Greenwood Primary & Nursery School receives prestigious Artsmark Award

Pupils and staff at Greenwood are celebrating after receiving a prestigious Artsmark Award in a momentous year for the programme as it celebrates 20 years of arts, culture and creativity in schools.

The Artsmark Award is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It supports schools to develop and celebrate arts and cultural education, putting creativity and wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum. Artsmark ensures every young person can be creative and access a diverse, high-quality cultural education.

In order to achieve their Artsmark Award, Greenwood, an academy within the Flying High Partnership, had to develop their arts and culture provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum. This was achieved by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school.

Staff at Greenwood were supported by The Mighty Creatives in planning and developing their objectives. CAPTIVATE – our school cultural partnership worked alongside the school at various stages to support their Artsmark Award achievement.

The Artsmark assessor commended Greenwood, stating, “It is always good to read of the positive impact the Artsmark journey has on individual settings and in Greenwood Primary and Nursery School’s case, the curriculum has been overhauled so that the development of knowledge and progression of skills for the foundation subjects is now clearly planned. There is a clear plan for art in the overall design of the curriculum. As a direct consequence of this you have evidence to show strengths in art. Your partnership with CAPTIVATE has enabled you to continue making the Arts available to the more vulnerable groups of pupils through virtual dance workshops, musical performances, and online art competitions during lockdown. As a designated specialist singing hub sharing your expertise with 35 other local schools through newsletters and CPD opportunities, you are forging new partnerships with other settings.”

On receiving the award, Kim Tucker, Headteacher said: “We’re extremely proud of achieving our Artsmark Silver Award. We are committed to delivering a high-quality arts and cultural education and we look forward to continuing to grow with Artsmark.”

Deputy Headteacher, Sarah Gilbody works closely with Arts partners, Captivate, Notts Inspire Music, Inspire Culture & Library Service and The Palace Theatre in Mansfield. She said she is grateful for their ongoing support. “This year we also became a Nottinghamshire Music Singing Hub School and were nominated for a Music Mark. We are a school in an area of high social disadvantage so it’s important to us to offer all our children memorable experiences which add to their cultural capital and enable them to reach for the stars. Our Flying High values, which include creativity, confidence, enjoyment and aspiration underpin all we do. Visits to a West End show, annually going to see a pantomime, to the ballet, museums, galleries, theatre groups in school, working with local artists, organising and participating in concerts with other schools and learning how to play a ukulele are just some of the things our children will do before they leave us!”

Dr Darren Henley OBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said, “I would like to congratulate Greenwood on their Artsmark Award. Becoming an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, ambitious, and creative curriculum, every pupil can develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”

Pupil Isabel Newman age 4 said she loves doing art at her school. “I like our creative table where we colour things and stick things on paper. I like drawing flowers and my favourite flower is a poppy. We also made pictures for Diwali, and I used coloured rice to make my picture.”

Axle Sant age 5 said, “I like drawing. My favourite is drawing bonfire night pictures. I can draw the fireworks too! I also do art at home where I used scissors to cut out shapes to stick on paper to make a picture.”