The Children's Trust School receives Artsmark Award
Published on: 08/02/23
We are delighted to have been awarded an Artsmark Platinum Award for our work in the arts.
The Artsmark Award is a 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.
To achieve this accreditation, we had to demonstrate our work through a Statement of Commitment and Statement of Impact that were assessed externally.
The assessor fed back that: “It is moving and exciting to read your account of your commitment to the use of the Arts to give agency to your children and young people and to release and foster their creativity. You have applied your principle of doing the Arts WITH and not TO or AT your pupils rigorously and you give wonderful examples of how you enable pupils with profound disabilities to take ownership of their creativity, ensuring agency and control.”
What have we been doing at the School?
The assessor also highlighted our adaptation of equipment to make art accessible, our arts festival which showcased the children and young people’s work alongside local artists and our dedicated music hub, all as great practice.
They were impressed by our music cards which help staff support music in all curriculum areas, illustrating different stages of musical development and suggesting activities to facilitate music. The cards have been used by staff, parents and carers, and other schools.
Going forward
We have started sharing our expertise with other settings to promote equitable access to the Arts. This has included creating a documentary and videos that have been shared on virtual training platforms. We have set up a network of special schools to share good practice and plan to expand the arts festival to be open to other settings and to promote the development of technology to assist in the Arts.
