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York independent school, Queen Ethelburga’s Colleigate (QE), are celebrating after receiving a prestigious award from Artsmark, who are accredited by Arts Council England. Artsmark offer the only creative quality standard for schools and to achieve the award, QE had to develop their arts and cultural provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum.
On receiving the award, Helen Stephenson, Head of Creative Arts at Queen Ethelburga’s said: “We’re extremely proud of achieving our Gold Artsmark Award. We are committed to delivering a high-quality arts and cultural education and are looking forward to growing our provision alongside Artsmark.” Dr Darren Henley OBE, Chief Executive of the Arts Council, said:
“I would like to congratulate Queen Ethelburga’s on their Artsmark Award. Becoming an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, ambitious and creative curriculum, young people have the opportunity to develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life.”
The school offers an ambitious provision of over 30 courses across art and design, music, drama and dance with numerous opportunities throughout the year to perform and compete in individual and team disciplines. With an impressive 39 per cent of their students choosing to pursue Creative Arts subjects for GCSE, BTEC, or A Level in 2023-24, it is perhaps no surprise that QE regularly achieves recognition in national competitions. In 2023 alone, students achieved a win, runner up, and a highly commended in the ISA Arts Young Musician Competition, two finalist positions in the ISA Musical Theatre Competition, a win in the ISA Shakespeare Monologue Competition, two finalists in the ISA Musical Theatre Competition, and a win in the ISA Band Competition.
Focusing on Creative Art & Design
QE’s creative arts provision starts in prep school with pupils both competing nationally and having the opportunity to gain Arts Award qualifications. As students move through Kings Magna and the senior schools, they continue their Arts education with exciting curriculum and enrichment lessons forming a solid basis for further study. In KS4 and KS5 students can choose options including 3D Design, Creative Digital Media Production, Fashion and Textiles, E-Sports, Art and Design Practice, Photography, Graphic Communication and Art, Craft and Design. There are weekly extracurricular activities including the Arts Award, Junior Art Club, Sketchbook Skills, Drawing Skills, and QE’s Queen’s Academy for Creative Arts, the school’s own creative Saturday arts academy, open to all ages. In addition, students contribute digital and visual content to the school newsletter and the social media accounts.
QE students enjoy success in competitions, with recent wins in the ISA National Art competition for KS5 3d Design (2023), KS4 Sketchbook (2023), and KS5 Photography (2022 and 2023). QE pupils also achieved regional success in 2023 with ISA Northern Arts wins for KS5 2D Art, KS4 3D Design, KS4 Photography, and KS5 Textiles.
In 2023-24, QE’s Student Art Council grew to 35 ambassadors aged 11-18 years, who lead on events such as creative arts assemblies, workshops, mentoring and outreach days. Examples of their cross-curricular events include a ‘Day of the Dead’ mask making and a ‘Lunar New Year’ competition with Modern Foreign Languages. Throughout the school, students are encouraged to use creative practices in all subjects, for example, Year 9 business students using Adobe Creative Suite software to create and market their own brand.
