CSN has provided professional and administrative support to the Colchester Consortium of 14 primary schools since 2001. It involves facilitating work on agreed priorities, supporting professional development and preparing funding bids. As well as managing the ArC (Art Reflecting Citizenship) project, CSN has organised annual conferences, administered and managed an ongoing programme for gifted and talented children, organised consortia-wide staff workshop days and supported head teacher conferences. CSN, working in partnership with GIFT Ltd also organises and administers a termly Gifted and Talented programme for the children from Consortium schools. This takes place on a Saturday and involves provision for both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils.

CSN has coordinated and managed the ArC (Art Reflecting Citizenship) project, a partnership between Colchester Consortium (15 primary schools), firstsite and local artists. The 3 year project, funded by the schools and Arts Council England (East) has now had two highly successful exhibitions of work at the Minories in Colchester.

The exhibitions celebrated the successful completion of the first two years of the project and featured artwork from each school. Displaying a wide variety of art forms from sculpture to music, painting to poetry, each piece reflected an aspect of citizenship which is important to the children who created it. Comprehensive reports on the first and second years of this Arts Council funded project are available from CSN.