We are thrilled to announce that Grange has been awarded the prestigious Gold Artsmark award. Artsmark continues to bring learning to life through arts and culture and we will continue to embed these experiences throughout our curriculum.

This is what the adjudicators had to say about us:

During your Artsmark journey at Grange Academy, school leaders and governors have become increasingly committed to the Arts, and understand their value in successfully engaging and inspiring pupils with Education and Health Care Plans.

You have developed your curriculum, so that the Arts are integral to pupils’ social development and personal expression, and learning is stimulating and inspiring.

Through rich arts experiences (such as your Sensory Garden project), and opportunities to showcase their work and participate in competitions, pupils on the autistic spectrum are enabled to connect with their peers with the effect that their confidence has increased exponentially.

Professional development has inspired staff to utilise their creative skills, work collaboratively, and incorporate the Arts into other areas of learning and extra-curricular clubs.

As a result of your burgeoning array of partnerships with arts professionals and organisations, including Culture Challenge, the Philharmonic Orchestra and Primary Music Network, students have increased their social connectivity, with the effect of improving their communication skills, physical development, mental health and well-being.

Despite the particular challenges for your pupils of introducing change into your curriculum, you have capitalised on the partnerships afforded by the Twinning project by working in increasingly joined-up ways with arts professionals.

Pupil voice is heard through regular surveys and acted upon by senior leaders, and some students are beginning to take ownership of their engagement and personal progression within the Arts through participation in Arts Award Discover and Pupil Parliament.

Going forward you should consider ways of consolidating the alliances you have made in order to further embed your current arts pedagogy.

Also, you are well-placed to become an ‘opinion former’ and to promote the Arts both within and beyond your Trust enabling you to provide compelling evidence of the difference your work is making to the wider educational community.

We look forward to hearing about the impact of your planned participation in the ‘Orchestra Unwrapped’ project on your young people and how your plans to roll out Arts Award to more students come to fruition.

Congratulations on your Artsmark Gold Award!