Company Story
Primary Colours was set up by Marcia Hutchinson in 1997 as a publishing and learning company specialising in cultural diversity. Today it is one of the leading providers of high quality, culturally inclusive resources, helping schools to embed cultural diversity within the Curriculum while broadening their teaching and learning. As well as its many publications, Primary Colours also provides Theatre-in Education performances and INSET training. Primary Colours is grateful for support from Arts Council England.

The Idea
Primary Colours was founded over 10 years ago when Marcia discovered that is was extremely difficult to find culturally diverse books for her own children. After several conversations with other parents she became convinced that there was a need for realistic books which reflected the life experiences and aspirations of black children living in Britain (as opposed to in Africa). After ten years in corporate law she decided it was time for a change, handing in her resignation as a top-earning solicitor to pursue her vision.

The early years
Marcia felt that is was important to create books of a very high quality which would immediately catch people’s attention. A keen photographer, she decided to put together photographic books using real children and real life situations. Making Music and Away From The City were her first books, aimed at three to seven year olds - both are still in print today and are now also available in teaching pack formats.

In the years that followed, Primary Colours created several more books, the majority of which were being bought by schools. To encourage further use by schools, a range of culturally diverse teaching packs were created to help promote cultural diversity within the Curriculum. It soon became clear, however, that schools needed more support than this so, in addition to the books and resources, Primary Colours began delivering Theatre-in-Education performances to demonstrate the practical uses of the resources in an educational setting. As a result, Pete Tidy, a former teacher with over 20 years experience in infant, junior and secondary special schools joined in 1999 to help perform, write, and manage this side of the business.

10 years on
To date, Primary Colours has published over 20 books and 2 CD ROMs on culturally diverse topics ranging from Caribbean food to the biographies of successful, inspirational Black and Asian achievers, past and present.

The team has now expanded to include Creative Director Pete Tidy, Shazia Azhar, Deputy Head Teacher at Spring Grove Huddersfield Junior Infant and Nursery School who came on board in 2003 to provide invaluable curriculum guidance, Stefanie Carter, who manages Website Administration and researcher and designer John Ashton.

The Theatre-in-Education side of the business has grown dramatically (no pun intended) and actors are now being recruited to take the shows on the road all over the country. Primary Colours also provides INSET Training to help bridge the gap between government policy on cultural diversity and the practical guidance available for teachers. Sympathetic training is offered on how to implement government policy on a practical basis to teachers, schools and educationalists. The approach taken to training is creative and fun, using drama techniques such as role play, freeze frame, hot-seating and including the history of popular music.

A series of creative projects has also been delivered to schools around the country, combining INSET training with in-school performances; the largest of which was ‘The Cultural Curriculum Project’ based on five Primary Colours publications. This project delivered shows to 22,214 children and 2,060 adults; in total over 60,000 children and adults have seen Primary Colours in action.

Our current, ‘Journeys’, looks at post-War migration and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, is also proving extremely successful and with the DCFS announcement that the study of slavery is to be made compulsory at Key Stage 3, the interest in this programme is growing daily. 

Brand Values
As Primary Colours continues to grow, the passion that fuelled Marcia to set up the business remains. The range of resources, publications and shows are constantly being updated and new project ideas are being explored all the time.

Primary Colours believes that the arts are an essential part of education and seeks to continue promoting diversity through creativity at a national level.