Pupils and staff at Milford Infants’ School and Pre-School in Yeovil 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, Milford Infants’ School and Pre-School have developed their arts and culture provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum. This was achieved, with support from the Real Ideas Bridge organisation, by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school.
Somerset Arts Education charity, SPAEDA, and Sound Foundation Somerset, provided additional support to resource their Artsmark journey, with a grant from the Artsmark SPARK scheme.
The Artsmark assessor commended Milford Infants’ School and Pre-School, saying: “staff are now better equipped to teach high quality art and music lessons. You have laid strong foundations for ongoing work with the Arts. By raising the visibility and value of creativity your staff now have a more positive attitude towards the Arts and creativity and more confidence to teach using their strengths and capacities. It starts with engagement and confidence – you have delivered a plan that has boosted both for teachers and young people. This puts you in a strong position to embed your new ways of working and reflect on what makes them effective in your setting.”
About Artsmark Award
This year, the Artsmark Award celebrates its 20th anniversary as the only creative quality standard for schools and education settings. It can help unlock young people’s potential, building their confidence, character, and resilience.
Artsmark’s clear and flexible framework can be used to embed creativity across the whole curriculum, address school improvement priorities and ensure every young person can access a diverse, high-quality cultural education.
Artsmark is open to primary, secondary, and special schools, pupil referral units, secure settings, youth offending teams, hospital schools and sixth form colleges. Artsmark is awarded at three levels; Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Congratulations to Milford Infants and Pre-School!
