At Guiseley School, we have a strong belief that the Arts form a vital role in providing your child with a broad and balanced education and help them to become outstanding twenty-first-century citizens.
We have a purpose-built new Sports and Arts Block which has five art rooms, a dark room, two music classrooms and five music practice rooms, an activity studio and an auditorium with lighting and sound facilities. We also have an additional drama studio in the Sixth Form block.
Since 2016 as part of our ongoing commitment to the Arts, we have included an Arts Pledge in all student planners which outlines every student’s entitlement to an Arts Education.
In 2017 we were one of only twelve schools in the UK to be awarded Artsmark Platinum by the Arts Council to celebrate the high-quality Arts education and opportunities in school and our work with the local community.
In September 2022, we were delighted to be awarded Artsmark Platinum for a second time. We are currently one of only three secondary schools in Yorkshire, and the only secondary school in Leeds and West Yorkshire to be a Platinum school. At Guiseley School we believe that every student is entitled to participate in a wide range of arts and cultural activities, to improve their personal well-being and to be given the opportunity to celebrate their talents and achievements. Being an Artsmark school enables and encourages us to continue to develop our arts and cultural offer, to create a unique and exciting learning environment for all our students.
Last academic year, we were proud to show a production of ‘Made in Dagenham’ across three fantastic nights in our Auditorium. This year, rehearsals are already underway for our next production.
In March 2021 we were delighted to become a Shakespeare School Festival Gold School. This prestigious award recognises our commitment as a school to providing inspiring opportunities year after year for our students, keeping creativity high on the agenda and developing and embedding personal and transferable skills through the arts and encouraging community engagement.
Guiseley School is also one of only eight pilot schools for SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for the People and the Economy) an initiative to raise the profile of these subject areas in school and is led by the British Academy and the London School of Economics.
During our Open Day in 2023, the Art Department gave prospective students a taste of stop motion animation. Y6 students made their own characters and guided them over the background, frame by frame. This is the final product, and a fantastic example of what they will be learning during an art lesson at Guiseley.
Artsmark Platinum Award
Awarded by Arts Council England, designed by schools, the new Artsmark award will help schools deliver a high quality arts and cultural education and provide an excellent way to demonstrate this. Across the country Artsmark is rewarding more and more schools for championing arts and culture. Any school, college or youth justice setting can apply. Artsmark schools gain access to exceptional resources as well as networks of the country’s most treasured cultural organisations, helping them develop and strengthen their arts provision.
At the beginning of our 22-23 academic year, we were awarded the Artsmark Platinum Award. We are thrilled to be recipient of this award until 2024.
Arts Award
Arts Award is an externally validated qualification from Trinity College London and the Arts Council. In the summer term in their Art, Drama and Music lessons all Year 8 students work towards gaining their bronze award. We are one of only a handful of secondary schools in the country who offer Arts Award to an entire year group. In 2018-19 over 200 students were successful in gaining their Bronze award.
In the summer term of 2021 all our Year 8 students completed the work for bronze award and this will be moderated later in the autumn term of this year.
Extra Curricular
We are extremely proud of the fantastic range of opportunities available in school. With four music concerts and three school productions, art competitions, sound and lighting club, theatre and gallery trips and much more, we believe there is something for everyone. Our extra-curricular provision helps to make Guiseley School a truly vibrant and creative place to study and work at.
Arts and the community
We don’t just want to keep the Arts to ourselves and welcome any opportunities to work with our feeder primary schools and the local community.
We recently donated our lighting bars and some stage lanterns from our old school hall during our recent rebuild to Guiseley Theatre and are delighted to help with the refurbishment of this community building.
In 2018 we organised a music and drama evening to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the end of World War 1 which involved students from Year 8 to Year 13, local community arts groups and the Guiseley Branch of the Royal British Legion. The evening was an incredibly moving one with three generations coming together to remember those who fought and fell for us from the Aireborough area. Unfortunately, our VE commemoration plans were thwarted by the pandemic.
We work closely with our feeder primary schools and frequently deliver CPD for teachers and lead workshops for students. In 2016 we launched the first Aireborough Art Exhibition. In June 2022 we participated in the ‘Tales Told’ Festival with an art exhibition and worked alongside other local schools to put on a drama and choir performance.
Our students love working with and performing to younger students and developing their leadership skills and in 2019 we toured a short production of Alice in Wonderland and led workshops in a number of our feeder primary schools.
If you have a project you think we could be involved in please email us at [email protected].