Artsmark School Celebrations

On the 11February Curious Minds held a celebration event for schools right across the North West who had achieved Artsmark and Artsmark Gold status during Round 13 of Arts Council England’s flagship programme – Artsmark – a programme that enables educational settings to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision. The Artsmark programme is delivered by Trinity College London and 10 regional Bridge organisations drive participation, one of which is Curious Minds in the North West.

Over the last two rounds, 397 North West schools have achieved Artsmark and over 70 schools came together on Tuesday 11 February 2014 at the Pyramid & Parr Hall, Warrington to celebrate their success.

The schools were joined on the day by a selection of the North West’s leading arts and cultural organisations and some of the North West’s cultural education leaders.

Schools were treated to keynote speeches by Janet Palmer of Ofsted, Sam Cairns of the Cultural Learning Alliance and Margaret Hagan  – ex deputy head teacher of St Sebastian’s Catholic Primary School in Liverpool all of them focusing on the value of arts and culture for schools and learners.

All delegates had the chance to take part in a smorgasbord of inspiring and thought provoking workshops focusing on the best practice in cultural education. Sessions were run by Abraham Moss School, Clare Mount Special Sports College and Gorsey Bank Primary School.

Curious Minds also presented four nominated schools with special awards. 

Curious Minds and Trinity College London announced the winners in the following categories:

Excellence in the development of children and young people’s leadership skills through art and culture:

Accrington Academy

Students at Accrington designed, performed in and ran the ‘Access All Areas Festival’. They aimed to educate and connect people through art, providing people with a platform to rediscover and express their pride in their community, and prove that the youth of Accrington are a positive force.

Excellence in parental and community involvement in art and culture:

Pinfold Primary School

Pinfold’s ‘Bonkers Bugs’ project is a child-built giant willow bug trail in local community woodland. The school engaged the three primary schools in the village as well as their families and the community in this project, making cross-curricular links between art and science.

Outstanding practice in teaching and learning through art and culture across the curriculum:
Cavendish High School and Gorsey Bank Primary

Cavendish is an SEN school that uses the arts to drive forward learning across the whole curriculum and nurture students’ personal development. Gorsey Bank deliver an arts rich curriculum driven by ‘Inspirational Texts’, which are used to inspire children to create their own artwork whilst also making strong music, cultural and moral links.

An enormous thank you and well done to Abraham Moss School, Clare Mount Special Sports College and Gorsey Bank Primary School who all delivered workshops to share their approaches with other settings. Not forgetting the students of St Sebastian’s Catholic Primary School in Liverpool who treated us to an amazing musical performance!

For a run-down of the Twitter activity on the day, check out Curious Minds’ Celebrating Artsmark 2014 Storify.

You can download and view the presentations from the day below:

Janet Palmer – Ofsted Presentation: Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development

Curious Minds SMSC Presentation Warrington 11.02.14 by Curious Minds

Sam Cairns, Cultural Learning Alliance – Why Study Art Presentation

View a selection of images from the day here: