Arts Award can be a highly adaptable way of enabling young people facing acute challenges to develop and achieve. But what happens when its your school's first year of delivery and unprecedented circumstances threaten to interrupt students' work at a critical stage of learning? Head of Music at the Wirral Hospitals' School, Sofie Steff, charts their Arts Award journey through lockdown.

The Wirral Hospitals' School is an alternative therapeutic school, serving young people and families on the Wirral. Our students have highly complex needs. Students have been medically and/or CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) assessed as unable to access mainstream education.

These young people may suffer from mental health issues, gender dysphoria, many are diagnosed as having an Autistic Spectrum Condition and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder),others are living with multiple medical conditions and a significant number of our students also suffer from conditions such as selective-mutism, sensory issues and language disorders. As a result of these medical issues they are at an increased risk of isolation and limitions to social mobility and employment, which in turn increases the risk of ongoing mental health problems.

Our school changes lives. It helps children to re-engage, enjoy their learning and be successful.

Our vision in introducing Arts Award was to incorporate it into the school curriculum. This would help us to highlight the great work we already do in school and to celebrate individual successes.

The Arts subjects are some of our most popular GCSE options. Music, whilst decreasing in popularity nationally, has continued to grow in our school where we usually see at least 30% of KS4 students taking Music at GCSE level. We provide a practical approach to music making, where theory and appraisal are all taught through performance and composition. Our focus on the use of visuals, speech and language theories has helped us develop key resources suitable for the needs of our young people.

A lot of our families may not be able to offer the opportunity of private music lessons or be able to afford a musical instrument, so delivering the arts in a school setting is invaluable for these students. Some may not get the chance to go to art galleries or live performances outside school time but working towards Arts Award through school allows them to make and reflect on visits, creating further learning through direct experience.

Our Arts Award journey through lockdown

In the academic year 2019-20 we enrolled 25 students for Arts Award Bronze. Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic meant we were unable to enter all the students, so we opted for the youngest pupils in the cohort to delay and instead complete the Award this academic year. However, it was imperative that we supported our Year 11 students to complete their Award utilising distance learning. Due to the complex and vulnerable nature of our pupils, we applied for the Extraordinary Regulatory Framework (ERF) adapted assessment arrangements. This meant we had to evidence 50% of the students' completed work.

We communicated with our students as much as possible, via email, telephone calls and some face-to-face work (as our school remained open throughout lockdown). Naturally, we were delighted when every one of our entered students passed; giving them an additional, fully recognised Level 2 qualification.

In this subsequent academic year, we aim to complete the work we had started with our other KS3 and KS4 students, so that they too can gain the Award and the recognition.

What did we want our students to gain from doing Bronze?

We wanted students to have the opportunity to achieve a well-recognised and accredited arts qualification. A specific trait of autism is a young person’s ‘special interest’. We have used Arts Award as a way of getting to know our students and helping them explore their interests in the context of a school setting. This has helped to improve resilience, confidence and attendance.