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The future of Artsmark - an update from Arts Council England |
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Artsmark is Arts Council England's flagship schools programme, celebrating commitment and passion for arts education in schools. Over the last 10 years over 10,000 schools have been a part of the scheme and currently 15% of schools in England hold an Artsmark award. We are currently reviewing Artsmark and will be testing new models in 2010-11. A refreshed scheme will be piloted from September-December 2010 and take into account feedback from schools and other partners.
Arts Council England wants to ensure that Artsmark remains fit for purpose and aligns to emerging education and arts policy, for example, the excellence agenda and 21st Century Schools. To date it has served as an excellent measure of arts provision in and out of curriculum time as well as recognising partnerships with professional artists and organisations. It has also enabled schools to embed arts development as an integral part of their wider improvement as referenced in the Self Evaluation Form. We are keen to build on the success of Artsmark and Arts Award and demonstrate how engagement in the arts can provide quality outcomes for young people in a variety of settings.
Through evaluation and discussion with Ofsted, QCDA, DCMS, DCFS and Local Authorities we have identified that quality outcomes and a simpler online application are important factors in shaping a new scheme.
Following the pilot phase of the scheme's development we will be launching Artsmark New Generation in September 2011.
Essential facts
Now:
* Round 10 applications will be announced in June 2010. Schools can still access the Artsmark audit forms online
* Due to the overwhelming success of Artsmark and instead of holding celebration events, we will be providing Round 10 awardees with an Artsmark 'celebration' pack which will be distributed in June 2010 - we hope this will inspire schools to organise their own celebration activities
* Round 8 schools, who should be applying this year to renew their Artsmark Award, will have it extended until September 2011. (If a current Award is due to expire in the May 2010 period it will be extended to September 2011) More information will be made available about this in due course.
Future:
* A number of pilots for the new scheme will be undertaken from September - December 2010
* Pilots will investigate the relevance of Artsmark to schools, arts organisations and in other settings that deliver arts learning for children and young people
* The new scheme will be accessed online from application, through to reporting and reviewing
* We hope to link more with OfSTED and provide evidence for the self evaluation form which should reduce paperwork for schools and also promote Every Child Matters within the framework
* We envisage using smaller, more focused groups of assessors, who would be paid by schools to make assessment/validation visits
* Artsmark will remain a voluntary scheme and a nominal charge will be levied for validation to enable the scheme to grow and develop in a sustainable way
* Artsmark New Generation will be launched in September 2011.
For more information about Artsmark and its impact on young people please refer to www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsmark
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