My #Artsmark20 story: Reaching the Golden moment of your career
Barnwell School is a mixed, comprehensive secondary school in Stevenage. There are two sites; Upper School for 14-18 education; Middle School for Years 7-9 and the catchment area of Shephall has multiple deprivations. Barnwell was formerly an Artsmark Gold school on the pre-2015 framework. Following staff changes and various other external constraints, they finally re-registered a few years ago.
Pam Pellen was deployed to lead the whole school Artsmark journey and they were awarded Artsmark Gold in June 2021. In this blog, Pam talks us through not only their journey and its impact on the school, but also her own professional development.
Our two-year journey included the appointment of an Arts/Artsmark teacher-governor, aligning arts strategies within the SIP and developing progressive cultural partnerships with local artists.
Artsmark supported Barnwell’s school improvement plan to work towards outstanding teaching and learning, whilst sustaining, and protecting cultural education provision. It also paved the way for Cultural Capital and the Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance to be fully understood, accepted, and integrated.
Arts First funding from the Royal Opera House, via Creative Networks, enabled a cross-site textiles installation. This comprised two sequences of banners, co-created by cultural provider Anji Archer working with a diverse group of textiles students. Both process and production embedded Barnwell’s ethos, aesthetic, and academic values. The final impact survey revealed that all cultural partnership participants felt they had benefitted from increased opportunities for creative collaboration. Additionally, their experience had refined artistic thought processes and skills which helped to sustain wellbeing throughout the remote learning context because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Adapting during a global pandemic
An online Artsmark gallery in the school’s shared area sustained morale and momentum during the journey. When schools closed in March 2020, Barnwell resolved to continue its community arts activities, devising innovations such as:
- video performances,
- VE day socially distanced street party
- resilience resource packs & wellbeing podcasts
- socially distanced film-making collaborations
The whole school creativity drive had a widespread impact on teaching and learning for pupils across the age and ability range. By introducing new courses in Textiles and Performing Arts, we not only extended provision, but also offered alternative routes to protect opportunities post-16.
Changing whole school attitudes
Between our previous Artsmark journey and this one, there have been significant changes to the framework and application methodology. Previously there was an emphasis on percentages and data in terms of evidence, with quite an intricate justification system. This time the emphasis was more about changing whole school attitudes with less focus on numbers. Two shorter documents were required; the first to outline initial commitment and the second produced in comparison to assess overall impact. There was room to explain diversions and celebrate new developments, and I received substantial support with the process.
Both Artsmark journeys inspired an extensive range of children and young people to take up intra and extracurricular arts opportunities within the community. Many have gone on to study arts and media related courses at university. There is now a broad network of ex-students who work in the Creative Industries for companies such as Warner Brother Studios, Bond 25 in a wide range of jobs such as technicians, photographers and writers.
However, Artsmark also embedded a broader definition of creativity across the school; staff, children and young people understand that although we may not all become professional artists, we are all entitled to be creative and cultural. Creative and Media skills are valued in a wide range of careers, not just the many different roles and responsibilities within the Arts industry.
Career satisfaction
From a personal perspective, Artsmark Gold was the perfect full stop to my career before retiring. I felt like we had restored balance in whole school priorities and achieved our key aim of championing the value of arts education in schools. By being given specific leadership and governor support, I was able to create staff champions across the curriculum which fortified the support of related subject specialists. Artsmark developed my leadership skills; I relished the challenge of creating staff champions for creative and cultural entitlement. This put me in strong position when I decided to diversify within a part-time portfolio career post-retirement. I am now a freelance creative producer, poised to deliver my first Arts Award programme, supporting young people to gain an arts qualification.
I would advise any school to do Artsmark. It reinvigorates shared purpose, and it is an empowering journey.
Thank you to Pam Pellen, previously Senior Lead Practitioner for Creativity and Artsmark at Barnwell School, for sharing your My #Artsmark20 story. You can submit yours here.
