The summer holidays are fast approaching, and what a year it’s been for us here at Eastside!
We wanted to take the opportunity to look back over the last academic year, to celebrate Eastside’s impact and say a massive thank you to everyone who has worked with us and supported us during another ambitious year of delivery.
Eastside's Impact
This year, Eastside ran 745 in-person workshops, reaching an incredible 11,375 children and young people through creative workshops. In addition, we reached a further 48,765 young people through our digital programmes.
This includes workshops run as part of our flagship poetry programme Spoken Word Power, which ran throughout the Autumn and Spring term and saw over 400 students take part in our sharing event at the Criterion Theatre in the West End, where they had the opportunity to perform their original poetry on stage.
In addition, thanks to the wonderful work of our brilliant Regional Partners; Essex Book Festival, Writing East Midlands, Grimm & Co, Writing on the Wall and National Literacy Trust; we reached a further 1,270 students across the country, through in-person Spoken Word Power workshops.
Our 30th Anniversary
As you may be aware, 2024 marks Eastside’s 30th Anniversary. To celebrate, we’ve taken the opportunity to look back over the last 30 years of our work, and to look ahead to our 4th decade.
We started the year by launching a free exhibition at Shoreditch Library showcasing films, podcasts and images of our work over the last 30 years. The aim of the illustrative exhibition was to inspire future generations to explore their creativity and timeline Eastside’s delivery and growth since its first production of Bugsy Malone in 1994.

Artists in Residence
Our Artists in Residence programme has been running throughout the Summer Term in 12 Primary and SEND schools across London.
This programme is an 8-week creative residency, during which schools welcome a professional animation, drama, spoken word poetry or singing artist into their school, to work with students towards a selected school improvement goal, and a creative festival sharing.
Creativity Live
In the last academic year, we have hosted two Creativity Live interactive livestream workshops, on the topics of ‘Celebrating Diversity’ and ‘Celebrating Wellbeing’, reaching an estimated 33,000 young people across the country!
Our livestream workshops deliver against KS2 national curriculum outcomes; developed in collaboration with teachers and expert creative facilitators to put creativity at the heart of school life.
Creativity Live: Celebrating Diversity will be back in October, sign up now to get involved!
East Ed
2024 has also seen the beginning of our partnership with East Ed, a cross-organisational effort between the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) and the cultural venues that are moving into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park: BBC, UCL, UAL’s London College of Fashion, V&A and Sadler’s Wells.
We are very excited to invite schools based in Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney & Waltham Forest to join our upcoming events and funded CPD in partnership with the East Bank cultural venues. Topics include; skills development in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and careers awareness.

Looking ahead to next year...
Eastside School Workshops: Celebrating Diversity
In support of Black History Month in October, we are offering in-person Celebrating Diversity workshops for students from Early Years to KS3 to help schools celebrate and deepen their understanding of Black History.
Students will use drama, storytelling, spoken word poetry and music to connect with and celebrate Black history and culture, all whilst building students’ confidence, vocabulary, oracy and speaking & listening skills.
Our artist-led workshops will offer students the chance to take part in interactive West African traditional tales, explore the incredible lives of Black History Heroes, try African drumming or take part in spoken word poetry workshops inspired by Black British Artists.
Paul Hamlyn Teacher Development Fund
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been selected to be a part of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund.
The Teacher Development Fund aims to enable teachers and school leaders to develop their skills, knowledge and experience in order to embed learning through the arts in the primary curriculum.
We’re looking forward to collaborating with our lead partner school, Cleveland Road Primary School, and others, to explore the theme ‘Who Are We? An Exploration of Identity through Spoken Word’.

Thank you!
Eastside would like to say a massive THANK YOU to each and every person we have worked with this year, from teachers, to artists, young participants, funding bodies and venue staff, for helping us to deliver another ambitious and brilliant year.
We hope you have an amazing summer and we cannot wait to kick start a new year in September, where we hope to work with as many of you as possible!