We’re incredibly proud of our Arts Award offering here at King’s. We’ve had our Trinity Champion Centre status confirmed for 2020-21 and continue to operate as a centre of excellence.
Our core team of trained Arts Award Advisers has welcomed new members this year. Miss Williams and Miss Gamble from the Drama Department, and Mrs Hooper from the English Department, have joined us as new Advisers for Bronze and Silver levels. They have been getting to know the team and what we do here at King’s and, most importantly, meeting this year’s wonderful new group of candidates.
New 2020-21 Bronze and Silver cohorts have already started meeting – there is a meeting every day at Long Break to ensure that all pupils that want to participate have an opportunity to join a group. Already, the buzz in the Green Room each day is really exciting to witness, with the new recruits realising the potential that this unique qualification offers them to explore new creative ideas. Musicians are already discussing concert possibilities, dancers and photographers are teaming up with exciting plans, directors are considering scripts and screenplays, to name but a few. Every conceivable art form is represented, from creative writing to fashion design: exciting times ahead. Similarly, our L6 pupils have now selected their Key Skills Options and a vibrant group is embarking on their Gold Arts Award journey.
At the same time, an after-school club is running to ensure that last year’s cohort who were unable to complete their portfolios during lockdown can now do so. It has been utterly delightful to witness the camaraderie amongst the group as they discuss their lockdown experiences (creative and otherwise) whilst they work together to complete collaborative projects and finish digitising their portfolios ready for assessment.
Finally, an important milestone was achieved this week when the certificates arrived for the Class of 2020. Given that these are nationally-recognised qualifications, equivalent to GCSEs and A-Levels, it’s always a significant moment. However, there was a real sense of pride attached to this year’s cohort, having to complete and digitise their portfolios under remote supervision, and their certificates really do celebrate a job well done. Many readers will have followed the lockdown journey on Twitter and Firefly, including the incredible job done in shifting traditional ‘live’ events to virtual online platforms. The 2020 cohort may have missed the traditional opportunity to collect their certificates at Prize Giving/Final Assembly but we were still able to give them their ‘moment’ in College Hall. Congratulations to all!