Kerri Stephens, Director of Arts at Rokeby School in Kingston, London tells us about their delivery of Bronze Arts Award as part of the Year 7 curriculum; how the portfolio format they use has changed over time and that their pupils are able to experience new arts opportunities and gain new skills.
Rokeby is a boys’ prep school close to Richmond Park. The school has around 400 boys from Reception to Year 8.
We have been delivering Bronze Arts Award with our Year 7 cohort for the last 13 years. The arts are highly valued at Rokeby, and the boys study design technology, art, music, and drama as part of the curriculum in every year group. The boys love their arts lessons, and many have gone on to earn scholarships in various artistic disciplines at senior schools.
Why Arts Award?
Our decision to introduce Bronze Arts Award in Year 7 stemmed from the boys’ rich experiences in the arts curriculum and our desire to give them a structured way to explore and document their creative processes. It also encourages them to reflect on their achievements and consider how they can grow further in each area. We are fortunate that the Arts teaching team can use curriculum time to support the boys in developing their portfolios.
Portfolio development
In the early years, with limited access to computers, each portfolio was handwritten, with staff printing and attaching photos and other evidence. While this method produced tangible results, it was not environmentally friendly and made it difficult to revise or update work.
As our ICT facilities developed, so did our approach. We now aim to make Bronze Arts Award more pupil-friendly and sustainable. Several of our pupils have additional needs, and written work is not always the best way for them to express their ideas. With each Year 7 boy now using an iPad regularly in lessons, we’ve transitioned to portfolios which are housed on cloud storage, Microsoft OneDrive that both pupils and teachers can access.
This shift has allowed boys to present their work more creatively, incorporating photos, videos, voice recordings, and more. Cloud storage also ensures they have continuous access to their work, both in and out of school.
Bronze activities
We now structure Bronze Arts Award as follows:
- Part A – Explore the arts as a participant
Pupils create a written document with photos and other evidence attached. We have two strands for this section as around half of the year group perform as actors/musicians in a Coram Shakespeare Schools Festival (CSFF) production, whilst the other half complete either Art or DT projects which they document fully. The CSSF Production this year was Macbeth, the DT project was designing and creating a treat dispenser using various programmes and machinery, whilst the art project was to design and create a painting based on Greek mythology.
- Part B – Explore the arts as an audience member
Completed in collaboration with the English Department, this section allows boys to explore a different style of writing. We usually review a show that all the boys attend—recently, this has been a Christmas pantomime, which always makes for entertaining reading.
- Part C – Arts inspiration
A PowerPoint presentation is created by pupils that can include images, videos, and research. The boys choose their own arts inspiration from arts fields. Some examples of this are musicians, actors, directors, designers, artists and cartoonists that are chosen specifically so that each boy can highlight why they are inspired by that person and what they have done from being inspired. We encourage boys to look at a diverse range of inspiring people from around the world. The use of iPads makes it easy for the boys to design and personalise their presentations.
- Part D – Arts skills share
Completed during Arts Week (just before Easter), this involves creating a basic lesson plan and documenting the experience with images, videos, and feedback. Using their own devices makes this process efficient and engaging. Part D is seen as a highlight for many boys as they choose a skill that they are good at that they can then share, leading to an increase in confidence and communication skills. The boys have loved sharing skills this year, such as learning an instrument, drawing a specific cartoon, origami, drama monologues, creating drum loops and many others.
Coram Shakespeare Schools Festival
For the past 10 years, Year 7 boys have also had the opportunity to audition for the CSSF, which involves a live performance of an adapted 30 minute play usually performed in a local professional theatre setting in November. This experience now forms Part A of Bronze for those involved as this part sets out what the boys would hope to achieve through their participation in the production. The productions are designed to showcase and develop each boy’s talents, whether in acting or live music performance.
Each production has live music on stage, arranged for the cohort of musicians we have available which they lead and cue for the sections they are playing. The actors also perform all of the music, whether it be singing, playing percussion (we have used claves as weapons) or playing junk instruments to create a dramatic atmosphere. We see the performers as ‘players’ so all the boys are acting, playing and bringing scenes to life throughout the shows. This allows for the boys to showcase their talents, but to also experience a different type of collaboration that allows for more personal expression.
Pupil feedback
Most of the boys document an increase of confidence in various performance skills as well as developing relationships with their peers.
‘My favourite part was SSF because I liked going out for the day and performing. I liked thinking about the lines I had to learn—and how I didn’t have to learn them anymore!’ Student 1 (Part A)
‘I liked showing the skill to A and learning drumming from A. I showed how to make a small drum loop.’ Student 2 (Part D)
‘I liked Part A as it gave me the experience of playing in a small group on stage. It didn’t feel like I was learning a lot when I was playing, but I think I developed faster leading the ensemble on stage.’ Student 3 (Part A)
‘Taking part was my favourite. I collaborated in a team, and when I was writing it up, I noticed how much I had developed throughout the rehearsal process.’ Student 4 (Part A)
Impact
Bronze Arts Award is now firmly embedded in our Year 7 curriculum. We see it as an incredibly valuable way for our pupils to document their participation and development in the arts. We have found some of the best portfolios are submitted by boys who really think about their participation as opposed to the most able academically or creatively.
In a world where technical and cognitive skills, adaptability and interpersonal skills are highly valued in the workforce, Bronze Arts Award offers us the opportunity to further develop all of these skills with our Year 7 pupils at an early age, whilst also providing the boys the opportunity to express themselves creatively.
Photo: By Rokeby School
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