Commonweal School is the first in the Swindon area to complete the first level of Arts Council England’s Arts Award initiative for young people. Of the 17 students entered all passed with flying colours and will celebrate their achievements at a special event in November.

“This is an extremely new and exciting national initiative. Artsmad has been working hard to train advisors to support the Arts Award in Swindon and we are delighted that Commonweal School is the first centre in Swindon to enter young candidates for the Arts Award.” commented Kirsty Carter, Director of Artsmad.

Jessica Hughes, aged 13, goes down in Swindon’s history as being the first student to complete her bronze award. Her work involved writing and singing a song and leading an art class to come up with a design for an album cover. “I enjoyed doing the bronze and am now starting to do my silver. Josie my adviser is helping me to find out about writing for radio. I am used to research as I have done my bronze. It is good fun and it has helped me with my literacy skills.”

The Arts Award is a national qualification which recognises how young people aged 11-25 develop as artists and arts leaders. It is a QCA qualification and sits on the National Qualifications Framework at levels 1, 2 and 3.

The award is a personalised learning programme which develops and assesses both arts-related skills (arts knowledge and understanding) and transferable skills (creativity, communication, planning and review, teamwork and leadership). It is assessed through a portfolio of evidence created by the young person which can be presented in ANY format.

Advisers are key to the success of the award, as they act as catalysts, mentors and internal assessors for young people. Most advisers are already working with young people – as artists, arts teachers, youth arts facilitators or youth workers. Being an Arts Award adviser offers a useful framework for arts activities and projects with young people, as well as providing motivation and recognition for young people’s achievements.

Ali Sutcliffe, Head of Music at Commonweal and Josie Williams, Community Arts Development Officer are two of the schools advisers. Last week Roy Nevitt came into school to moderate the students work. “The two advisers had thoroughly prepared and sufficiently inspired the young people so that a good standard for bronze was achieved. The group I met spoke eloquently about their experiences in going for bronze and some of them enjoyed the challenge enough to have already embarked on silver. I was particularly impressed by one boy, from the school’s P.I unit ( Physically Impaired) He uses a wheelchair and together with several others from the unit, has created a band, whose impressive sound I listened to on their CD. The band overcomes all physical impairments and thrills audiences with its various gigs. To conclude Commonweal is a very good centre which manages the scheme very well.”

To find out more about how you can get involved with the Arts Award as a young person or an advisor, contact Gill at the Artsmad office on 07824 550392 or visit www.artsaward.org.uk