Artsmark

We are delighted to announce that Cragside has received the prestigious Platinum Artsmark Award.

What is Artsmark?

Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It transforms teaching through creativity, empowering teachers with the skills they need to embed arts, culture and creativity across the whole curriculum, and is proven to support pupil outcomes and wellbeing.  

What is the Artsmark Award?

Artsmark recognises schools’ exceptional commitment to creativity with the Artsmark Award - the only award for arts and cultural provision in England.

To achieve our Artsmark Award, we have worked hard to develop our arts and cultural 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.

Over the course of 2 years, we received professional support through an immersive learning programme from Artsmark’s delivery partner, Goldsmiths, University of London, who are world-renowned leaders in creative pedagogy and cultural placemaking.

Here's what the Artsmark assessors had to say...

Cragside Primary School has established a strong commitment to the arts and creativity as a driver for high quality teaching and learning. It has visionary, ambitious leadership in place. This means the culture of the school is one which places a premium on the arts, and as a result the school has taken on a lead role in the latter stages of The North East's Creativity Collaborative. This role means that Cragside has been much more active in terms of its outward facing work and is regularly visiting and maintaining dialogue with other schools seeking to explore creative ways of teaching and learning. Using Creative Habits of Mind as a model helps build up a way of thinking and talking about learning which is active and used routinely by teachers and learners alike. You have an active approach to youth voice (via Young Creativity Champions), and still invest in yourselves through CPD; most recently Division Dance's input which helped to add skills and motivation around Dance. You are well linked with a wide range of artists and arts organisations who are adding to your delivery of a vibrant arts curriculum. Areas of particular strength related to the Artsmark criteria are Leadership and Cultural Connections - your Headteacher and senior leaders are actively championing creativity and the arts not only in your school but with other settings too; and your connections to other settings and artists are leading to ambitious plans to boost a schools network in the Ouseburn area.

 The Artsmark Framework

The Artsmark Framework breaks down the eight Artsmark Award criteria against the three award levels: Silver, Gold and Platinum. It also describes how to use Arts Council England’s Quality Principles in the planning, delivery and evaluation of your Artsmark journey.

1. Striving for excellence and innovation – Is there a real commitment to achieving excellence by, with and for children and young people?
2. Being authentic – Is it authentic; is it the real thing?
3. Being exciting, inspiring and engaging – Are children and young people excited, engaged and inspired?
4. Ensuring a positive and inclusive experience – Does it ensure a positive and inclusive experience?
5. Actively involving children and young people – Are children and young people actively involved?
6. Enabling personal progression – Do children and young people progress and know where to go next?
7. Developing belonging and ownership – Do children and young people feel they belong, and it belongs to them? 

Artsmark Award Levels

There are three award levels: Silver, Gold and Platinum each level with its own distinct set of characteristics:

To find out more about the transformative power of Artsmark, click on the link below: