Bradford City of Culture 2025

Local Stories for Learners

We are leading the evaluation of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture’s Local Stories for Learners programme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

Local Stories for Learners supports schools, educators and cultural partners to work with local heritage, storytelling and place-based narratives, with a strong focus on children and young people. The programme is closely aligned to Bradford 2025’s wider story of change and long-term ambitions for the city. 

Our work focuses on learning as much as accountability. We are designing a learning-led evaluation framework aligned to heritage outcomes and Bradford 2025’s place-based priorities, helping partners understand what works, for whom, and why. 

We support educators and delivery partners to capture learning through proportionate, accessible tools that fit into busy school and programme contexts. Using creative and story-based methods, we are capturing pupil voice, educator insight and partnership learning in ways that are engaging, ethical and meaningful. 

A key strand of the evaluation explores how place, heritage and storytelling contribute to engagement, identity and belonging - particularly for children and young people growing up in Bradford. 

We synthesise learning across the programme to inform future cultural education practice and to support a lasting legacy beyond 2025, ensuring insight generated now continues to shape work with learners, schools and communities in the years ahead.