Artsmark has been designed by schools, for schools, to align with School Development Plans, giving the curriculum breadth and balance. As well as recognising schools that are making the arts come alive, the Artsmark award is a practical and valuable tool for enriching a school’s arts provision, whatever the starting point.
Breaking News – Ducklington awarded Artsmark Gold
Feedback from the Arts Council
You’ve achieved an Artsmark Gold Award!
We are delighted to inform you that your setting has been awarded an Artsmark Gold Award. Congratulations!
Your Statement of Commitment and Statement of Impact have been assessed and we’re pleased to share this feedback from our assessors with you:
‘The arts are highly valued at Ducklington CE Primary School. There is a relentless focus on making the most of every opportunity when it comes to the development of the arts. For instance, during the Covid pandemic lockdown The Arts Team used this time to make connections with art specialists from social media and learning about current trends and challenges. School leaders drive and develop the arts and governors play an active role in supporting and monitoring standards in the arts. Leaders wrote a new progression framework to support staff in developing the vocabulary, knowledge and skills needed for teaching the arts. Staff are further supported through CPD delivered internally and as well as by external partners. Your links with Kingham Lodge have enabled you to provide many CPD opportunities led by funded artists to run workshops for the children where staff can observe and learn too. You provided a lovely example of a confident art teacher who was not so confident in using charcoal, who after observing the artist working with children demonstrating different charcoal techniques, has now gone on to use charcoal in her own art teaching effectively. Further support is given through whole school staff meetings where standards and achievement in sketch books are audited and monitored for progression. Sketchbooks are shared and examples, including those from another school are discussed. This would suggest you have clear expectations and a shared agreement of what quality in sketchbooks should be. The use of Access Art, Kapow and Paul Carney Art provide further support and structure in terms of expectations, progression and authentic cross curricular links between art and other areas of learning such as history, geography and science. The use of Kapow enables leaders to ensure appropriate links are made with diverse artists from around the world promoting tolerance and understanding of a range of cultures and, developing the children’s sense of belonging to the wider world. Children are given many opportunities to create, making decisions about scripts, costumes, sets, music, explore ideas, take risks and develop a sense of self. This is wonderful but, could you now develop this further? Your plan to introduce Art Ambassadors is a good place to start. Art Ambassadors could contribute actively to the planning and delivery of authentic arts, cultural and creative experiences. You could also share your progression documents with the children (in child speak) so they could take not only a deeper ownership of their engagement within the arts but, also their personal progression. As you continue to progress in developing the arts, you might find it helpful to collect examples of the impacts the arts are having on children’s outcomes. You could use this to help you a write up a case study should you decide to become advocates of the arts beyond your locality in the future.
Congratulations on your Artsmark Gold Award!