did you / your pupils learn from the performance?
• Were there any challenges in participation? Is there anything we can do to improve the fund and make it more accessible?
• Do you have any other feedback or quotes from teachers and students on the experience? This feedback will be anonymised and used to secure further funding and/or promote the programme further.

You can submit your feedback in writing, film, voice note, photographs or whichever creative way you choose! All feedback should be sent to [email protected] by the end of September 2024.