Arts Award is a set of unique qualifications that support children and young people to grow as artists and arts leaders in any art form. When delivered in school, Arts Award demonstrates a strong commitment to the arts whilst having a positive impact on individual young people and their transferable skills that can be linked to attainment in all subjects.
Arts Award is suitable for all learners up to aged 25 and under and can be delivered as a universal offer, a targeted intervention or extra-curricular activity. Learners can progress through all five levels, or start at the level most suited to them. At Gold level, students can achieve 16 UCAS points with Arts Award.
If you are a trainee teacher, or you lead an ITT programme the information on this page will help you to understand why Arts Award will be beneficial to you.
Arts Award accredits students’ individual development in the arts. In middle and secondary schools, Arts Award is a great way to evidence how a school is providing a broad and balanced curriculum and meaningful careers provision, linking directly to many of the Gatsby Benchmarks.
Arts Award provides measurable results for demonstrating the impact of a school’s arts and cultural goals and ambitions. It demonstrates commitment to a broad and balanced curriculum offer, as well as contributing to SMSC /Personal Development requirements as defined by the Ofsted School Inspection Handbook.
The new Ofsted framework for Initial Teacher Training is currently under consultation, it will be published in the summer and implemented January 2021. It will have a greater emphasis on curriculum balance and shift in language to echo the Education Inspection Framework, focusing on intent, implementation and impact.
In Ofsted’s latest phase of ITE curriculum research (Building Great Teachers? Jan 2019) concerns are raised that too little time is being spent preparing primary teachers to teach a full range of foundation subjects (including the arts), and of the impact this has on the quality of primary provision. Their previous research in 2018 found that arts subjects at primary level are not being delivered to the same high standards as maths and English.
By introducing Arts Award, trainee teachers can offer the full richness of the knowledge that pupils can acquire through arts and cultural activity, setting them a step ahead in ensuring they are delivering a balanced curriculum and giving them a direct tool for measuring the impact of the activity.
Find out more about Arts Award's value and position in today's education landscape.
You can read more about Arts Award’s impact on young people, including how it boosts their communication skills and confidence here.
A number of universities and Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers have begun to offer information about Arts Award and Arts Award adviser training during their programmes of study as a form of student enrichment. We can support your ITT course to host an introductory briefing about Arts Award and the wider arts education landscape
By starting a dialogue with Arts Award, you can support your students to:
Arts Award advisers are individuals who deliver and assess Arts Award. Training is required to enable teachers to do this. Our courses are applicable to any trainee teachers, regardless of their chosen programme, arts subject specialism or phase of education.
Teachers who are Arts Award advisers gain an immediate framework that supports young people to gain experience and confidence in the arts. They are able to easily make connections with artists and arts organisations and promote the arts across the curriculum. They will be able to support their school’s commitment to achieving Artsmark status. Arts Award also supports teachers to achieve the Teachers Standards by providing useful evidence to demonstrate how they are meeting these.
Find out more about in-house training options and costs here.
For more information and to discuss introducing Arts Award to your Initial Teacher Training course, contact Julie Neville. julie.neville@trinitycollege.co.uk
Hear first-hand from Jasmine who trained as an Arts Award adviser as part of her PGCE course and who is now delivering excellent arts outcomes in school as a result.
Arts Award is a great framework to use in any subject to help inject creativity into your teaching. The award can be used to structure cross curricular projects and can support engagement in non-arts subjects. The flexible framework, especially at Discover, Explore and Bronze levels, lends itself well to curriculum delivery and can be embedded into existing schemes of work.
With an eye on the new Ofsted framework, Arts Award will provide evidence of how students are developing their cultural capital, as well as providing evidence for personal development in 21st century skills needed for further study or work.
Training to be an Arts Award adviser is also great CPD for you. This status stays with you, the teacher, for as long as you want it to, boosting your teaching CV and providing a creative route for any subject or phase teacher.
Discover how Jasmine used her Bronze and Silver Adviser status to get ahead during her NQT year
You can explore the options for training to become an Arts Award adviser here.
Your ECT year will be assessed against the Teachers Standards. Use our detailed Teachers Standards resource to help identify how your Arts Award delivery helps you to achieve these, and use your Arts Award delivery as part of your evidence base to demonstrate how you are meeting them.
Make sure your mentor has also seen this resource and that they understand that delivering Arts Award can help with your professional development as well as having benefits for the young people you are teaching.
Arts Award recognises the creative development of individual young people, and provides a framework which can support your Artsmark application. Artsmark celebrates settings that champion the arts and strive for excellence in their provision. Settings work towards a journey of up to two years to establish their Artsmark level at either Silver, Gold or Platinum.
If you know that your school is currently working towards its Artsmark journey, or you have been tasked with supporting this, you can directly link Arts Award to many different goals within the Artsmark criteria. Take a look at our full resource for more information to support the setting’s Artsmark Statement of Commitment.
Arts Award is a fantastic way to develop emerging theatre and arts education professionals' CVs. At it's core, Arts Award is a framework which can be applied to any arts activity. Designed to be flexible both in terms of programme design and for the young people it can work with, Arts Award can map to many different activities, programmes and settings. A core part of Arts Award is that it is accessible for all young people. Outreach work, working with young people from diverse backgrounds and engaging young people with SEND are often covered in Applied Theatre courses, and Arts Award provides a framework for working with all groups.
As an Arts Award adviser, your status stays with you. This means that if students are able to train at university, they can take this skill and status to any future job, and we hear that some people believe they got a role based on their Arts Award adviser status. In an increasingly competitive jobs market for theatre education professionals, anything that can help you stand out from the crowd is important, and Arts Award is one more string to a young professionals bow. Luckily arts organisations are realising more than ever the importance of engaging young people to nurture the audiences and artists of the future, and Arts Award has a key role to play in this space - meaning as an adviser students can be strategically important from their very first role.
As well as providing reduced-cost in-house training for Applied Theatre courses, we can also run free briefing and information sessions on the wider arts education sector, Arts Award and other programmes young professionals will need to be aware of. We can also provide bespoke support for students as they enter their first role, providing encouragement and ongoing networking opportunities.
Find out more about some of the great work our advisers create, with our case study from Nonsuch Theatre, Full House Theatre, and for something a bit different, Arts Award Supporter Cadw shares a broader arts education approach to Arts Award
If you would like to find out more or have any questions about our opportunities for Applied Theatre or other arts education programmes please contact annabel.thomas@trinitycollege.co.uk
