SCHOOL & HERITAGE CONSULTANCY

We are looking for four organisations to work with us remotely over two academic years.

We are seeking:

• Two primary schools where at least 50% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium.

• One heritage organisation with a small or part-time learning or outreach team.

• One further heritage organisation of any size.

Both heritage organisations should be looking to develop or strengthen their work with schools.

All consultancy provided as part of the pilot will be free of charge.

In return, we are looking for organisations willing to make a genuine two-year commitment, work collaboratively with LHH and help us test, evaluate and improve the model.

Our school consultancy will be shaped around the needs, community and context of each school.

Support could include:

• an initial audit and consultation

• a bespoke development plan

• remote staff CPD or INSET

• local history curriculum development

• exploring place, identity and belonging through the curriculum

• identifying opportunities to connect learning with the school's local area

• developing relationships with local heritage and community organisations

• coaching and regular check-ins

• evaluation and impact review

• development of a final case study

For this pilot, we are specifically looking to work with primary schools where at least 50% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium.

This is a deliberate part of the pilot's design. It reflects LHH's commitment to ensuring that access to meaningful local history, heritage and opportunities to develop a sense of place and belonging is not determined by a school's circumstances or resources.

Our aim is not to provide schools with an off-the-shelf local history curriculum. We want to help each school make better use of the people, places, stories and heritage that surround it and develop an approach that can be sustained beyond the consultancy itself.

We want to work with heritage organisations that would like to develop or strengthen their engagement with schools.

Support could include:

• understanding what schools and teachers need

• reviewing your current schools offer

• identifying relevant curriculum connections

• developing relationships with teachers and schools

• thinking strategically about communication and outreach

• identifying realistic opportunities for school engagement

• developing an achievable action plan

• making school engagement manageable and sustainable

• coaching, reflection and evaluation

The aim is not simply to create resources for organisations.

Instead, we want to help develop the understanding, relationships and structures that make effective engagement with schools possible over the longer term.

As part of the pilot, we particularly want to understand what effective schools engagement can look like for smaller heritage organisations where staff time, funding and capacity may be limited.

Although participation in the pilot is free, we are looking for organisations that can make a genuine two-year commitment.

Schools will need a named member of staff to lead the work, with awareness and support from senior leadership and governors.

Heritage organisations will need a named contact with sufficient capacity to engage with the programme.

All participating organisations will be asked to engage with agreed meetings and activities, contribute honestly to evaluation, share feedback and help us understand what is and isn't working.

We would also like to develop case studies from the pilot so that the learning can benefit others. Any public use of an organisation's name, photographs or identifiable material would be discussed and agreed separately.

Applications are now open for organisations interested in joining the 2026–28 pro bono consultancy pilot.

The pilot is open to organisations anywhere in the country, with all consultancy delivered remotely.

School applicants must be primary schools where at least 50% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium.

Heritage applicants should be actively looking to develop or strengthen their engagement with schools.

We are deliberately keeping the pilot small so that we can work closely with each organisation and learn properly from the experience.

We’ll be reviewing applications during November and aim to confirm the four pilot places by early December 2026. If you’re interested in taking part, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

• APPLY AS A SCHOOL

• APPLY AS A HERITAGE ORGANISATION

2026–27: Explore and develop

The first year will focus on understanding each organisation's starting point, identifying priorities, testing approaches and developing the consultancy model collaboratively.

We expect to learn as much from our pilot partners as they learn from us.

2027–28: Implement and evaluate

During the second year, the emphasis will increasingly move towards implementation, embedding change and understanding impact.

By the end of the pilot, we hope to have a much clearer understanding of what effective consultancy in this space looks like, what organisations value most and how LHH can provide it sustainably.

The learning from both years will inform the development of our wider consultancy offer.

Our ambition is to launch a wider LHH School & Heritage Consultancy offer from September 2028.

We are already inviting expressions of interest from organisations that may be interested in working with us in future.

This is open to schools, multi-academy trusts, museums, archives, historic sites, local history organisations, community heritage groups, local authorities and other organisations interested in local history, place and belonging.

There is no commitment and no pricing attached at this stage.

Expressions of interest will help us understand what organisations need, what support they value and how we can develop an offer that is both sustainable for LHH and affordable for organisations of different sizes.

• EXPRESS INTEREST FOR SEPTEMBER 2028 ONWARDS

LHH School & Heritage Consultancy is rooted in the wider mission of Local History Hub.

We want more children to encounter the history of the places in which they live.

We want teachers to feel confident using the heritage around their schools.

We want heritage organisations, including smaller organisations with limited capacity, to be able to build meaningful relationships with education.

We also want Local History Hub itself to be sustainable.

As a Community Interest Company, that means developing a healthy mix of income from different sources rather than relying on any single funding stream. Consultancy has the potential to become one part of that mix.

Importantly, its purpose is not to replace our free provision or move existing support behind a paywall.

If successful, consultancy income would help support an organisation that continues to provide free Local History Hub membership, free core CPD and opportunities for schools and heritage organisations across the country.

The 2026–28 pilot is the beginning of that process.

It will help us develop a model that is useful, evidence-informed, affordable and sustainable, while remaining firmly rooted in LHH's mission to strengthen local history, place and belonging in schools.