We are celebrating after receiving a prestigious Artsmark Award in a momentous year for the programme as it celebrates 20 years of arts, culture and creativity in schools.
The Artsmark Award is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It supports schools to develop and celebrate arts and cultural education, putting creativity and wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum. Artsmark ensures every young person can be creative and access a diverse, high-quality cultural education.
In order to achieve their Artsmark Award, we had to develop our arts and culture provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum. This was achieved by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school.
The Artsmark assessor commended us and said:
‘It is positive to read about the increase curriculum-time devoted to art and how you have developed whole-school planning to ensure personal progression of your children.
The Arts Ambassadors have supported the planning of your curriculum and your art-coordinator has utilised pupil/staff voice to broaden the experiences offered. Sixty KS2 children have also achieved Arts Award Discovery level. As a result of pupil feedback, the SLT invested in a local artist to provide Art4Creativity club for KS1 and KS2 in 2020-21, and then including EYFS in 2021-22, staff gained valuable skills by working alongside the artist.
You have developed a strong relationship with your local Music Hub and all children have had opportunities to perform to their peers, with 98% of children stating they enjoyed the experience.
Despite the challenge COVID presented you utilised virtual tours via The National Gallery, used YouTube tutorials provided by artists and illustrators, such as Rob Biddulph. Pupils watched live performances, including the Christmas Pantomimes that were live streamed by theatre companies. As restrictions eased pupils have again been able to perform and participate in visits to cultural centres.
All the statistics you provide have shown both a significant growth in participation and confidence in the Arts. You have also provided an increased range of arts activities for pupils to participate in.’
We’re extremely proud of achieving our Artsmark Gold Award. We are committed to delivering a high-quality arts and cultural education and we look forward to continue to grow with Artsmark.
Dr Darren Henley CBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said:
“I would like to congratulate Archibald First School on their Artsmark Award. Becoming an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, ambitious, and creative curriculum, every pupil can develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”
