Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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21. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the investment which has been made from excellence funds to promote creative collaboration among clusters of schools; and if she has plans to expand investment of this sort. [23892/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Building on investment already made in previous years, the Department of Education continues to provide substantial investment in order to expand and promote creative collaboration among clusters of schools.

Under the umbrella of the Schools Excellence Fund, the Creative Clusters Programme was piloted as an action in the first Creative Youth Plan 2017-2022 and supported clusters of three to five schools to work together on building capacity in creativity with the support of a specialist facilitator. Each Creative Cluster receive funding of €3,000 per school in each cluster over a two-year period to implement their project.

The Creative Clusters programme is open to primary and post-primary schools, including special schools, as well as YouthReach centres.

Creative Clusters support includes release time for schools to meet and develop their project, as well as helping bring their creative plans and ideas to fruition over the course of two years.

The resources provided help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their community with their students.

Creative Clusters helps schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms and supports students of all ages to develop creative and critical thinking skills, learning to adapt and collaborate as well as to enjoy and explore artistic and creative expression, whether through traditional arts, STEM or other creative avenues.

Following a positive independent evaluation of the pilot programme in 2022, Creative Clusters continues to be an important programme in promoting and providing creative collaboration amongst clusters of schools. As a specific action as part of the new Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027, launched in March 2023, the planned ongoing expansion of the Creative Clusters Programme will continue to ensure that those hardest to reach children and schools will be provided with collaborative opportunities to engage in creativity in all its different forms.

While established under the umbrella of the Schools Excellence Fund, funding for Creative Clusters is being provided from my department's allocation. Over €2.1 million has been invested to date in Creative Clusters giving 591 schools in 168 clusters the opportunity to work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective.

In addition, in February of this year, I invited schools and YouthReach centres across Ireland to apply to take part in Creative Clusters for the two years commencing September 2024. Up to €575,000 has been made available this year for Creative Clusters and this will enable up to 210 schools to come together across 42 clusters.