A guide to creating bespoke Arts Award Discover logs

This guide to creating Discover log books was created by Tracy Webster, Education Manager at Tameside Cultural Services, Good Practice Centre 2014-15. In this guide they take us through how they created their own Discover log books for their project ‘Victorian Tameside’.

By creating bespoke Arts Award logs we provide extra structure to assist with the embedding of Arts Award, creating a step-by-step guide for young people and staff to follow. Below you will find our guide which can support with creating your own bespoke Arts Award Discover logs.

Front cover

On the front cover of the log book we include in the design of the page:

• title of the project
• images that relate to the activity/theme/topic
• any relevant logos

Introduction to Arts Award Discover

(This introduction remains the same with each bespoke Discover log we create)

Arts Award Discover is a fantastic chance for you to get an award and a really cool certificate that you can show to your family, your teachers and keep in your record of achievement. All you need to do is work your way through this special booklet and fill in each of the pages. Be as creative as you want to be: draw pictures, use photos, print stuff from the internet and use pictures from magazines. You can also add additional pages if you want.

In this section we provide an outline of Arts Award Discover and its 3 parts, as well as giving an overview of the other Arts Award levels. We also introduce the topic/theme of the project, giving a brief overview of approximately 110 words. For example:

Part A: Discover

Part A within each bespoke Arts Award Discover log remains largely the same regardless of the partner we are working with, the only change we make is the addition of relevant images and information about a particular topic or theme.

We give participants a double page of empty boxes and ask them to respond to the question: How many different types of art do you know about? As this is an individual response, we suggest that each participant can draw or stick in pictures that show as many different types of art as they can think of. These might include: music, sculpture, film, animation, graphic design, poetry, lyrics, drama, books, dance, drawing, painting, photography, architecture, textiles, craft.

Taking part in a range of arts activities

This section forms the main bespoke section of the log and enables us to create pages that are focused around our theme. Whilst participants are required to take part in at least one arts activity, we encourage them to have a go at several art forms linked to our theme.

We include questions and suggestions, for example: Which arts activities did you take part in?

We allow space for participants to respond to the actual arts activity/ project they have been engaged in. This evidence can be shown and captured in any way, whether through words, drawings, photographs, print-outs or film.

Here are some further examples:  

Part B: Find out

We ask participants to research an artist and evidence what they have found out. This could be linked to the theme of the log. For example, in our Victorian Tameside project we included ‘Sam Fitton was a writer and cartoonist who worked in Lancashire producing cartoons for the Cotton Factory Times at the start of the1900’s. He created over 400 cartoons for the newspaper. Find out about Sam Fitton’s life and career as an artist and add your research to your log.’

Part C: Share

Part C within each bespoke Arts Award Discover log remains largely the same regardless of the partner we are working with, the only change we make is the addition of relevant images and information about a particular topic or theme. We ask leading questions to ensure a response. The questions enable participants to share their experience easily and effectively.

The questions ensure that the work meets the requirements of the Adviser toolkit and the assessment criteria for Discover level.

Assessment criteria

Placing the Discover assessment criteria from the adviser toolkit within this section of the log assists participants and advisers to track progress and tick off which area of the criteria has been completed. This helps teachers and group leaders to oversee activities in between sessions that we deliver. This information should not replace the use of the Adviser assessment report form but instead support advisers to keep track of the learning taking place and make the filling of the form easier.

We allow a separate space for advisers’ feedback at the bottom of page-where a teacher/group leader has the opportunity to individually respond to the completion of the log.

Back page

This can include notes and logos. For example, this ‘Victorian Tameside’ Arts Award Discover resource has been created by Tameside Council and supported by Curious Minds. All photographs and images used within this Arts Award ‘Discover’ have been sources from Local Studies and Archive Tameside.

Final sign off

Once we have researched and laid out these pages, we ask the school/ organisation to agree the content and to sign off the Arts Award log. Our design team then gets to work on the finished creation. In following this template, we ensure that it fits both Arts Award criteria and the participating organisation’s own requirements.

To see some further examples of Tameside’s Arts Award logs, visit: www.tameside.gov.uk/artsengagement/logs.

For further guidance on creating your own Arts Award log books please take a look at our guidelines for creating Arts Award resources.