Dudley Virtual School receives prestigious Artsmark Award
Dudley Virtual School is celebrating after receiving a prestigious Gold Artsmark Award.
Dudley Virtual School provides support to Dudley’s children looked after (CLA) and children previously looked after (PLAC) to improve their educational experiences and outcomes. The team works closely with children and young people, families, carers, education providers and relevant partners to provide them with the opportunities to progress and realise their individual potential.
Providing access to the arts as part of this allows children to unlock their creativity and express themselves in a range of ways whether through art, music, drama or any other creative outlet. Embracing arts in education helps to build personal and social skills, raise educational achievement and improve life chances.
Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It supports them to develop and celebrate arts and cultural education across the whole curriculum, bringing learning to life for children and young people.
To achieve their Artsmark Award, Dudley Virtual School had to develop their arts and cultural provision to embed a broad and ambitious arts and cultural offer.
Councillor David Stanley, cabinet member for children’s services and education, said:
“Dudley Virtual School provides an essential support service to our children looked after and children previously looked after, bridging the gap between home and school to ensure that our children and young people get the same opportunities as everyone else.
“The arts can be a really effective way for children to express and challenge themselves and achieve things they may not have thought possible. We are ambitious for all of our children and young people and achieving the gold Artsmark Award is one of the many ways we can nurture and support them.”
Emma Thomas, Virtual School Headteacher said:
“We’re extremely proud of achieving our Artsmark gold Award. We are committed to delivering high-quality arts and cultural opportunities and we look forward to continue to grow with Artsmark.”
Dr Darren Henley OBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said:
“I would like to congratulate Dudley Virtual School on their Artsmark Award. Becoming an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, ambitious and creative curriculum, young people have the opportunity to develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”
Contact Information
Dudley Council
Notes to editors
Notes to editors:
About Artsmark
Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools and education settings. It can help unlock young people’s potential, building their confidence, character, and resilience. Artsmark’s clear and flexible framework can be used to embed creativity across the whole curriculum, address school improvement priorities and ensure every young person can access a diverse, high-quality cultural education.
Artsmark is open to primary, secondary, and special schools, pupil referral units, secure settings, youth offending teams, hospital schools and sixth form colleges. Artsmark is awarded at three levels; Silver, Gold and Platinum. www.artsmark.org.uk
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2023 to 2026 we will invest over £467 million of public money from government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk