The LIPA Primary and High School Artsmark Journey

Why Artsmark?

• To support the health and wellbeing of pupils with art, culture, and creativity
• To ensure every young person can be creative and access diverse high-quality education
• To engage, motivate, and upskill teaching staff using Artsmark CPD and whole school collaboration
• To access professional support, advise and resources to strengthen arts provision

We believe that every child should have the opportunity to create, compose and perform, as well as to visit, experience and participate in and review extraordinary work. Artsmark can help unlock the potential of children and young people, help to develop character and talent, and increase their knowledge and understanding. That’s why Artsmark was created, to bring this ambition into every classroom.

Our approach is underpinned by the Artsmark seven quality principles:

The Arts Council England Quality Principles

1. Striving for excellence and innovation.

2. Being authentic.

3. Being exciting, inspiring, and engaging.

4. Ensuring a positive and inclusive experience.

5. Actively involving children and young people.

6. Enabling personal progression.

7. Developing belonging and ownership.

How do we embed Artsmark through our school?

Creativity is at the centre of our Pedagogy:

Experiential Project Based Learning is about learning that matters; because there is a task to achieve (and the reassurance and satisfaction when it has been achieved). This is a pedagogy that is energising and is not learning for learning’s sake. There’s also the excitement of mastery, which is where Deliberate Practice captures the discipline of continual improvement.

‘If you have a dynamic approach to teaching and learning, if you promote links between disciplines, if you set creative questions for kids to explore, if you engage their curiosity, if you nurture their imaginations - they become more fully involved and excited about learning and their achievement levels go up.’ Sir Ken Robinson PHD

How do we apply the Creative Habits Wheel?

Every child in our school is an artist and supported to enjoy and excel in each art form. We use a Captains Project Managers process inspired by the Creative Habits of Mind Wheel:

Captain Imaginative: plays with possibilities and crates new things.

Captain Inquisitive: explores and investigates and is curious.

Captain Persistent: has a ‘can do’ approach and is resilient even with difficulties.

Captain Collaborative: cooperates during teamwork, can be ‘in-charge’ and work in a team.

Captain Discipline: reflective and changes strategies, understands effects that actions have.

Children’s Art Council

We have a Child-Led Arts Council who are all talented children, demonstrating the characteristics of all Captains. They are our ambassadors for the whole school and work with other settings. We share and celebrate their creative success journeys on various public platforms, including Liverpool LightNight and where we share our work with the city and beyond. They are indeed artists! Please enjoy a look through some of their wonderful work.

How we use Artsmark to enhance our performance:

We have used our Artsmark Action Plan to ensure that we demonstrate the arc of our journey from writing our Statement of Commitment to our Statement of Impact. Major changes, including the pandemic and the very recent opening of our High School are all accounted for here. We have enhanced through evaluation and evidence, the impact of our work so far.

What our Children say:

‘I love drawing, my teachers tell me that I’m a great artist’

‘Music makes me feel good and we sing everyday’

‘I like the way you can express yourself. I am an artist every day. Artists experiment with different techniques’

‘I like exploring with new instruments in our music classes’

‘When I do Art, I feel as though I’m in a world of my own’ Alice Y6

‘I am a superb Artist, and I like myself’ Enzo Y3

I like art because I can express myself creatively in lots of different and fun ways. Also, there are no boundaries in what I can do. Art relaxes me and creates a peaceful environment in my head. Leah Y6