How to apply for a tw! school grant
Before you apply, discover if your school is eligible for theatre works! funding and understand our application process.
What our grants support
Our grants support access to theatre for children and young people aged 7-16. Our grants can be used for a school trip to a theatre or to see a live performance from a touring company visiting your school or a local venue.
Our grants can be used towards theatre tickets, transport, and related educational activities such as post-show Q&A sessions, workshops and backstage tours to enable schools to deepen the educational experience of seeing live performance.
When to apply
We have three application windows every year.
-
Applications open on Monday 12 January.
Applications close Friday 27 February.
This applies to performances requested for up 12 months ahead from 1 April 2026 onwards.
Applicants will receive a notification with the outcome of their application in mid-March 2026.
-
Applications open on Monday 11 May.
Applications close Friday 26 June. 6pm.
This applies to performances for up 12 months ahead from 1 August 2026 onwards.
Applicants will receive a notification with the outcome of their application in mid-July 2026.
Window 3
Applications open on Monday 14 September.
Applications close Friday 23 October.
This applies to performances for up 12 months ahead from 1 January 2027 onwards.
Applicants will receive a notification with the outcome of their application in mid-November 2026.
UK Eligibility Criteria
We support children and young people aged 7-16.
Schools can apply for a grant every two years.
To apply, schools must:
Meet our Pupil Premium/Free School Meals criteria.
Schools with a minimum of 40% Pupil Premium/Free School Meals (or regional equivalent e.g SIMD) are eligible to apply for funding.
We will also take into account the percentage of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), where appropriate, when considering grant applications that already meet our core economic disadvantage threshold.
We check applications against the latest available published government figures.
Use these publicly available data sets and websites to check the free school meals/pupil premium figures for your school:
-
Visit this link to check the free school meals percentage of schools in England.
https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Search?SelectedTab=Establishments
-
Visit these links to check the Free School Meal information for schools in Scotland.
Primary Schools - https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-primary_school_information_dashboard/
Secondary schools - https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-secondary_school_information_dashboard/
-
Visit this link to check the free school meals information for schools in Wales.
https://stats.gov.wales/en-GB/327c8825-dc08-475b-b8bf-1aaa479c553c
There is also a figure for those eligible for free school meals or transitionally protected. 'Transitionally protected' refers to families who are migrating to Universal Credit which can affect entitlement to free school meals. Dataset in CSV format can be downloaded from here.
-
There are excel sheets containing the data on Northern Ireland based schools.
Primary Schools: https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-04/School%20level%20-%20primary%20schools%20-%20SUPPRESSED%202425%20DATA%20REVISED%20APR_0.xlsx
2. Be located outside of the M25
In England, we support schools based outside of the M25, we also support schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If your school is based inside the M25 visit Go Live Theatre.
You can still visit a London-based theatre for your theatre experience.
An education element is essential
Applications must include an education-related experience. You could embed any of the following within your theatre trip e.g backstage tours, workshop or a post-show Q&A with the theatre company where at least two backstage technical team take part (e.g. Sound Technician, Stage Manager). Alternatively, teachers may devote time in class to assemblies, discussions of the themes of the performance or make use of the resources and modules offered in our Education Hub.
Grant recipients will be asked to provide full feedback in the Student Impact Evaluation Form as to which education experiences you provided and how students responded to them.
What productions are you eligible to apply for?
Eligible productions
We support applications for professional productions only. These can be musicals, plays and pantomimes from a company visiting your school, at a local venue or at a theatre. We do not offer grants towards, dance, choir or opera productions.
If the production is curriculum-related (e.g Macbeth where the playtext is studied for GCSE English Literature), we will only fund places for the students in receipt of Pupil Premium/Free School Meals.
We do not expect to pay more than £15 per theatre ticket and request applicants request education rate tickets.
Seeing different types of productions
We like to support projects that reach a large number of children and young people and provide a broad spectrum of live performance experiences. When you apply for grants over time, we encourage you to look at a range of performance types and genres. Touring companies can be an excellent way to expose a larger audience to the theatre especially if they visit schools or regional venues. For example, if you apply for a musical one year, the next time you apply, explore a different performance type.
What to expect from the application process & beyond
1. Read the eligibility criteria
Once you have read and understood the eligibility criteria and feel you meet the basic criteria for applying, it’s time to fill out an application form. To see the questions, you can save the form and return to it later.
If you have any questions, contact us.
2. Review the timings of the application window
We have three application windows per year. See full details of each window here.
Please ensure your performance falls on or after the applicable start-date for your specific window.
It will not be possible to apply outside of these windows.
3. Fill out the application
Complete the form and submit it during the application window. Once you’ve submitted your form, you will receive an automatic confirmation of submission via email. (Do check your junk).
Please do not book any theatre tickets or travel ahead of your grant being approved, any arrangements should be provisional.
4. Application review stage
Your application will then be reviewed by our grants team and independent reviewer, following the close of the application window you’ll receive your application outcome via email, see specific application dates for timeframes.
If your grant is approved, the outcome email will include the amount of funding we will provide.
If your grant is unsuccessful you can apply again in the future.
