Teaching the curriculum through the arts

What did the school want to achieve?

School improvement

From the time it opened in 1999, this school faced a number of challenges. Its pupils came from diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Many had been unsuccessful at previous schools and had poor attendance records. Almost half had special educational needs and a third had emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The school decided that the best way to tackle these issues was to teach the curriculum through the arts. It hoped that the arts would improve pupils' attitudes to learning by engaging their interest, developing their creativity and encouraging them to work together. By giving them an opportunity to achieve in the arts, the school wanted to increase pupils' self-confidence and self-esteem. It hoped that this would then lay the foundations for better learning across the curriculum.

Along with positive attitudes to learning, the school hoped to see positive behaviour, both in lessons and in the playground. It felt that its culturally diverse pupils would benefit from the shared cultural experience of taking part in arts experiences. It also hoped to increase their sense of being part of the school community and their involvement in the life of the school. From a starting point of poor attendance, it wanted pupils to actually love coming to school, to attend each day and to be punctual.

Pupils' arts education

From an arts perspective, the school wanted to give all of its pupils a love of the arts that would stay with them for the rest of their lives and enable them to become discriminating arts consumers and contributors. By encouraging them to engage with a variety of artforms and arts experiences, it wanted to give every child the opportunity to excel in art and design, music, dance and drama.