Artsmark Gold Award for Howard Community Academy
Howard Community Academy is celebrating after being awarded the prestigious Artsmark Gold Award.
The award recognises the academy’s achievements in developing their Arts and Cultural provision to ensure they have a ‘broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum’ for pupils.
Alison Weir, Headteacher at Howard Community Academy said: “I am incredibly proud of all staff and pupils at Howard Community Academy for their dedication and hard work. I am delighted that together we have achieved the Gold Award.
“We are an aspirational academy who strive to be positively involved in the wider community. We have demonstrated to Artsmark the opportunities and exciting projects available that our children take part in with local organisations, such as visits to the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds, for the enrichment of our pupils education and to further our teaching of the Arts.
We look forward to utilising the skills and confidence gained by staff, as noted by the Artsmark assessors, to continue developing our ambitious Arts programme”.
Lesley Morgan, Arts Development Manager at Anglian Learning, said “This is a wonderful outcome for a school that has put tremendous effort and hard work into their Arts curriculum, as part of their Artsmark submission. It has been a privilege to work with the school and I look forward to seeing how their Arts programme continues to flourish”.
Dr Darren Henley CBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said: “I would like to congratulate Howard Community Academy on their Artsmark Platinum Award. Becoming an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, ambitious, and creative curriculum, every pupil can develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”
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.
Feedback from assessors of Howard’s application said that the academy’s relationship building with a range of local and national creative practitioners has ‘developed a sustainable and embedded offer, particularly in Art and Music’. They also credit their example of how to build a new and nurturing school culture and community with the Arts at the centre as ‘powerful’.
To find out more about Howard Community Academy’s Arts Development, please visit: https://howardacademy.org/art-development/
