Clore Duffield Foundation: Year 2 Applications Now Open for the School Trips Grant

This autumn marks the start of an ambitious programme of over 20,000 visits for 5,000 school children from some of the areas of greatest need across the UK in Blackpool, Cornwall and Portsmouth. This unprecedented investment of £5 million over 5 years from the Clore Duffield Foundation will transform schools’ current trips programmes. It will provide never before experienced visits for students, including trips to London.

In the words of Dame Vivien Duffield: “My personal experience of the joy and excitement of visiting museums as a child gave me the inspiration to create this programme. Those trips opened my eyes to a whole new world of experiences that I will never forget.”

The schools will be going on a rich and inspiring range of trips including to:

• Leading museums and galleries: the National Portrait Gallery, the V&A, the Science Museum, Natural History Museum and Tate 
• Sites of national significance: the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the Olympic Park
• Theatre trips, including to see the Lion King, whole school trips to the pantomime, the Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Theatre Royal, Plymouth 
• UNESCO World Heritage sites and National Trust properties
• Outdoor activity centres, the seaside and places of natural beauty such as Lake Windermere and St Michael’s Mount

1,500 children will be visiting London and 4,500 will be visiting the seaside and the great outdoors.

The Foundation is supporting schools in areas with the highest levels of need in the country at a crucial time for schools when they are being hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis. According to research by the Sutton Trust (April 2023), reports of cuts to trips and outings have more than doubled, now standing at 50%, up from 21% – a proportion that is even higher in schools with the most disadvantaged intakes, at 68%, compared to 44% in the least deprived schools. 

The Foundation’s grant to each school covers 100% of the costs required to fund the programme. 

In this first year of the programme, it is estimated that around 5,000 children will benefit from the funding with c.20,000 visits.

The grant is also providing opportunities for teacher development with teachers taking part in training sessions on how to run a good school trip. Sessions are taking place at leading cultural venues, including Showtown in Blackpool and the Hall for Cornwall in Truro.

Through the grant the Foundation is continuing its commitment to enrichment opportunities for every child. 

The Foundation is delighted to be supporting 12 schools in the first year of the programme:

• Cape Cornwall School (Cornwall) 
• Pensans Community Primary School (Cornwall)
• St Michael’s CofE Primary School (Cornwall)
• Pondhu Primary School (Cornwall)
• Brannel School (Cornwall)
• Camelford Primary School (Cornwall)
• St Stephen’s Community Primary School (Cornwall)
• Highfield Leadership Academy (Blackpool)
• Mereside Primary Academy (Blackpool)
• Devonshire Primary School (Blackpool)
• St John’s Primary School (Blackpool)
• Ark Charter Academy (Portsmouth)

Applications are open for Year 2 

The Foundation is excited to announce that applications are open for Year 2. The grant programme will remain in Blackpool and Cornwall for another year to maximise the impact of the funding in both regions. 

The programme is open to schools in Blackpool and Cornwall with 28% or more free school meal eligible students. 

Find out more and apply, please visit: https://www.cloreduffield.org.uk/schooltripgrant

Deadline for applications: 18:00 on Friday 28 November 2025

Niki Ambrose, Headteacher of Pensans Community Primary School said: “Pensans Community Primary School is proud to be able to give children their first opportunity to experience London, made possible by the generous support of the Clore Duffield Foundation. For many of our pupils, this will be their first journey outside Cornwall and into a city rich with history and culture. We envisage that this visit will ignite awe, wonder and curiosity, providing our children with experiences that broaden horizons and strengthen aspirations. In a community where cultural capital and diversity are limited, opportunities like this are truly transformative.”