Art and Education
Bexley supports young people in learning and experiencing through art in school and non-formal education environment. Through working in partnership with all ranges of education establishments from primary to Higher education, we aim to enable young people to participate in art activities, highlight possible further education opportunities and develop career paths.
School (Primary and Secondary)
Across the borough our schools are committed to developing children with new and exciting creative methods. We are working closely with our schools to support their development and growth, which includes projects such as Fun In The Sun.
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Artsmark
An Artsmark is awarded to schools that display a commitment to the whole spectrum of arts - music, dance, drama and art & design. It is a national award scheme and is managed by Arts Council England. The Artsmark is awarded after an application, assessment and validation process, and is available to all schools in England. Its aim is to recognise and raise the profile of arts education. Schools can apply for one of three levels of award Artsmark, Artsmark Silver or Artsmark Gold. Criteria for each level is detailed in the Application form and guidance materials which is available on the  Artsmark website.
Bexley Council's Cultural Services and Welling Arts Partnership offer all Primary, Secondary and Special Schools in the Borough the opportunity to find out more about Artsmark at an annual free one-day seminar and surgeries, which are available by appointment.
The annual free seminar day includes visits and Q&A sessions with Artsmark gold and silver schools in the borough. This year Artsmark Gold Bursted Wood Primary and Artsmark Silver Bexley Grammar School provided seminar and tours of their facilities. An introduction to the Artsmark application form by Artsmark validator from GLOSS (Gloucester Arts and education agency), also gave guidance for the application process and for the writing of an overarching arts policies.
For more information please visit www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsmark, or contact Ian Bell, Arts Partnership Administrator, on artspartnership@welling.bexey.sch.uk or phone 020 8303 2876.
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Specialist Arts Status
 Designated by the Department for Education and Skills www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools the Specialist Schools Trust www.schoolsnetwork.org.uk, the Specialist Schools Programme (SSP) helps schools, in partnership with private sector sponsors and supported by additional Government funding, to establish distinctive identities through their chosen specialisms and achieve their targets to raise standards. Specialist schools have a special focus on their chosen subject area but must meet the National Curriculum requirements and deliver a broad and balanced education to all pupils.
Bexley currently have three such schools and we work closely with these schools to initiate school-based projects such as SameSky Community arts project.
Welling School is a Specialist Arts College. Welling achieved specialist arts college status in September 2002. Specialist status is an enhancement of what is already available. Our students study all subjects of the National Curriculum and are able to take a wide range of examination courses. However, we also receive additional funding to enable students to access specialist facilities and staff, and we use our expertise within the visual and media arts to raise motivation and attainment across the curriculum.
We are a designated Training School. This demonstrates confidence in the School's ability to deliver high quality professional development and will strengthen our capacity to recruit and retain excellent teaching and support staff.
This not only means that they excel in the arts, but also that they use the arts in innovative ways across the curriculum to raise standards across the whole school. As a part of the specialist status Welling School has an Arts Partnership team who work with partner schools, Higher Education Institutions and community organisations to deliver the community plan. The partnership offers young people across the borough the opportunity to participate in high quality arts activity, often through becoming a member of one of our after school clubs. If you are interested in finding out more about these please contact the Arts Partnership Office on 020 8303 2876 or email artspartnership@welling.bexley.sch.uk
Townley Grammar School for Girls has specialist school status for the performing and visual arts. The specialist status means that the students can expect to focus on the many different artistic forms with a special emphasis on performance. Building has begun on the new studio, complete with state of the art recording facilities that will be ready for use in by 2006.
Bexley Academy committed £20,000 of supported to Townley's bid for specialist status and is a major partner in the school's plans for the future.
St Catherine's As a specialist school, St Catherine's will now receive a grant help to provide modern sound and lighting equipment for the new media and drama studios, more staff specialising in the arts and increased training opportunities for existing teachers.
The new status and facilities will also help to strengthen links with local primary schools and the community.
St Catherine's students will be able to benefit, whether making a television programme giving news and weather in French during modern language lessons or practising the use of professional level lighting and sound equipment during drama productions. Staff and students will celebrate the new status at the opening of their media and drama studio in November.
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Fun in the Sun - Working in Partnership with Sports
 The 'Fun in the Sun' Dance Festival was a collaboration between Trinity School, schools Sports Partnership (SSCO) and the Council's Cultural Services team to create an inclusive and exciting dance festival for Key stages 2 & 3 students across the borough. The festival gave children confidence in performance arts and supported their progression to secondary school.
Funded by the Big Lottery, this project brings together the expertise of the Bexley Council's Art Development, the festival invited Primary schools from across the borough to participate in an exciting project where under the supervision of the school teachers each school was allocated a professional dance tutor to work with up to 15 children per school aged 7 to 11 years on an exciting 6-week choreographic process in 'Out of Hours' school clubs. This culminated in a dance festival hosted at Rose Theatre, Rose Bruford College at 4.30pm on Thursday 7 July 2005.
Each school group participating were set the task to create a short dance piece of 4 minutes based around the festival's title of 'Fun in the Sun', which inspired a thousand ideas; from holidays, playing with friends, outings with relatives or even exotic sea creatures.
