Arts teachers matter

We celebrate the start of a new year with a reminder for all arts teachers of the value of their contributions. On the Arts Award blog, we run through the top 5 reasons why arts teachers are important and offer you the chance to access our new guide to commanding more attention for your subject in school.

Could you offer Gold Arts Award?

Have you ever wondered if your centre is ready to offer Gold Arts Award? Try our new quick quiz to find out whether your offer is a good fit for Gold or where you can make adjustments. Anyone working with young people can now train to deliver Gold Arts Award, whether or not you have already trained at Bronze and Silver level.

If you’ve already trained to deliver Gold Arts Award and would like support, register to watch the recording of our recent Gold webinar to help build your confidence. The webinar also includes examples of good practice and moderation tips. 

Fresh ideas from the blog

It’s been a busy time on the blog. We’ve looked at how Arts Award validates the artistic process and how Bronze Arts Award can be delivered through work experience. Focussing on heritage and culture, we’ve featured advice for schools on making the most of museum and heritage visits and Northumberland National Park have told us how they deliver Arts Award in their unique setting.

Launch of our new Trinity Champion Centres

With the help of our fantastic Arts Award Good Practice Centres, we are delighted to launch the new Trinity Champion Centre programme which now includes our Drama and Music qualifications. Trinity Champion Centres are recognised by Trinity for their successful delivery of our qualifications. Keep an eye on our blog for more updates on this. If you have been a Good Practice Centre in the past, you are welcome to reapply to become a Trinity Champion Centre for your Arts Award delivery.

Contact Layne Harrod Sector Support Manager, Arts & Youth for further details.

Primary CPD on heritage visits

We will be running a free CPD session for primary school teachers in partnership with Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court about how to use heritage visits for cross-curricular learning – and how to gain an Arts Award at the same time! Open to all primary teachers, you can book here. Find out more.

Help Centre, FAQs and upcoming webinars

We recently updated our Help Centre to include even more answers to your FAQs. For other types of support available, take a look at our support page: we offer surgeries, one-to-one visits, and webinars. We have support surgeries coming up this spring on creating your own logbooks and a chance to ‘Meet the moderator’, plus others. Find out more.

Large-group delivery webinar

Check out our upcoming webinar around large-group delivery. Taking place on Monday 25 February, our webinar will offer support and guidance to advisers and centres delivering Arts Award with large groups. Registration is free, and, if you can’t join on the day, a recording will be available after the event. Click here to find out more.

Voice offers young people a new searchable map

Voice Magazine now offers young people the chance to search in their local area for arts organisations, events and opportunities which they can use towards their Arts Award. We hope this will make it easier to find relevant activities. Click here to find out more.

Making resources more accessible

All the materials on the adviser hub can now be downloaded as unlocked PDFs.  If you require a resource in an alternative format due to an individual access requirement, please complete the Accessible materials request form found on the Accessibility page of our website. To find out more about alternative formats, click here.

Arts Award alumni scheme

We’d love young people to join this free network, gaining access to discounted adviser training, theatre tokens and other fantastic perks, thanks to Arts Award Voice’s links with the Benefits Cloud platform. Each year we ask alumni to update their profile in just a few clicks to tell us which awards they’ve completed plus a few questions about what they’re up to now. This feedback shows how Arts Award supports entry into lots of different career paths. Please encourage young people you work with to sign up here. 

Access and inclusion funding

A new round of the Access Fund opens on Monday 28 January. Centres working with young people for whom access and inclusion is an issue can apply for a grant of up to £1,500 to help them pilot, develop, or embed their Arts Award work with young people. Find out more and apply online by Friday 1 March.