Richmond School
Policy | Policy List | Arts Policy
WHOLE SCHOOL POLICY ON ARTS
AIMS
As a Specialist School in the Performing Arts Richmond School has a commitment to develop the role of the Performing Arts in school and the wider community. Richmond School does not see the arts as divisible and is equally committed to developing Visual and Media Arts. The arts are part of a broad and balanced curriculum. Arts education aims to:
• develop the ability to be self-disciplined, self-motivated and independent;
• encourage students to appreciate the achievements of others and themselves;
• develop imagination and creativity.
The arts in the curriculum are taken to be Art, Dance, Drama and Music, although it is recognised that other curriculum areas embrace and contribute to the arts. The arts represent a unique area of experience in the curriculum for they have the capacity to develop creativity through individual and collaborative effort. They are also unique in the way that they enable young people to express feelings and thoughts through a variety of methods, several of them not dependent on language.
PRINCIPLES
• The arts are an essential part of a broad and balanced curriculum at Key Stage 3;
• At Key Stage 4 and 5 students have the opportunity to study a wider range of arts subjects;
• Nobody should be excluded from pursuing a preferred art form because of gender, race or disability;
• Students should experience many art forms of different cultures during their period of statutory education;
• Students should understand the part played by the arts in modern society.
PURPOSE
• The creative process in the arts helps students to formulate and communicate their own ideas and feelings.
• The understanding of existing work in the arts gives students vivid access to ideas, values and beliefs of other people, and an appreciation and assessment of a variety of cultural achievements;
• Students develop intuition, creativity, sensitivity, decision-making skills, value judgement, physical and perceptual skills through working on their own and with others;
• Students develop interests and confidence in areas of the arts which can be continued beyond School.
STRATEGIES
• At Key Stage 3 all students are taught in each of the specific arts areas, (dance through PE, and drama through English);
• At Key Stages 4 and 5 all students have the opportunity to follow at least one arts subject within the curriculum;
• Students have the opportunity to experience work in the arts through cross-curricular study;
• Students have the opportunity to extend their experience of the arts through extra-curricular activities;
• The School consistently seeks to enhance its arts facilities and increase the range of opportunities for study of and participation in the arts as far as resources will allow;
• There is a co-ordinated approach to arts development in the curriculum;
• Links with artists in the local community are encouraged;
• Visits by professional artists are invited and welcomed;
• The Specialist School Development Plan forms the written strategy for continual improvement of provision for the performing arts within the school, and links into the school's overall Development Plan.
MANAGEMENT
• The Director of Performing Arts is responsible for the strategic management of the Specialist School Programme and the co-ordinator of arts activities across the school
• Each discrete area is the responsibility of a named member of staff;
• The Director of Performing Arts oversees links with and developments in the community;
• An Arts Group, chaired by the Director of Performing Arts, comprising subject area leaders and other interested parties reviews and produces a co-ordinated approach to the arts;
• The Governors nominate a member to be a link to the Specialist School Programme;
• In addition to discrete subjects’ capitation, a further budgetary sum is allocated to support the co-ordinated activities;
• Separate to capitation the Specialist School Budget is overseen by the Director of Performing Arts.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
• Developments are evaluated against the performance criteria in the Specialist School and Richmond School Development Plan;
• An Arts Group, chaired by the Director of Performing Arts, comprising of area leaders, and others to review and produce a co-ordinated approach to the performing arts;
• A Steering Group as identified in the Specialist School application form oversees the community dimension of the development plan;
• Governors receive regular reports on the progress of the Specialist School Programme.
REVIEW
This policy is subject to a bienniel review.
Revised: March 2007
Rename: June 2007
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