Wardle High School’s success in achieving the Artsmark award

Wardle High School has been successful in achieving an Artsmark award.

Director of Performing Arts at Wardle High School, Janet Emsley, said: “I am delighted that people's hard work is being recognised, we continue to provide the best quality education for our students who are offered many opportunities to enrich their lives through the Performing Arts.”

Artsmark is the national programme that enables schools, further education colleges and youth justice settings to celebrate, strengthen and evaluate the arts activities they provide. The award supports and encourages formal education institutions to deliver rich and high quality provision.

By achieving Artsmark, a school or education setting shows its commitment to providing a high quality arts and cultural offer for children and young people.

Wardle High School is one of 279 schools and other educations settings in the North West which are amongst the 1580 across England which have been successful in achieving an Artsmark award.

This is the first application round since the programme was re-launched to include further education colleges and youth justice settings, with the award now also having a greater focus on the quality of arts provision as well as the quantity.

This renewed emphasis on quality arts provision has been developed to support Arts Council England in achieving its 10 year goal of ensuring that every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts.

Jane Beardsworth, North West Regional Director, Arts Council England, said: “The arts contribute to the development and well-being of children and young people. They inspire future audiences and the next generation of artists and arts leaders. One of the Arts Council’s goals is to ensure that every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and the Artsmark scheme will help us achieve this. It is so encouraging to see the number of schools across the whole of the North West receiving an Artsmark award – with more awards being presented to schools in this region than in any other part of the country. What a fantastic testament to the range and quality of arts activities and teaching in the North West.”

The latest round of applications reflected the wider range of settings that can apply, with 70 per cent of Founder FE colleges taking advantage of their new eligibility for the programme by applying for Artsmark status.

Other changes to Artsmark include the streamlining of the programme to create two award distinctions; Artsmark and Artsmark Gold, with Artsmark now the equivalent of the old Artsmark Silver.

The Arts Council has also introduced the term ‘Working towards Artsmark’ to replace ‘Not achieving’, in order to support the evolution of Artsmark into an auditing and development tool as well as a mark of quality.

‘Working towards Artsmark’ will involve a support visit rather than an assessment visit. The support visit will help develop a successful application for next year, allowing the school to begin their Artsmark journey.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, said: “The Arts Council has a long history of involvement in arts education and it’s great to see schemes like Artsmark becoming an integral part of more and more school curriculums.

“We took some time last year to review Artsmark and listen to what schools and our other partners had to say about the programme and how we can improve it. The high number of applications from schools and other educational settings clearly illustrates how well received these changes were.

“This re-launched Artsmark programme will play a significant role in achieving our ambition of every young person in the country experiencing what the arts have to offer.”

The Arts Council recently announced that Trinity College London, who also manages Arts Award, had been successful in its application to become the national provider for the Artsmark scheme. Trinity will therefore be responsible for the delivery of Artsmark from September 2012.

Using the same provider for Artsmark and Arts Award will result in a more joined up approach to delivering cultural education for children and young people, both in and out of school.