ONGOING ACTIVITIES AND TEACHER RESOURCES
Northumbria Music would be delighted to welcome school groups to our free and informal lunchtime concert series!
Concerts take place on Tuesday lunchtimes during the university semester starting at 1:15. Concerts and recitals are performed by a mix of invited professionals and students, and encompass a range of musical genres, instruments.voices and ensembles.
They are designed to be informal concerts to which our staff and students might bring lunch or slip in and out around teaching. However, this means they are an informal concert set up to which we could welcome school groups of all ages, whether primary, secondary, or sixth form college.
Full details of the concert series can be found here.
If you are intending to bring a student group we'd be grateful if you could let us know in advance by emailing katherine.butler@northumbria.ac.uk. Please direct any questions to the same address.
Working with Years 9-11? Want to give you pupils a taste of studying a subject at university and an opportunity to meet a current student from your own classroom?
Our Junior Evolve subject programme might be for you!
Our student ambassadors design and deliver 50-minute subject session in schools in the North East area. Currently available sessions are:
Misconceptions and English
Misconceptions and English will encourage students to think about common misconceptions, both in terms of English literature (such as Frankenstein’s monster being green) and more broadly (such as lightning not striking the same place twice). The session includes a quiz and a choice of creative or factual writing activity. The idea of misconceptions will be written about and questioned, ending with a discussion to highlight the misconceptions about English degrees and career paths. Throughout the session, pupils will be encouraged to work both independently and in groups, which are valuable skills for university learning. This presentation will encourage the study of English in its many forms, including literature, linguistics, and creative writing. (Suggested level: GCSE-level)
The Mystery of History
This is a history based academic session designed to give students an insight into what it is like to study history at university. The session is based on the assassination of John F. Kennedy and forces students to develop their critical thinking skills by analysing key information about the aftermath of the assassination. The session is designed to push students into creating cohesive arguments based on the evidence available to them, as well as focusing on the provenance of source material. This is a vital skill for stepping into higher education. (Suggested level: Year 10/11)
To find our more or book a session email: Bc.pre16outreach@northumbria.ac.uk
As part of his British Academy-funded project, Speaking Of Prejudice: Examining implicit and explicit language attitudes in England, Dr Robert McKenzie has produced resources for teachers and students of AS and A level English language on Variation and language attitudes in England/the UK.
These resources are relevant to:
- 4.2 Language Diversity and Change ‘...requires students to study social attitudes to, and debates about, language diversity and change’ (AQA, 2021)
- Assessment: Paper 2 Language Diversity and Change, Section A Diversity and Change: ‘An evaluative essay on language diversity’ or ‘An evaluative essay on language change’
- 4.3 Language in Action: ‘...to allow students to explore and analyse language data independently’ (AQA, 2021)
These resources are free to download here:
Liberating Histories is a three-year funded project that analyses UK feminist magazines from 1968 onwards. Using these magazines, the project team has developed a range of resources and workshops for schools that are designed to support the study of GCSE and A-Level English Literature. Resources on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, as well as other useful materials, can be accessed and downloaded at https://liberatinghistories.org/resources/the-handmaids-tale/
Macbeth and Class - A video lecture
Dr Adam Hansen presents this video lecture on Shakespeare's Macbeth and Class.
This session explores Shakespeare's Macbeth in detail, locating the text in its socio-historical context (with a particular focus on 'status' or class), and suggesting ways we can see and hear the concerns of that context when we closely analyse the language of the play.
There are two accompanying handouts:
Contact: Dr Adam Hansen adam.hansen@northumbria.ac.uk
UPCOMING EVENTS
Northumbria University is set to throw open its doors to the public this May as part of The Late Shows, Newcastle and Gateshead's award-winning free after-hours culture crawl, with four events spanning music, history, and community memory.
Taking place across two Northumbria venues on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May 2026, the events offer something for everyone: from hands-on musical exploration to a Tudor role-playing game, a feminist design research open studio, and a collaborative zine workshop celebrating lost urban spaces.
Friday 8 May, 6-9pm – School of Design (City Campus East 2), Northumbria University
Poets and researchers Richard O'Brien and Adam Dixon invite visitors to help create MEMORY LANE: A Collaborative Zine About Lost Spaces.
Participants are encouraged to bring a story or a photograph of a closed, demolished or transformed space in Newcastle or Gateshead.
Contributions will be scanned and woven into a collaborative zine, with everyone who takes part receiving a copy.
Saturday 9 May, 6-10pm– Student Central, City Campus
At Northumbria's Student Central, visitors can get hands-on with Music in Your Hands, a family-friendly exploration of musical instruments from around the world and across the centuries.
Open from 6pm to 10pm, the event invites people to discover how instruments work, make music using everything from seashells to blades of grass, and even invent their own. No musical experience is needed.
Also taking place that evening is A Night in Shakespeare's World, which offers a short, self-paced game informed by the research of Northumbria's Medieval and Early Modern Studies group.
Visitors choose a character from Shakespeare's theatrical world and collect elements to design their own Tudor play, guided by visual, musical and textual sources from the period, with a resident lutenist, poet and catch-singer on hand.
The experience takes around 20 minutes and promises to bring 400 years of music, political intrigue and international connection vividly to life.
All four events are free to attend and form part of The Late Shows' wider programme running across Newcastle and Gateshead on 8 and 9 May.
For more information and the full programme, visit thelateshows.org.uk.
Sixth Form Taster Day - Social Sciences (29 April 2026)
We're holding a Taster Day for sixth form students interested in Sociology, Criminology and Professional Policing Taster Day on 29 April.
There will be three interactive sessions led by our academics to give pupils a taste of what it's like to study at university:
- Two Sides of Crime: What Criminologists and Police Can Teach Each Other
- Your Life: Sociologically
- Justifying Punishment: A Criminological Look at Courts and Sentencing
There will also be chance to explore the campus and ask questions about studying at university and making an application.
For more details and registration please follow this link. (the event has limited spaces so it will be first come first served.)
To view past Events click here.
If you have a query unrelated to a specific event, please contact studentrecruitment@northumbria.ac.uk in the first instance.
