St Paul’s Academy has achieved an Artsmark Silver Award!

We were delighted to achieve a silver Artsmark award in January 2023 after three years of gathering evidence to show that the arts are central to the experiences of our students throughout their time at St Paul’s. The Arts Council were impressed with the variety of performances, visits and workshops that the Academy provided and our efforts to continue enriching our students with artistic tasks and activities during the pandemic. Our hope in the future is to continue growing exposure to the arts and thus acquire the Gold and Platinum awards. We are working hard to complement our existing network of artistic collaborators by developing new partnerships and offering our spaces to artists in the community. We have also begun to strengthen our links with local primary schools and will be working on joint workshop performances with them.

Please see information below from the Arts Council England

We are delighted to inform you that your setting has been awarded an Artsmark Silver Award. Congratulations!

Your Statement of Commitment and Statement of Impact have been assessed and we’re pleased to share this feedback from our assessors with you:

‘Your school seems to have a long-term commitment to arts and culture which is showing tangible results on staff and pupils. All pupils can access a consistent, and emerging established, range of arts and cultural provision through work with local arts and cultural organisations, both in school and on visits outside the classroom supported by extra curricular activities, leading to effective showcasing opportunities. There is delivery of Arts Award through local arts partners and a credible offer at KS3/KS4, although this has recently been reduced. Pupils take leadership roles in allocating funds for arts provision and in leading aspects of performing arts. Your work with the National Theatre, project with Costa Rica and Eco Fashion Show are particularly notable. It’s great (and really interesting) to hear about use of arts across the school, such as use of dance in maths. During the pandemic, the Arts have continued through digital means and have been used positively for mental health and wellbeing. The pandemic also has also brought challenges of limited arts timetabling and arts not being ‘at the leadership table’ as much as pre-pandemic. There is an underlying commitment within the appointment of two leads for cultural capital, but leadership is key to embedding practice, so this might be something to consider on your journey. Apart from modelling, it’s unclear whether the school has worked with practitioners or specialists to deliver CPD either for arts staff, or beyond. This might be an area for development through your arts partnerships. It would have been good to see more evidence of the impact on your arts work on pupils and staff. Going forward, can you further track long-term impact of your arts and cultural work on attainment, wellbeing, or other measures? Can you use data, or pupil quotes? Can pupils help to write the next application? Moving forward, it would be good to consider how you can include young people’s voices and how they can have real decision-making power and ownership of their engagement. Congratulations, and it sounds like you have a plan to explore on your next journey.’

Congratulations on your Artsmark Silver Award!

Celebrate your success!

• Your Bridge organisation, A New Direction, has been informed of your award, and your Artsmark certificate will be on its way to you soon.
• We are delighted to enclose your Artsmark Silver Award logo, both for print and screen use. You can use this logo publicly until your award expires. Accompanying this is a guidance document for how to use the logo. Please refer to this when updating your website or letterhead.
• Visit the Celebrate your Artsmark Success page on our website to download our celebration toolkit, including press release templates, celebration cards for social media and advice on how to organise a celebration event.
• Keep us updated with your celebrations by tagging us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We would love to see how you are showcasing the fantastic creative opportunities you offer.

Looking ahead

We’ve developed a guidance booklet, Your Artsmark Award, to help you reflect on your achievements and support you to plan your next Artsmark journey. It also includes a resource to kick-start your reflection and planning process. Download it now.

Once again, congratulations on your Artsmark Silver Award.

With warm wishes,

Artsmark
Arts Council England