Arts Mark
10 Dec
Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you that you have been awarded an Gold Award!
Your award is valid for two years and will expire on 05 December 2026.
Every Artsmark Award is a significant achievement. Thank you for your commitment to embedding arts culture and creativity across your whole school. We know the work and effort that this takes and would like to use this opportunity to thank you as the Artsmark lead for completing an Artsmark journey. We hope you have seen the real impact that you have had.
We’re pleased to share feedback from our Assessors with you regarding your submissions:
At Great Chart Primary School you have some very good prior practice in and through the arts, notably use of Dorothy Heathcote’s The Mantle of the Expert approach, which is a fabulous route to immersive learning that uses drama techniques. You sought to use Artsmark as a way of auditing what you already did and how you were doing it, with a view to keeping the arts fresh and relevant for learners and staff. Your audits reconfirmed a lot of exciting arts practices. These included such activities as ex-pupils returning to help with photography-work and modelling photography skills during events; a whole-school-participative approach to Sky-Arts-week; arts-focused assemblies highlighting a diverse range of artists/virtual galleries, architects, craftspeople and musicians; and deeper engagement with children taking sole-ownership of sketchbooks in and outside art lessons. Moreover, you are taking your arts practices and skills out into the community and beginning to share them through partnerships. For example, you have lead workshops to create sculptures for community-performances; and linked to the Turner-Contemporary, participating in a Portfolio-competition leading to children’s art being professionally displayed. Areas of greatest strength appear to have been CPD and Leadership; your strategic commitment to the arts as a key element of your overall school plan is underwritten by your senior leadership team and this has led to a strong CPD offer, noted by Ofsted, which has supported staff to grow their practice such that they report no longer feeling out of their depth and beginning to build mastery of skills and approaches. Areas you will probably continue to develop include: Cultural Collaborations and Curriculum Delivery and Design. You have fantastic links emerging, not just with community organisations and cultural venues, but with other schools too. By reflecting on your own CPD and allowing a clear model for your own style of delivery to embed you will be in a great position to share essential principles with other settings as you deepen your links with them.
Huge congratulations again from the Artsmark Team for your significant achievement in receiving your Artsmark Gold Award.
All the best,