Heron Academy receives prestigious Artsmark Award
Pupils and staff at Heron Academy are celebrating after receiving a prestigious Gold Artsmark Award.
Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It transforms teaching through creativity, empowering teachers with the skills they need to embed arts, culture and creativity across the whole curriculum, and is proven to support pupil outcomes and wellbeing.
To achieve their Artsmark Award, Heron Academy had to develop their arts and cultural provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum. This was achieved by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school.
Heron Academy received professional support through an immersive learning programme from Artsmark’s delivery partner, Goldsmiths, University of London, who are world-renowned leaders in creative pedagogy and cultural placemaking.
The Artsmark Assessor commended “Heron Academy’s first Artsmark journey has been impressive and significant. You set out to address uneven levels of skill and confidence in your staff and inconsistency in provision. You have revised schemes of work, establishing secure frameworks for teachers and clear skills progression which senior leaders have monitored for impact. Through strategically directed CPD, including observing and engaging with arts practitioners , staff have felt supported and have grown greatly in confidence. Furthermore, and importantly, there is now a much stronger shared understanding of the value of the arts to your pupils’ overall learning, wellbeing and personal development, and this has led to the arts being valued highly. The arts have been given a stronger presence in the timetabled week, including Dance and Drama, and this has helped to embed your collaborations with Step into Dance and, BLINK Urban Drama Company in your curriculum. This has also led to an increase in pupils’ engagement with events beyond the school. Aligning your curriculum with the offer from arts organisations such as Tate Schools and Teachers and the I Am Festival for SEND schools at Tate Modern has been beneficial and it is great to hear about your work with the Southbank Centre’s Imagine the Future poetry project where sustained co-planning and collaboration with practitioners and visiting poets led to developments in inclusive practice and adaptations that have since benefited other SEND settings. This is a wonderful model for your future plans to contribute to wider professional dialogue around inclusive arts practice in SEND settings. Your pupils clearly loved and valued your Arts Week 2026 and your extension of your Arts Award offer will have given pupils greater ownership of their learning. It would be good to consider other ways in which you can engage pupils in the planning and delivery of authentic arts experiences. Arts practitioners are often adept at co-creation with pupils and this might be an area to explore in your planning of future collaborations. Similarly, while your commitment to inclusion is deep, you can perhaps build further on how your curriculum and your wider offer reflects and celebrates cultural diversity. Your strengths in your first journey stem from strong strategic Leadership that has built developments through coherent Curriculum Design and supportive CPD. As you continue to embed the use of the arts across teaching it will be good to capture the impact and measurable effects on your pupils’ learning and lives. This will be particularly valuable as you look to share your learning beyond Heron Academy. Engaging with other settings and with arts educational networks will support this. The growth of collaborations with arts practitioners and organisations can contribute to CPD and the further development of your Range of Offer, including enhancing the celebration of cultural diversity. It can also help you to harness and develop your pupils’ energy and confidence. With a strong and shared understanding of the value of the arts now in place, there will be many excitements ahead on your next journey. We look forward greatly to hearing all about it!”
Dr Darren Henley OBE, Chief Executive of Arts Council England, said:
“I would like to congratulate Heron Academy on their Artsmark Award. Creative activities and cultural experiences enrich our lives, open our minds to new possibilities and help us make sense of the world around us. As an awarded Artsmark school, you’re demonstrating that by offering a broad, ambitious and creative curriculum, your young people will develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”
