Arts Award is the enrichment lesson that we have once a fortnight, in which we aim to develop our creative skills and work on a project of our choice. Being able to choose what we focussed on, meant that our class produced a wide variety of work and we had a lot of freedom to explore what interests us. The award required us to teach, learn, research and enjoy different art forms,   which included dance, photography, singing, blogging and creative writing - It was a great excuse to spend hours on YouTube and convince our parents to pay for concert tickets!  However, it did require us to dedicate a lot of our time and lunchtimes to leading clubs, workshops and mentoring sessions. Even though there was a lot of work to do, not only was it enjoyable, but it also allowed us all to improve our leadership skills and patience in particular, especially when teaching large groups of younger students to dance! It paid off in the end as we all passed and will be receiving our certificates soon. Furthermore, a few weeks ago a representative of the Arts Award from Trinity College London, visited us to collect feedback from our experiences. The moderator commented on the high quality of our work, saying it was “exemplary”.  We all found this really helpful because he also gave us advice on how to complete our Silver Arts Award which we hope to complete either this year or in Year 12.

By Georgia Haigh, Ella Eagle-Davies and Cara McAtee.