5. If your grant is successful
Once you’ve accepted the offer you’ll receive a follow up email with an overview of the next steps including information on booking your trip, the Student Impact Evaluation Form and details of when we pay will your grant to you. We suggest reserving tickets and transport at this point.
We’ll keep you informed at every step. 8 weeks before your requested performance date we will send you an email requesting an invoice from your school for 80% of your tw! grant. We’ll pay you (the applicant) directly. With these funds, you can pay the theatre/touring company for the tickets and pay for any transport/activities you’ve reserved.
We’ll also help you book your trip if it’s using a special promotion exclusive to theatre works! such as for Wicked or The Lion King and you’ll be informed of this when you receive your initial outcome email.
6. The theatre trip & evaluation
Have a wonderful theatre experience and share it with us via our social channels. You can also visit our Education Hub to enhance the educational impact of your theatre trip with our resources.
Following your trip we ask that the applicant completes an Student Impact Evaluation Form which collates feedback quotes from the children and young people attending the theatre experience, it’s essential for measuring our impact.
If the evaluation is satisfactory, then the remaining 20% balance will be paid. If balancing invoices are not submitted within 60 days of the performance date, we will withdraw our grant for the outstanding 20% amount.
Important Information for
UK Schools
-
A theatre works! grant can be used to subsidise a school trip to the theatre to see a play, pantomime or musical. It can be used to go towards the cost of tickets, transport and additional education activities like post-show Q&As and backstage tours.
It cannot be used for refreshments and programmes.
UK Schools can apply for a grant of up to £2000.
-
Every 2 years to ensure our support reaches new children.
-
The requested performance date must be on or after the applicable grant application window performance date. We give grants up to 12 months from this date.
-
A curriculum-based play refers to a play where there is a direct link between what students are studying in school and what they will be attending at the theatre.
For example, if students are studying Hamlet in class and will be attending a theatre performance of Hamlet, that would be a ‘curriculum-based’ play and in this case we only pay for Pupil Premium students.
Sharing PSHE themes, safeguarding themes or indirect associations to the curriculum wouldn’t be classified as curriculum-based.
-
Unfortunately, we are unable to support every application we receive due to limited funding available.
We aim to prioritise grants that will deliver the greatest impact for children and young people, particularly those from underserved communities and those who may have had limited previous access to live theatre and cultural activities.
All applications must include at least one educational element linked to the theatre visit. This may be as simple as a post-show Q&A session involving cast and company (with at least two being backstage technical team members. Other examples include backstage tours, workshops, teacher-led classroom activities before or after the visit, or use of resources from the theatre works! Education Hub.
Applications that include multiple educational components are particularly encouraged. You will be asked to provide full feedback in the Student Impact Evaluation Report outlining which educational activities were delivered and how students responded to them.
Please explain in your application how you will ensure that a broad range of children from underserved communities benefit from the programme. Preference will be given to applications that demonstrate clear plans to reach children who may not otherwise have opportunities to attend theatre performances.
Applications from schools serving a high proportion of children eligible for Free School Meals/Pupil Premium are encouraged. We also ask applicants to keep costs proportionate and reasonable wherever possible. However, every effort should be made not to single out individual Free School Meals/Pupil Premium students.
We are keen to consider local needs and gaps in arts access. Applications from rural areas may be prioritised where there is limited access to cultural opportunities for children and young people in the local community.
-
Unfortunately, we are unable to support every grant application due to available funds.
The decision on a grant application is final; we do not engage in discussions on reasons for our decision. However, you may make a subsequent application.
-
Feedback from students and teachers is critical to the charity. People who are considering donating to the charity look at the evidence we provide to see if the charity is being effective. Direct feedback from children is critical to our work.
We like direct quotes that talk about what the experience meant to the student. Please don’t simply say that a Child or young person liked the play. Possible feedback questions are provided on the evaluation report. If related workshops or educational materials are created, please tell us about them. We also like to see extracts of written work or pictures students created.
Video footage is welcome including from any workshops or post-event activities. We appreciate that getting parental permission for filming students can be challenging.
Please note that the quality of your feedback (and application) will be taken into account as part of the consideration given to any future applications to theatre works!
-
The Student Impact Evaluation form is due to 30 days after the performance.
Consider how you will gather feedback from students if the performance is close to the end of the school term.
See Terms and Conditions for more information.
Apply Now
Now that you’ve read the criteria, you’re ready to complete the application form when the next application window opens.
-
Please note that the quality of your feedback (and application) will be taken into account as part of the consideration given to any future applications you may make to theatre works!
You have six months from the date of our approval to your application to claim your grant by submitting your initial 80% invoice.
You must claim the balancing 20% within 60 days of the performance otherwise you will forfeit payment.
You confirm that a written Child Safety Policy equivalent to that adopted by the NSPCC is in place, including a Disclosure and Barring Service or equivalent checks for everyone who will be working with the children.
You confirm that the grant will only be used for the purposes outlined in the application, and any unspent funds will be returned to us.
If false information is provided or funds are used for purposed outside those outlined, we will require repayment of funds.
theatre works! will not accept responsibility for any claims arising from the events for which funding has been agreed.
You agree that we can make public the name of the school(s) or sponsoring organisation that receives a grant from us.
You agree that any information provided to us, including quotes and photos from children and teachers, can be used for the charity’s promotional purposes.