Artsmark is Arts Council England’s flagship programme to enable schools and other organisations to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision. Hornsby House’s Artsmark Gold status is an award held by only six percent of schools nationally.
In order to achieve Artsmark Gold, the school carried out an extensive application process and was then visited by a professional arts consultant who commented, “as soon as you walk in to the school entrance the creativity is immediately apparent.
“There is great clarity and vision for how the arts are managed creatively, why they are included and why they are an important entitlement for all students.”
Hornsby House has specialist staff who lead the provision of art, design, music, drama, dance and gymnastics in the school. All staff work together to integrate arts across the curriculum, organising activities such as themed history days which include art and drama. In addition, there is a wide range of after-school clubs for the children, a significant proportion of which have an arts focus, and these allow the children further opportunities to develop their interests.
Mark Peters, Assistant Head, led the Hornsby House team who put together the Artsmark application. He said: “We are very proud of being awarded Artsmark Gold in recognition of the high standard of our arts provision and I would like to thank all of our specialist arts teachers for their outstanding work and commitment.”
