STUDENTS at Lymm High School have struck gold, thanks to their artistic talents – earning the school an Artsmark Gold Award.
Achievements in art, dance, music and drama have earned the school the prestigious Artsmark Gold Award – one of the top national honours for schools who show commitment to providing opportunities across all the arts.
Arts Council England launched the Artsmark awards to encourage schools to increase the range, quantity and type of arts available to students, while also raising the profile of arts education.
In recognition of the school’s extensive participation across the art spectrum and after an audit and inspection from the Arts Council, the school received the Artsmark Gold Award.
Receiving the award will allow the school to further enrich their art provision and give them access to an enviable network of leading cultural organisations for the benefit of students and teachers.
Lymm High offers a wealth of opportunities for students to get involved with the arts and a tradition of staging ambitious productions; including last year’s ‘Snow Dragons’, where students represented the school at the Dorfman Theatre, London, as a finalist for the prestigious National Connections event; and several celebrated shows such as ‘Oklahoma’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and more recently ‘Les Miserables’.
Music provision is also extremely strong with students going on to study at top music schools such as Guildhall and its String Quartet, winners of the Ensemble Open Class this year which took place at the Bowden Youth Festival last year.
The Artsmark Panel commended the school’s sense of ambition and commitment to achieving excellence through the arts, as well as offering important space for more personal development and growth.
Head of Expressive Arts at the school, Rachel Richards, said: “The award is the result of a long and successful journey. We have not only enriched our arts provision, working with many practitioners but have fostered great pride in sharing our creative practice and our students have relished the opportunity to show off their expertise.
“We had to undergo an audit of all the arts in the school and an inspector came to take a look at the way we operate here.
“It was a very useful process which helped us all to see where our strengths are and where we need to move forward.”
