The children and the staff have all worked very hard over the past few years to ensure that we grow and develop in our commitment to The Arts and this can be shown in the experiences that they are having as well as the level of work that they can produce.
See below some excerpts from the Arts Council England’s feedback on our recent achievement.
‘Delamere school’s Artsmark journey has built on its commitment to the arts as a powerful vehicle to foster pupils’ wellbeing
The pandemic brought this very much into focus, when there was inevitably a loss of aspects of arts provision and external collaborations. You adapted well to sustain an arts offer and you have worked hard to restore and reset your provision. Stronger skills progression documentation and supportive guidance have seen staff confident to introduce an increased range of arts. Your music specialist has worked alongside staff and you have offered CPD in Mindfulness Art and a range of creative opportunities that have strengthened your staff community. You have strong systems in place for monitoring and analysing pupils’ access to the arts and to cultural capital, leading to personalised interventions to fill any gaps and to foster talents. You have increased your range of offer, within the constraints of funding, restoring or making new connections with Northern Ballet, the Edge Theatre and others. Children have enjoyed theatre visits, worked with professional artists, had drama workshops, entered poetry competitions, performed at a local theatre and showcased their art in local shops and online.
The arts are making a tangible difference to your community and going forward, it would be helpful to describe how the arts are taught and to capture evidence, perhaps through case studies, of how the arts specifically impact on learning and wellbeing.
You are committed to developing the therapeutic value of art and you have developed the role of your music specialist to incorporate music therapy following the absence of funding for Nordoff Robbins provision. You have some emerging links with other settings and you might consider how these, along with further collaborations with creative practitioners and arts organisations, can contribute to staff CPD.
We look forward greatly to hearing how your journey progresses, including how you make use of your exciting new arts space!
ArtsmarkArts Council England – December 2023
In December 2018 we began our regular Arts mark journey, where we pledged our commitment to the arts at Delamere for the pupils. Since then we have developed art within the school and ensured the children have a varied, inclusive and authentic experience of the arts. This includes art and design, drama, music and dance.
As part of our commitment to the arts we have adapted the curriculum to ensure it is of an outstanding quality, as well as incorporating the use of specialist staff to provide interventions and introduce arts award to the children whilst raising cultural engagement through building relationships with external arts organisations. We are now on our next journey to achieve our Gold award. Watch this space…
How we plan our sessions/projects is measured against the guiding quality principles of Artsmark. These are –
Take a look at some of the fantastic work the children have taken part in…
Click here to access further information from the national Artsmark website.
