Project Highlights: Autumn Term 2026

Project Highlights: Autumn Term 2026

We're delighted to share some exciting projects taking place in the Borough this coming academic year, a very wide range of creative opportunities for children and young people across Tower Hamlets.

Bengali Instrumental Resources

In early September, we held our termly INSET day with our peripatetic music tutors at Tower Hamlets Town Hall, where we introduced the complete collection of Bengali Instrumental Resources. This is a collection of 13 Bengali pieces produced by Olly Weeks and Sohini Alam, and commissioned by THAMES, complete with lyrics, scores, backing tracks and instrumental and vocal parts, available for music tutors to use in their group teaching to celebrate the rich Bengali cultural heritage and history in Tower Hamlets. Contact us if you would like to access these resources. 

Lights Camera Score: Night Mail

Little People Big Noise, in partnership with the English Chamber Orchestra and King's College London, return with a new edition of Lights Camera Score, inspired by Benjamin Britten's Night Mail. Pupils from primary and secondary schools will create stories and compose original film soundtracks, performing their work alongside professional musicians. The project culminates in a celebration event at King's College London, showcasing films and newly created scores.

Conductive Music CIC: Here and Heard

Conductive Music has been delivering work in the Borough for many years – this year, their project Here and Heard will use music technology and creative STEAM learning to engage pupils in composing, coding, designing and performing while supporting the curriculum. They will work with mainstream classrooms that include pupils with SEND, EAL needs and other barriers to participation and also offer CPD for teachers to support inclusive music-making.

ETO: Mimi and the Golden Touch

English Touring Opera will bring their new sensory opera Mimi and the Golden Touch to SEND schools in Tower Hamlets. Co-created with Learning Disabled young people, this interactive production explores themes of friendship, individuality and belonging through live music, theatre and participatory experiences and we are very proud to be supporting ETO with bringing this work to schools in the Borough.

Wyatt Sinfonia: The Planets - Beyond Earth

Wyatt Sinfonia is continuing their project The Planets this year. It is an ambitious project which started last year with bringing schools to co-compose a response to Holst’s “The Planets.” For Part 2 of the project, Wyatt Sinfonia will work with a number of schools across Hackney and Tower Hamlets and perform the new work at EartH in November 2026.

Spitalfields Music: Primary Big Sing

Spitalfields Music are continuing with delivering their Primary Big Sing project, which is a fantastic way to get young people to learn new material and sing together with other schools in an exciting concert. We ended last summer with a big singing event at Town Hall, and the project continues with an even this November 2026 as well as later in Summer Term 2027.

Chisenhale Gallery: Thinking Like an Artist: Developing Curious Classrooms Through Aesthetic Enquiry

Chisenhale Gallery are piloting Thinking Like an Artist: an innovative teacher development programme which draws on Visual Thinking Strategies and Philosophy for Children to explore how contemporary art and aesthetic enquiry can strengthen children’s oracy, critical thinking and curriculum learning. Initially piloted with Chisenhale Primary, learning and practice will also be shared more widely with Tower Hamlets teachers.

Half Moon: Empowering Wellbeing Through Creativity

Half Moon are championing wellbeing through arts and participation-based interventions in this year’s programme. This includes CPD for primary teachers, secondary-focused Careers in Theatre, and MoonPass, a free theatre ticket scheme for EYFS and Key Stage 1 children and families.

Rich Mix: Big Screen, Big Ideas

Big Screen, Big Ideas comprises termly screenings, film and multimedia workshops and takeover days, teachers’ CPD and Young Film Club after school provision. Work from this year’s programme will also contribute to a permanent multimedia exhibition as part of Rich Mix's Ground Floor capital redevelopment in 2027.

THAT Network London: Beyond Boundaries

THAT Network London will curate and produce their annual flagship public exhibition, showcasing work from young people across the Borough in March 2027. Working with local arts partners, they’ll also organise an exhibition of teachers’ work, CPD, and workshops for students, providing Tower Hamlets art teachers and young people with valuable opportunities to collaborate and develop their creative practice.

Unicorn Theatre: Creative Families – Improving the Cultural Capital for Children in Tower Hamlets

We’re supporting Unicorn Theatre to deliver artist-led collaborative projects with children aged 0-7 and their grown ups as well as creative play workshops in the Borough’s Family Hubs and Children’s Centres. This project will engage local children and families who don’t have an existing relationship with the theatre and face barriers to access cultural activities.

Whitechapel Gallery: Post Colony

This series of artist-led workshops and gallery visits will explore the legacies of British colonialism explored by art and artists included in Whitechapel Gallery’s 2027 exhibition, Post Colony: Artists and the Legacy of the British Empire. The programme will reach over 200 Tower Hamlets children and young people, encouraging them to produce creative responses rooted in their lived experience.