Fossdene Primary

We were delighted to be awarded a Gold Artsmark in February 2024.

"Thank you for your recent submission, and congratulations on completing your Artsmark journey.
You've achieved an Artsmark Gold Award!
We are delighted to inform you that your setting has been awarded an Artsmark Gold Award. Congratulations!
Your Statement of Commitment and Statement of Impact have been assessed and we’re pleased to share this feedback from our assessors with you:
'You have done a fantastic job in positioning the arts as a route to personal enrichment, play, and learning through a sense of fun and curiosity. Beginning your journey, as you did, in the shadow of post-Covid lockdown effects the importance of the arts as a basic entitlement and a way of expressing thoughts and feelings must have been sharply in focus. Your work to date has built on your sense of investing in young people, building their sense of personal agency and giving them a stake by engaging in the arts. You have done this through collaborating with local artists, by growing the number of clubs and extra curricular offers with an arts focus and by engaging in good quality arts CPD for key staff members. All of this work is paying off and particularly in art and music you have practices that have embedded and are paying real dividends for young people. Now you plan to go further and to extend the principles you have embraced in art and music to other areas, particularly drama. To do this it may be worthwhile thinking not only in terms of art-form knowledge and skills but also the kind of pedagogy that is made possible when you emphasise the arts as a vehicle for learning. Is it more fun? More exploratory? More learner-centred? Does language shift in significant ways? Are resources used differently - timetables, learning spaces, physical artefacts etc? All of these dimensions may mark significant changes in your own practice as teachers, and be the aspects you most need to retain as you grow practice in new subject areas. Your plans for OPAL will certainly sit well with Artsmark, as does your Rights Respecting activities.'
Congratulations on your Artsmark Gold Award!
Your award is valid for two years and will expire on 22 February 2026

Statement of commitment

Statement of impact

Artsmark