Congratulations to the 6 New Artsmark Schools in Yorkshire & Humber

IVE are delighted to announce 6 newly levelled Artsmark schools for 2017 in Yorkshire & Humber.

We’d like to congratulate these schools for their superb work in delivering excellent arts & cultural education for their pupils and working to continually improve the quality of their arts provision.

The newly awarded schools are:

Artsmark Platinum

• Havelock Academy

Artsmark Gold

• Farnham Primary School
• North Ridge Community School

Artsmark Silver

• Meadowfield Primary School
• Tockwith Church of England Primary Academy
• Appleton Primary School

They’re joining 24 schools in Yorkshire & Humber that have already completed their Artsmark journey and more than 3100 schools across England.

An Artsmark award represents a terrific achievement at any level, demonstrating a commitment to providing high-quality arts and cultural opportunities for all pupils and for working to improve how the arts are taught and viewed in schools.

We reached out to Emma Marshall, the Deputy Principal at Havelock Academy, for her thoughts about achieving Platinum, the highest level of the award.

“The arts is at the forefront of our life at Havelock Academy, in and out of the curriculum, with a wide variety of opportunities available to all pupils.  Working towards the new Artsmark accreditation has provided us with the opportunity to review our provision, looking at the impact of all of the work we do with local and national practitioners, and plan for the next stages of our development, to continue to meet our trust motto of “Broadening Horizons”.  Across the performing and visual arts subjects we will continue to strive to provide the pupils with every possible opportunity, bringing together all of our work each year in our annual production, showcasing all aspects of the arts.”

“Thanks to opportunities from the David Ross Education Trust and from our local music hub for North East Lincolnshire, we have continued strong partnerships with Opera for All, Garsington Opera, Northern Ballet, Apollo 5, and many more, and we look forward to continuing to showcase our work and provide opportunities that open up access to top universities, conservatoires and colleges for our young people. Continuing our Artsmark journey not only provides us opportunities to share our work more widely, but it also gives the pupils the recognition they deserve for all of their hard work and talents.”

IVE’s Cultural Education Director, Sarah Mumford, added:

“We’re delighted to see more schools in Yorkshire & Humber embracing the Artsmark Award and really proud of what these 6 schools have been able to achieve. It demonstrates a commitment to and understanding of the value of the arts and to delivering terrific arts and cultural experiences for children and young people. At a time when arts education in schools is sometimes overlooked by policy and decision makers in education, it is vitally important that we champion schools like Havelock that can offer great arts & cultural opportunities for kids.”

Artsmark is a creative quality standard that serves as a practical and valuable tool for enriching a school’s arts provision. It has been designed by schools, for schools, to align with School Improvement Plans and give the curriculum breadth and balance.

Artsmark schools make a commitment to providing high-quality arts and cultural opportunities for all pupils. They use the arts to inspire learning and develop happy, successful and confident children and young people.

In Yorkshire and the Humber, they are supported in this objective with guidance and advice from us as their regional bridge organisation and other Artsmark schools through regular networking events. They also receive resources, FREE CPD sessions and access to special offers and discounts from arts organisations.

If you’re interested in joining the Artsmark scheme you can learn more on our Artsmark page. We’ve also compiled a number of case studies of the different benefits Artsmark can have for schools.