1. About
  2. About World Pencil

About World Pencil

World Pencil, set up in 2015/16, develops projects, campaigns, experiences and tools around the coming together of arts, education and sustainable development: creative ways to unleash individual and organisational potential and to work towards the thriving sustainability of society and planet.

World Pencil is made up of a charity - World Pencil Trust - and a social enterprise - World Pencil Ltd, which donates the majority of its profits (almost 100% to date) to World Pencil Trust. We work through a small central team and a wide range of partner organisations, associates and online communities.

Our vision centres around three big ideas:

  • sustainable development – the inter-related complex of challenges and issues facing our lives on and with the planet that operates globally as it does locally;
  • being exceptional – how every person can fulfill their potential as who they are, and be valued, personally and economically, for what they can do in the contexts where they do it;
  • ‘cutting-edge human’ – in a world that increasingly asks how to sustain humanity as technology does everything for us, we are driven by what it is that people can and could do, with the right opportunity, technology, support and challenge.

Our mission is to support creativity at the coming together of arts, education and sustainable development – developing innovative, scalable approaches to complex, global challenges, and changing the world starting closest to home.

 

People

Cathy Mahmood's picture

Cathy Mahmood,
Youth Engagement Associate

She joined the World Pencil team to support youth engagement in the Wild Isles 'Young Voices for Nature' project, and has a strong background in working with young people to shape and design the creative and cutlural opportunities and strategies that are available to them. Cathy manages ChalleNGe, Nottingham's Local Cultural Education Partnership, hosted by Nottingham Trent University. She leads an ambitious programme with the city's arts and cultural sector, young people, schools and youth and community organisations to enable every child to have a broad, adventurous and creative education in Nottingham. Cathy has extensive experience in partnership projects from working in a variety of arts management roles over the last 20+ years, including as General Manager for New Perspectives Theatre Company, and Arts Policy Manager in the NHS.

Rupert Rowbotham's picture

Rupert Rowbotham,
Creative Impact Programme Coordinator

Rupert is a creative educationalist with a track record co-ordinating, implementing and developing diverse and inclusive projects, partnerships and programmes for a range of contexts, schools and cultural organisations. He has a particular specialism in theatre and drama education.

Ben Sandbrook's picture

Ben Sandbrook,
Director

Ben Sandbrook has worked in arts, education and sustainable development for 20 years, supporting partnerships, organisations and individuals to develop their approaches and capacities in creative learning. He has worked for the National Foundation for Youth Music, ABRSM, International Institute for Environment and Development and, through his consultancy work, with numerous arts, education and sustainability organisations, including Arts Council England, Business in the Community, schools, Local Authorities, arts and cultural organisations. He has frequently convened and led large network-based change programmes and speaks widely on creativity, individual potential, sustainable futures and the potential of the arts. He is a school Governor and a practicing musician.

Amy Colquhoun's picture

Amy Colquhoun,
Trustee of World Pencil Trust

Amy is Head of Sixth Form at Prior Park College. She is proud to have spent over twenty years teaching in the classroom and has worked in both state and independent schools in the UK and overseas. She has an extensive track record in helping young people in many secondary schools to solve and support social and environmental challenges.

Nick Beach's picture

Nick Beach,
Trustee of World Pencil Trust

Nick has an extensive career in music education policy and strategy, having worked for 15 years with Trinity College London, most recently as Group Director of Sector Strategies. He has a wide experience and knowledge of arts and education in the UK and internationally.

Partners

A selection of the organisations we work with and for...

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We were commissioned by Nesta to undertake a consultative analysis of playful learning landscapes in the UK for young children, looking particularly at how you can build places and environments in which children will spontaneously play in ways that encourage learning, even more than they naturally do!
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We're supporting HCEP with consultation and partnership strategy
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We've undertaken several consultancy commissions for Artswork, principally around developing their programme of support for cultural education partnerships.
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We undertook a consultative analysis around the economic potential for cultural impact on purpose, as part of the British Council's Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth programme, working with Nordicity.
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We ran a children and young people's consultation for Banes and South Glos Music Hubs and developed strategy recommendations and support.
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We ran a children and young people's consultation for South Glos Hub and developed strategy recommendations and support.
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We've been working with musinc on developing the Music and Social Impact toolkit, as well as supporting them with organisational development around social impact.
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We're working with Nordicity on a national evaluation of the In Harmony programme for Arts Council England
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We ran a Commission for Enquiry on 'Whose Excellence is it anyway' at ROH Bridge's conference, 'The Paths Children Take'
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We're working with Unicef on approaches for developing 21st-century skills in education settings.
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We're supporting ACE with evaluating the In Harmony programme, and mapping and strategy for the creative arts in the early years in England.
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We contributed to Artswork's 2016 conference a session on Arts Education Purpose and the future of jobs.
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We supported BITC with visual communications for their water sustainability campaign: Smart Water.
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We've worked with Earlyarts on a variety of projects, including running the Early Years Strategic Roundtable, building the BornCreativeTogetherCreating campaign, advising Arts Council England on policy direction, and undertaking early years research for CapeUK and A New Direction.
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We consulted, researched and produced for A New Direction a mapping analysis on arts and culture in the early years across London.
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We worked with the Education team at Glyndebourne to develop enquiry-based learning in their work with children and young people.
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We're working with Anna Bull at the School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies at Portsmouth University to develop a UK-wide programme looking at safety and welfare in music education.
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We ran the highly influential Musical Progressions Roundtable with AYM from 2012-15. We've also supported them with project design and training around musical progression and peer-to-peer mentoring, most recently in their Talent2Talent project.
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We've supported soundLINCS with corporate strategy, social impact, business planning and income generation and we're working with them as a partner on the Scaling Up Musical Inclusion project.
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We contributed to RESEO's conference on evaluation of opera and dance work with children and young people.
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We're working with Brighter Sound, Manchester-based community music organisation, on the Scaling Up Musical Inclusion project.
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We're working with Youth Music, as funder and partner, on the Scaling Up Musical Inclusion project.
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Working with EarlyArts we undertook for IVE a piece of consultative research and mapping analysis, looking at early years arts and culture in Yorkshire and the Humber. This culminated in a report - Where Ideas are Growing.