ROYAL Opera House Thurrock Trailblazer schools are leading the way in signing up to Arts Council England’s Artsmark award. The 28 Thurrock Trailblazer schools registered for the award make up one of the largest Artsmark education consortiums in the country.
More than half of all schools in Thurrock have participated in Artsmark since October 2015 including the 28 Thurrock Trailblazer schools. This is an increase of 31% over the last three years. The Trailblazer schools were the first consortium nationally to show commitment to putting arts and cultural provision at the heart of their school.
The Artsmark award programme in Thurrock is run by Royal Opera House Bridge which uses its experience and expertise to connect children and young people, schools and communities with art and culture.
Signing up for Artsmark demonstrates that a school has a strong commitment to the arts in its curriculum and strives for excellence in its arts teaching and opportunities open to students, making the arts come alive.
Artsmark can help unlock the potential of children and young people, help to develop character and talent, and increase their knowledge and understanding through high quality resources. It offers schools contacts across many different art forms who can help them ensure that arts inspire learning, enrich the curriculum, bring a multitude of benefits and help to develop happy, successful and confident young people.
Thurrock Trailblazer is an innovative programme of high quality arts and cultural activities, visits to heritage sites and specialist teacher training, that boosts creative learning in schools and accelerates pupils’ development. Based on extensive research and aligned to Artsmark Award, Thurrock Trailblazer provides every pupil with access to high quality arts and culture activities provided by Royal Opera House and other cultural organizations.
Working with the ROH Learning and Participation team each school creates a year long calendar of cross-curricular creative activities that is tailored to their school’s needs. The programme can include any art form such as: creative writing, visual arts and design, drama, dance, music, singing, film and photography. To ensure schools develop the very best programme for their pupils, Thurrock Trailblazer also gives teachers access to expertise, training and resources from a wide range of great cultural providers such as theatres, museums, galleries, orchestras, professional artists, writers and choreographers.
Lucie Burrow, Assistant Headteacher (Behaviour, Inclusion & Access) at Grays
Convent School said ‘Working with such reputable, leading professionals in the field of arts and culture who aim to inspire, support and develop the learning and creativity of people of all ages and to enrich the cultural life of the local community in Thurrock, helps us to underpin our core values as a school. The inspirational and aspirational nature of the ethos of the Royal Opera House, are intrinsically linked to our School Improvement Plan and the values and ethos of our school in empowering young women by offering them opportunities and the experience of working with professionals in a professional setting.’
