Congratulations to the 18 New Artsmark Schools in Yorkshire & Humber

A huge well done goes out from the team at IVE to the 18 new Artsmark schools, making 62 schools in Yorkshire & Humber with an Artsmark award.

We’d like to thank 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 Gold

Baildon CofE Primary School

Earlsheaton Infant School

Great Preston VC CofE Primary School

Bricknell Primary School

Estcourt Primary Academy

St Nicholas Primary School

Jerry Clay Academy

Allerton Bywater Primary School

Artsmark Silver

Moldgreen Community Primary School

Birkenshaw Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Netherhall Learning Campus High School

Middleton Primary School

Kippax Ash Tree Primary School

Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy

Lady E Hastings CofE Primary School

Southcoates Primary Academy

Thanet Primary School

St Anne’s School and Sixth Form College

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 Caroline Skipper, the Headteacher at St Nicholas Primary School, for her thoughts about achieving the Gold award.

“We are thrilled that St Nicholas has achieved the Arts Mark Award, especially at the Gold level. Our thanks go to the many people who have helped us achieve such a wonderful award from the Arts Council, England. It is such a highly prized accolade because it celebrates the use of the arts to develop confidence, critical thinking, creativity and imagination of our children.

The process of achieving the Arts mark has not only improved our children’s skills and knowledge but has raised the quality of teaching and learning and the environment.

We look forward to continuing our journey of using the wide range of arts to improve even further in the true spirit of the Arts Council.”

Tracy Swinburne, Head Teacher at Jerry Clay Academy, was similarly proud:

“The whole of the Jerry Clay Academy is absolutely delighted to have gained the recognition of achieving Artsmark Gold. At Jerry Clay, we are passionate about developing all our children’s creativity through the arts. Our mission has been to instil confidence, the ability to risk-take and express individuality through the arts. Staff have been developed along the journey through employing an Artist in residence. This has inspired and upskilled all of our staff. Linking the Arts to all other curriculum areas has also been key and as a result, academic outcomes in all areas have continued to rise to a very high standard. A broad and balanced curriculum, rich in culture and the arts is essential for our children to express themselves in our ever-changing world. We are so proud of our whole community.”

Natalie Oldroyd, the Assistant Principal at Estcourt Primary Academy had this to say.

“At Estcourt we are absolutely delighted to have received the Gold Artsmark Award. During the last two years, we have taken a real journey embedding the once stand-alone ‘Art’ into the ethos of the Academy. We have become firm believers that by promoting the arts and providing the opportunity to experience art, pupils develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence. We would like to give special thanks to Mr Ullah as the leader of Arts at the Academy for driving improvements across the curriculum, establishing long-term links with many external organisations including Creative Briefs, Dinostar, Window Wanderland, Digital Arts and Sewells and many others.

We are so thankful that the Art and Culture developments across our curriculum has enabled us to build a bond with many new Parents and Carers. We have had the ability to work regularly with Governors and the Church within our local community to provide experiences for our children. We are very proud of this! We intend to continue our journey and strengthen and build upon our creative curriculum for our children.”

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

“We’re delighted to see more and more schools in Yorkshire & Humber achieving Artsmark. Every award signifies another school that recognises the importance of providing a high-quality arts education and it’s really heart warming to see so many schools that recognise the value of the arts, especially at a time when budgets and time are stretched. The comments from our new Gold Award Heads are particularly cheering as they clearly see first hand how the arts are helping their pupils become happy, healthy, confident and well rounded people.”

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.