I am delighted to inform you that our school has recently been awarded Artsmark status for the first time.

Artsmark is Arts Council England’s flagship programme which enables schools and other organisations to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision. It is delivered by Trinity College London and 10 regional Bridge organisations drive participation.

Achieving Artsmark status demonstrates that Barrowby CE Primary School has a number of very special qualities. It demonstrates that we:

• have an excellent arts and cultural offer
• are forward thinking and open to development
• are committed to investing in our staff and young people
• are committed to listening to our students and providing opportunities for our community
• have an effective approach to building sustainable relationships with arts and cultural organisations
• value the arts and culture through a broad and balanced curriculum

To achieve Artsmark, we had to undergo a rigorous application process, followed by a validation visit from a professional arts consultant. We were assessed on many areas of our provision including arts in the curriculum, extra-curricular arts activities, how we work with artists and arts organisations and how well our arts provision impacts on staff development and the wider community.

I am also delighted to tell you that we have been awarded the School Games Silver Mark. The Games are designed to build on the magic of 2012 to enable every school and child to partici-pate in competitive sport, including meaningful opportunities for disabled youngsters.

Nationally and locally the Sainsbury's School Games is being delivered through partnerships. The national partnership is made up of:

• the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which has overall policy leadership, supported by the De-partment for Education (DofE) and the Department of Health (DOH);
• Sport England, which is the Lottery distributor and are supporting the engagement of Sports Governing Bodies and County Sports Partnerships;
• the Youth Sport Trust, the landscape lead organisation for school sport, which has been commissioned by Sport England to provide development support to schools, sports and other local partners.

We hope you share our pride in being nationally recognised for our arts and cultural provision as well as our competitive sport. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff and pupils in making this possible.