The Victory Academy, a Chatham-based secondary school, is built on the belief that young people thrive when creativity, culture and opportunity shape school life. Serving a diverse community, the arts form a meaningful and visible part of everyday learning.
Assistant Headteacher, Carley Dawkins shares how the school delivered Bronze Arts Award to an entire Year 7 cohort of 176 students using a carefully structured model designed by the Academy to work effectively with whole year groups.
Large-scale Bronze Arts Award in action
At The Victory Academy, we believe that every young person deserves access to high-quality cultural experiences. As an Artsmark Platinum school, we are committed to embedding creativity within the curriculum, and we regularly deliver Arts Award across a whole year group within Years 7 and 9, through a focus on either Art & Design or Performing Arts.
Delivering Bronze Arts Award to an entire Year 7 cohort required careful planning and coordination. Balancing curriculum time, aligning staff across departments and standardising materials were all key considerations to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for every student. The programme was designed to combine cultural exploration, literacy development and community celebration while remaining practical and manageable at scale.
Our chosen focus was Adinkra symbols, traditional Ghanaian symbols historically used in textiles to communicate meaning, values and identity. This felt particularly significant within our school community, as it resonated strongly with our demographic and allowed students to see aspects of heritage reflected in their learning.
We introduced students to the history and cultural context of Adinkra symbols, aligning the project with Black History Month to deepen understanding and ensure the work was culturally grounded. Students researched the work of Greg Kumah and Naomi Kendall, exploring their approaches and artistic influences (Part C). They examined the traditions of Kente cloth weaving and paper weaving, drawing on these as inspiration for their own creations. They also considered symbolism and meaning before designing a personal symbol to represent their unique identity and community.
Augmenting the creative work, we held workshops where students learned weaving skills and layered their personal symbol onto a woven base. For the Skills Share (Part D), the students worked in pairs to share their creative skills with each other, demonstrating the creative process used to create their symbol and weave. Each student then produced a version of their own piece inspired by their partner’s skills share, applying the new art form knowledge they had acquired. When brought together, they became a powerful collective artwork we called ‘a wall of identities’. We installed the final piece as a community display within the school, a visible celebration of diversity, identity and belonging.
Extending the project beyond the core requirements of Arts Award, each student also selected a symbolic word to accompany their artwork. They were then asked to explain how their symbol and chosen word connected to their identity. This reflective element was central to the project. We wanted to develop literacy skills alongside their creative artwork; think critically, articulate meaning and relate it to themselves.
Designing a scalable and inclusive model: Creation of a digital workbook
Delivering Arts Award at scale requires structure. From the outset, we knew that careful planning would be essential.
We adapted our bespoke digital workbook for large-scale Arts Award delivery to suit this project, ensuring all criteria were clearly evidenced and students could progress in a meaningful way. Printed portfolios were also provided for SEND learners to support accessibility.
The workbook included designated areas for photographic evidence and clearly defined writing spaces. Scaffolded prompts, sentence starters and guided questions helped students develop their analytical and reflective writing skills, while also supporting those less confident with extended written work. Page-referenced guidance allowed teachers to direct students precisely through each stage, maintaining consistency across multiple classes.
We also developed a centralised PowerPoint lesson that was used by all staff delivering Arts Award. This ensured consistency in delivery while still allowing space for individual creative responses.
Timetabling and managing whole-cohort delivery
Delivering Arts Award to an entire year group requires thoughtful coordination. We invest in training many of our teachers as Arts Award advisers, so the programme can be delivered confidently and to a high standard.
We scheduled Arts Award work as one dedicated lesson per fortnight, allowing the project to run steadily across the academic year. This pacing was deliberate. It gave our students time to develop skills, reflect meaningfully and produce thoughtful work, without placing undue pressure on the wider curriculum.
Balancing Arts Award alongside other subjects was essential. We were careful to avoid timetable overload by aligning the project with existing curriculum priorities and building flexibility into our planning.
From the outset, forward planning was critical. We embedded the assessment process into our existing marking routine. This meant assessing Arts Award became part of our normal systems, rather than something operating separately alongside them.
Making Part B work for large groups
One of the practical challenges of delivering Arts Award at scale is managing live arts experiences. Taking large groups on trips is logistically complex and costly, and in this case the chosen artform was not available to experience locally.
We approached this creatively. Students explored Adinkra symbolism through The British Museum’s online virtual gallery, allowing them to engage with authentic artefacts and cultural context without the potential issues associated with travel.
We also invited a professional weaving artist into school to deliver workshops. This provided meaningful live arts engagement in a manageable and cost-effective way. By bringing expertise into the school environment, we ensured students still experienced high-quality artistic input.
This approach demonstrates that Part B can be delivered successfully without travel. With careful planning, schools can provide rich and authentic arts experiences.
Celebration and impact
Delivering Bronze Arts Award with an entire year group may feel ambitious, but our experience shows that it is entirely achievable with careful planning, a clear structure and a shared commitment across the team.
For us, cultural exploration sat at the very heart of the project. By grounding the work in meaningful heritage and identity, we created space for students to connect personally with their learning. At the same time, we were able to integrate literacy, creativity and self-expression in ways that felt purposeful rather than forced.
One of the most powerful outcomes was seeing how a large cohort could still produce deeply personal and reflective work. Although students followed a shared structure, their individual voices remained central. The collective display was striking, but it was the individuality within it that made it truly powerful.
We concluded the project with a celebration assembly where students received their Bronze Arts Award certificates. The sense of pride, ownership and shared achievement was tangible. The students loved achieving a recognised arts accreditation, and collecting their certificates felt special, a moment of pride many will remember.
Closing reflections
For schools considering a similar approach, my advice would be to begin with your whole-school priorities. Use the Arts Award framework carefully and adapt it to suit your context, ensuring that criteria coverage is built into your planning from the outset. Design a culturally rich and relevant project that will resonate with your students, then build a clear and supportive structure around it.
Most importantly, keep creativity and student voice at the centre. When young people feel ownership of their ideas and see their identities reflected in their work, the impact extends far beyond the qualification itself.
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