Pupils and staff 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 the Artsmark Award, we had to develop our arts and culture provision in school 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.

Our school was supported by ‘A New Direction’ in planning and developing our objectives.  A New Direction worked alongside us at various stages to support our Artsmark Award achievement.

The Artsmark assessor commended our school by saying;

‘St Anselm's is school that values the Arts and is driven in wanting the best for its pupils. The appointment of an Arts named governor has raised the profile of the Arts, as have your very ambitious long-term plans to fund-raise and build a dedicated creative arts space. This has the full support of your parents, governors and staff clearly demonstrating everyone's commitment to the Arts. The curriculum has been redesigned with a focus on the progression of skills and knowledge and teachers are now planning many creative activities to support their teaching’. 

On receiving the award, Mrs Marotta said:

“We’re extremely proud of achieving our Artsmark Gold Award. “We are committed to delivering a high-quality arts and cultural education and we look forward to continue to grow with Artsmark.”

Dr Darren Henley CBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said:

“I would like to congratulate St Anselm’s Catholic Primary School on their Gold 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.”