March 2008
Seventeen Isambard students have passed their Arts Award – a national qualification similar to the Duke of Edinburgh Award – just six months after starting secondary school.
The youth arts project Flux trained all Isambard Community School staff to become Arts Advisors, enabling it to become the first school in the country to have all staff trained as Advisors. In addition, exciting Flux arts activities, ranging from digital media to filmmaking to cartoon clubs, have enabled such a high proportion of students to achieve this award so quickly.
The Arts Award recognises how young people, aged 11-25, develop as artists and arts leaders. There are three levels – Bronze, Silver and Gold. All 17 Isambard students gained the Bronze award, now several have immediately begun work on their Silver.
Students who achieved their Award last week commented:
“The arts award is great! I am really looking forward to achieving all three of the arts awards and hope it will help me to become a film director.”
“The arts award is very fun because it helps to get into things that you have never done before, or to just continue something you enjoy doing.”
Flux Director Kirsty Carter said, “This is just fantastic. The students have become so involved in the arts and done so much work, so it’s great to see they’re achieving a qualification as a result.”
Young people gather evidence of the participation in arts activities in their portfolio, under the headings of:
They must collect evidence of all their activities, and work on this award could take over thirty hours to complete. The award is a personal learning programme which develops and assesses both arts-related skills (arts knowledge and understanding) and transferable skills (creativity, communication, planning and review, teamwork and leadership).
March 2008
SWINDON 105.5, a new non-commercial radio station for Swindon, launched on Saturday 15 March 2008 under a community radio licence from Ofcom.
This is an accessible and inclusive service with programmes presented by volunteers who receive training and support. Keen to support the local Arts and Music scenes, working with Education though schools, colleges and Youth Services, Literature with short stories, poems, plays and features, Community through training initiatives, programming and participation.
The main studio is at Swindon Town Football Club.
Recording and training studio is at Youth Services, Plus One Centre, Princes Street.
Volunteering opportunities in a wide range of areas.
Use your skills or develop new ones
Phone: Swindon 612517
E-mail: swindon105.5@talktalk.net
2007
Arts Council England, Artsmad, and Swindon Borough Council Arts Services are delighted to announce that nine Swindon schools have achieved a prestigious Artsmark award in 2007.
Swindon now has a total of 17 Artsmark Schools.
The arrival of Head teacher Simon Burrell prompted several initiatives and changes. The Artsmark Award was one such idea. Despite being the oldest school in Swindon, and one of the smallest, great all-round arts education for our pupils was provided in spite of restricted resources. The Award was applied for because the work was good enough to be officially recognised.
It was a useful and enlightening audit process to complete the form and it highlighted how much was being offered to pupils by way of:
The application was so successful, the school was granted a Silver Award!
This meant a great deal to all staff who had worked hard to promote arts.
The school and the children are benefiting from a well-balanced curriculum. They are now focussing attention on arts from other cultures Through dance and music, and developing more through visual arts and drama.
In March 2007 OFCOM awarded Community Radio Swindon an initial 5-year licence to set up an accessible and inclusive station.
They said, “This applicant sets out plans for a community radio station to serve Swindon, including the underserved communities within it…and have set out clear community objectives and involvement with a wide range of local groups…. The group demonstrated a high level of support from within the target community. Programme proposals are grouped around the themes of Arts, Community, Education and Music and the Community focus of the proposed output would generally broaden choice against existing stations”.
The station will:
Artsmad is one of the latest organisations to become a member of Community Radio Swindon.
So, if you fancy learning how to present a programme, have a particular interest to promote or would like to volunteer your help… let us know!
Membership
The station will contain no advertising and is encouraging “Membership” to support the project. Support can be shown as an Individual, a Community Group, a Business... just give us a call.
To find out more or to get involved
write: 54 Tryon Close, Liden Swindon, SN3 6HG
e-mail: shirleyludford@btinternet.com
phone: 01793 612517
check out www.communityradioswindon.com
Accessibility Guideline Notes
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