Our Year 2 pupils recently took part in the Discover in a Day programme, which is part of an initiative led by Arts Council England, called Arts Award. The programme aims to inspire young people to develop their arts and leadership talents and give them the confidence to pursue their interest in creative arts at a higher level.

“Discover in a Day’ is just one example of arts and cultural activity which we have submitted to the Artsmark accreditation organisation as part of our application to become a registered Artsmark School. Artsmark formally accredits UK education settings which excel in offering a diverse range of cultural and artistic opportunities.

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For our pupils, ‘Discover in a Day’ makes up the first of five Arts Awards that spans the school ages from Reception through to Year 13. As part of the award, the pupils must participate in Arts activities, research an artist and share their discoveries. The award can be completed within any time frame, but it was decided that our Year 2 pupils would gain most from a focussed day of various creative arts, including painting, music and creativity in textiles. The activities were chosen to give the pupils a broad spectrum of experiences.

Deputy Head, Co-Curricular at the Prep school, Bruce Wilson, said: “For ‘Discover in a Day’, during the morning the children wrote and performed a song inspired by Ben Fogle’s letter to his family prior to his Mt Everest Challenge in 2018; they designed and created a sewing pattern; and they undertook some work based around Georges Seurat’s pointillism, whereby pictures are built up by a series of dots. In the afternoon the children continued their research on Seurat, produced a diary for the day and created short videos that were shared with their parents. The day was a fantastic success, and the children thoroughly enjoyed all the different elements.” Our pupils’ diaries will now be sent off to Trinity College London where the works will be assessed, with the hope that our Year 2 pupils will later be awarded their Arts Awards.

To further demonstrate our commitment to Creative and Performing Arts, we are immensely proud that the College is working towards the Platinum ‘Artsmark’, the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. This framework enables us to provide a cohesive approach to the Arts across disciplines and helps embed a deep appreciation of the Arts within every pupil.

Many members of staff have supported Deputy Head, Co-Curricular at the Senior school, Mark Robinson, in summarising all of our artisitc activity across both sites into one succinct application for the Artsmark accreditation. We will hear later in the year whether our application has been accepted and what level of certification we have achieved. Keep an eye on our social media and newsletter for regular updates.

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