Pupils and staff at Bluecoat Primary Academy 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, Bluecoat Primary Academy had to develop their 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.
Bluecoat Primary Academy was supported by The Mighty Creatives in planning and developing their objectives. The Mighty Creatives worked alongside the school at various stages to support their Artsmark Award achievement.
The feedback from Artsmark stated:
Bluecoat Primary Academy have used this Artsmark journey to revise your curriculum, moving from a creative arts curriculum to one where art and music have their own leads and plans for progression. You have an arts policy. You have developed teacher confidence with in-house training on art and sculpture and delivered activity with tangible results with arts organisations and artists including poets, Nottingham Music hub, The Freedom Foundation and Nottingham Playhouse. These links model the Arts as careers to pupils. You have worked to make arts and cultural provision representative of the diversity of the setting, including via a project on the British Libraries Windrush Generation installation. Senior leaders and Arts Leads are increasing the breadth and depth of arts learning opportunities and they actively monitored the Artsmark process. Children are engaged in, and excited by, opportunities to develop and display their talents and arts activities have had an impact on attendance.
On receiving the award, Martha Toogood, Arts Lead for Archway Learning Trust, said: “Bluecoat Primary Academy’s achievement of Artsmark demonstrates the school’s commitment to the providing the very best to nurture the creative and artistic needs and ambitions of their pupils. A whole school achievement in which the talents and expertise of their staff shine through! Congratulations!”
Dr Darren Henley CBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said: “I would like to congratulate Bluecoat Primary Academy 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.”
