Tameside schoolchildren receive respected Arts Award

Road safety, thinking green and emotional wellbeing are just some of the topics explored through the Arts Award project, which took place in more than 20 schools and community groups across Tameside.

Arts Award is a nationally recognised set of qualifications that inspires young people to develop their creativity and arts skills while gaining valuable experience and qualifications.

Over the past academic year, Tameside Council's Cultural Services and Community Safety teams delivered the programme in primary and secondary schools, using different forms of art and creativity to help young people explore important themes and issues in an engaging way.

More than 600 children took part this year and achieved an Arts Award, working alongside talented local professional artists and creatives throughout the programme. This allowed them to find out more about careers in the creative industries.

Each participating school took part in artist-led sessions over a period of four to six weeks. During the projects, pupils worked with professionals to co-create artwork inspired by the project theme, developing a variation of creative skills.

Some schools also worked in partnership with the National Theatre to create and perform Jack and the Christmas Tree pantomimes. This involved giving children the opportunity to write their own scripts which they would then perform, allowing them to experience the process of creating end-to-end theatre productions.

While every project resulted in a creative outcome, the activities were also designed to deepen pupils' understanding of the programme's key themes and messages.

At the end of each project, schools were supported to host an Arts Award presentation during a school assembly. The participants were awarded their certificates from Trinity College London together with Arts Council England.