Creativity is at the heart of Criftins School.  We believe that everyone is creative in their own way and that all aspects of life involve creativity.  We even have creativity as one of our six specific school values. Scroll down to read about our school events, we put FUN at the centre of our day in school. 

We are delighted to have achieved Artsmark PLATINUM which recognises the depth of our provision and our partnership with other schools and organisations. What a way to start January 2024!

Read below to find out more about our Artsmark Journey.   Get in touch if you would like to know more about achieving Artsmark for your school. 

We are delighted to inform you that your setting has been awarded an Artsmark Platinum Award. Congratulations!

Your Statement of Commitment and Statement of Impact have been assessed and we’re pleased to share this feedback from our assessors with you: 

'Criftins CofE Primary School offers an arts-rich education to your pupils. Every child experiences a wide range of arts activities every year including visiting cultural organisations and working with artists. Arts and culture are threaded through your curriculum and you have thought carefully about how you can ensure your curriculum is representative of your pupils and of wider society. You have bought new books for each year group that reflect your school and wider society. You have planned your music listening curriculum across each phase so children experience music and styles from around the world and artists from different backgrounds. You have further developed your drama curriculum on this Artsmark journey. You have used the arts to improve outcomes across the curriculum and an above average number of your pupils work at age related expectations compared to national results. Governors and senior leaders oversee the strategic development of arts and culture to implement your school’s vision. Your Headteacher shares evidence of good practice across a wide range of settings and advocates for the positive impact of arts and culture via their membership of the Culture Consortium Shropshire. As an emergent Platinum school you have plans to develop your formal teacher CPD offer for local schools including on curriculum development. You planned to develop your careers work in your statement of commitment. You have a futures week and mention that pupils presented in a local business conference room as part of Heritage Action Zone work. Did this also include work around careers in the creative industries? Do you draw attention to creative careers and career choices when artists work with your pupils? You mention you have been approached by four schools to help develop their curriculum and that you partner with seven local schools. Could you say more about the evidence of impact of this work on these schools’ arts curriculum and outcomes? You mention you have an Arts Council in your statement of commitment. Has this continued? Have this group of children been able to shape the arts offer of the school and make decisions about the arts and culture they take part in or artist they work with? To develop further could you build on your work around a representative curriculum to make links with creative practitioners and the cultural community that reflect the diversity of society? Could children act as coaches, advocates or ambassadors for quality provision and learning in the arts beyond the school?'

Congratulations on your Artsmark Platinum Award!

Your award is valid for two years and will expire on 11 January 2026

Enrichment Day.

Thank you for your submissions to Artsmark.

SUCCESS!!

Your Statement of Commitment and Case Study have been reviewed by our assessment panel and we are delighted to inform you that Criftins CofE Primary School (DfE 8933031) has been awarded an Artsmark Gold Award. Congratulations!

The panel has made the following comment about your submissions:

Criftins School sets out a confident vision of an arts rich learning environment in a rural setting, where the capacity for risk taking and pushing boundaries among the staff has led to a flourishing of independent learning among pupils. The main thrust of activity seems to have been to move away from large scale ‘wow-factor’ performances a handful of times each year, and to instead embed arts rich learning in smaller, more personalised chunks throughout the year and across the curriculum. The Case Study suggests three main benefits that have accrued as a result: “Artsmark has enabled us to review what the Arts looks like across the curriculum and it now has a firm place in all subjects. We have been approached by local schools to share good practise and our partner federation has now stepped into the journey with us. Artsmark has enabled us to further develop our growth mindset culture; no longer do we have children who ‘can’t draw’ we have pupils who are individual in the way they create.  We believe we are quite brave in the way we structure our curriculum and as an outstanding primary school (Jan 2016) we have developed beyond what we thought ever possible always embracing new ideas and deepening current practise. Arts mark has supported our church school heritage and has brought creativity into worship which in turn has motivated our young children to be better citizens.” In order to build on these successes in the future and to consolidate your Artsmark award further it would be interesting to see deeper reflections on the link between your new curriculum and the high levels of achievement your learners are attaining. It would also be interesting to understand the way you are able to effectively share learning and practice with other schools more widely as your expertise progresses.

Congratulations on your Artsmark Gold Award!

Please read below the Journey to ARTSMARK!

We are always working to extend our curriculum for our pupils, whether that is in the classroom, on Educational Visits, during extended schools or in the community.  During 2017/18 we worked towards ARTSMARK as a way of extending our provision and evaluating what we consistently provide as a school.  In 2017 during the summer term we achieved a heritage award form Historic England for our heritage study in the local community.  This was a wonderful project which is still ongoing and was a forerunner to us applying for the ARTSMARK Award.

If you have time and are interested please read our statement of commitment and our case study.  This outlines all that we aimed to do as a school and celebrates all that we keep on doing.  This process also made us recognise that we do far more every day than we actually realise which is regarded as just 'normal' practise in Criftins. 

Mrs Jones leads the development of arts across the school supported by the Staff and Federation Governors. She is your point of contact if you would like to get involved in school. We welcome local artists an arts groups and encourage the community to come and have a go!