Teacher and dance tutors prior to the creative process participated in a creative workshop/inset day to gain confidence and support their continual professional development. Trinity school hosted this day and each practitioner was provided with resource materials and music stimuli. During the session the group had the opportunity to work with year 7 students to test their newfound knowledge.
It is the belief that working with fellow colleagues from across the borough and professional practitioners supports the schools in their quest for new and exciting ways in which to engage the children in dance and movement based work.
The creative process, allowed the schoolteachers to put into practice their experience through the Inset day and for the children to actively create work with the practitioners.
Rose Bruford College, are supported the event through a reduced Rose Theatre hire fee, therefore enabling the children, parents and VIPs to experience this event in the professional context of a 300 seat theatre environment.
The schools taking part in the festival were Barnehurst Junior Foundation School, Barrington Primary, Belmont Primary, Belvedere Primary, Birkbeck Primary, Castilion Primary, Jubilee Primary, Lessness Heath, Normandy Primary, Northumberland Heath Primary, Cleeve Park, Trinity School, Erith School and Woodside School.
The performance was managed in a very simple 'rolling show' with the children moving from the audience onto stage to perform allowing them to see their peers perform from other schools as well as having their important moment on stage.
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Creative Sparks
The Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, has recently unveiled 'Creative Sparks', a Government Plan to ensure that every school child gets the chance to take part in arts and culture.
The Government have made a commitment that, within the next ten years, no child will leave school without having had access to high quality arts and culture. Creative Sparks aims to deliver this commitment.
For more information visit www.culture.gov.uk
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Same Sky Community Arts
 Community Arts practitioners 'Same Sky' runs programmes of participatory arts projects involving people of all ages in the production of large scale, predominantly outdoor, celebratory events.
Formed in 1987 and based in Brighton, Same Sky have run projects throughout Southern England, France and, over the past couple of years, Ghana. Their credits include the Brighton Festival Children's Parade, their winter solstice event 'Burning the Clocks', and the annual Thames festival. The Sensational Chamber Maze project follows on from 'After Dark', a nighttime event that took place in the London Boroughs of Bexley Bromley, Croydon and Merton in 2002.
The 'Sensational Six Cent Chamber Maze' is a temporary exhibition of all the artworks made at creative workshops by children from several primary, secondary and special schools in Bexley and other London boroughs. Brighton based community arts company Same Sky in conjunction with Welling School (year 8), Townley Grammar (year8 and 9) and Bexley Council ran a series of workshops in the schools during the spring term of 2005. Each workshop took one of the five senses as a starting point. Feel, Sight, Smell, Taste and Hearing. Using a wide variety of materials the children were encouraged to take the theme to the extreme. Resulting in a maze of colour, texture, humour and comment. The project was showcased at Danson Festival.
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Bird College
Based in Sidcup and founded by Doreen Bird, Bird College is a high respected performing arts and theatre college with a number of their graduates going on to perform in the West End and on television.
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Rose Bruford College
Based in London, Rose Bruford College is a University Sector institution operating worldwide and offering a unique range of degree courses in Theatre and related arts. Rose Bruford is well respected both nationally and internationally and has pioneered new courses: the first Acting degree in the United Kingdom in 1976, for example. As one of the most innovative and dynamic institutions in the field, they have kept a strong sense of collaboration between the courses. The University of Manchester validates all courses and the National Council for Drama Training accredits courses where appropriate.
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Bexley Academy of Performing Arts
Bexley Academy is supported by Bexley Council to provide services in Music,
Dance and Drama, with a peripatetic scheme in Bexley primary schools, which gives
nearly 1500 children the opportunity to learn an instrument free of charge.
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Scholarship Awards
 Bexley Academy of Music and Performing Arts has recently announced its first series of Scholarship Awards. Due to the generosity of Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd and Peter Sowden (in memory of his wife Mary Ann), major scholarships have been awarded to highly gifted and talented instrumentalists and dancers, who all attend Bexley Academy.
 Oliver Hickie (French Horn) of Dartford Boys Grammar School, Stephanie Jones (Percussion) and Emma Thompson (Flute) - both of Townley Grammar School for Girls each received a cheque for £750 towards their musical studies.
The Academy Coca Cola Dance Scholars (Chloe Shillibeer, Claire Bladon, Abigail Clarke, Hannah Beecham, Sophie Knowles, Charlotte Murphy, Molly-Skye Cogger and Rachel Sheridan) will all be taught in special advanced classes by Andrew Wilson, formerly Principal Dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Sadlers Wells Ballet.
 The awards were presented at Bexley Academy by Ian Johnson, Operations Director of Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd, who said 'I feel the development of our youth is important and hope that this sponsorship will encourage them to get active, and further develop their education and skills. As a Local Business we are committed to supporting and giving back to the community'.
Chief Executive of the Bexley Academy Mike Purton said 'We are so pleased that some of our most outstanding youngsters are receiving this extra help to develop their skills and we are most grateful to Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd and to Peter Sowden for their great generosity'.
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