An image of the sign of Brinsworth Howarth Primary School

Day to Create: a visit from our Youth Advisory Board

20 September 2022

5 minute read

Arts Council England’s Youth Advisory Board is a group of diverse young people from across the North of England who work with staff across the organisation to ensure the voices of children and young people are at the heart of what we do. Abby, a member of the Youth Advisory Board, reflects on her visit to an Artsmark school during their #DaytoCreate celebrations. Find out what she got up to...

In my role as a member of the Youth Advisory Board for Arts Council England, I was able to share my views and contribute towards the plans for Artsmark’s ‘Day to Create’ event, celebrating 20 years of Artsmark award. In a meeting back in November, the Youth Advisory Board gave suggestions for the day, such as a focus on including everyone and allowing each individual to explore their own creativity. These suggestions informed the activities designed by the Arts Council and Artsmark Partners Grimm & Co and Little Inventors for children to enjoy on the day.

Two children sit down with their thumbs up

The school had been awarded the Artsmark award in 2019 and both staff and pupils were excited to take part in the anniversary celebrations. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to explore the school and talk to several different pupils. It was apparent that creativity was a huge part of the curriculum, with many of the classrooms being decorated with pupils’ work. This was the case in the year 6 classroom where I had an in-depth conversation with two pupils. Year six were taking part in the Grimm & Co Case of the Missing Memories activities by creating their own magical creatures. This used problem-solving skills and imaginative play as pupils had to explain why they’d designed their creature and how its characteristics would make their animal a good predator. The pupils that I spoke with told me that they often get to collaborate in their creative lessons and thought it was helpful to do so. The staff had done a great job throughout adapting the Day to Create tasks to fit their own pupils. An example of this was in the Year Three class where I spoke to a table of excited, if not slightly distracted, children. The class were following the Little Inventors Dare to Invent activities and were trying to invent ways that could help them stay seated during lesson time! Their teacher was helping them come up with practical considerations for this whilst poking fun at the situation. This task was great for problem-solving and was able to be student-led, allowing all pupils to have their ideas heard as well as collaborate with others.

A young boy holds a piece of his work up with a smile on his face.

It was in my remit as Youth Advisory Board member that I was able to visit the Brinsworth Howarth Primary School to look at how Day To Create brought children together through creativity. I was personally very excited to see how my input had been used in order to create a fun day to celebrate and support the children at Brinsworth Howarth in their creativity.

Head teacher at Brinsworth Howarth Primary school stood up in a blue long dress, with a pair of paper goggles on her face.

During the Youth Advisory Board meeting, the board discussed the importance of young people being able to showcase their work to family and friends. Brinsworth Howarth Primary were able to do this via social media, with their Twitter feed full of pupils’ work from the day. Some pupils also donated some of their work to Mrs. Crawford, the head teacher!

You can follow Brinsworth Primary School on Twitter here.