At PSJ, creating opportunities to achieve excellence in the Arts is of huge importance to us. We interweave opportunities for our children to express themselves creatively both into and outside the curriculum, such as running extra-curricular clubs in the Arts and including maypole dancing in our PE curriculum in Year 2. These give us the opportunity to participate in community events, such as the Midsomer Norton Summer Fayre, where our maypole dancers have won trophies every year.
Throughout the year, we place value on the Arts through our CARE weeks, when we have a curriculum focus designed to enhance our CARE values. During our summer CARE week, we participate in the National Gallery’s Take One Picture project. The children take the initiative in responding to a provided stimulus to create individual or group artwork. We submit the projects to the National Gallery and in 2024, our Year 2 project was chosen to be part of the exhibition in Trafalgar Square, London! In other CARE weeks, children create Remembrance Day and Harvest artwork, which we share with our community.
We have a well-resourced Art room, providing a designated space for our pupils to create high-quality artwork. We have a range of visiting artists and opportunities to see artists in situ. Every Christmas, we have the Old Vic theatre company visit our school to perform a festive show, and our Year 6 pupils perform an elaborate end-of-year production at one of our local secondary schools.
Most recently we have been awarded the Silver Artsmark Award, and we are very proud of this recognition for our Arts provision. Now we’re aiming for the Gold Award!
