Between March 2020 and January 2021, Artis Specialists have created more than 1,000 videos for over 7,500 children. These pre-recorded sessions have reduced the workload of 450 teachers and supported many more parents across the country. We have also retained engagement of 33 Artis Specialists and mentors. 

Last academic year, the Covid-19 pandemic prevented Artis from offering our ‘normal’ on-site provision to children for 65% of the school year. This had a sudden and profound impact on Artis, the people we work with and those we support. We immediately suspended on-site provision to over 30 schools (where we work directly with 7,560 children each week), and the engagement of our freelance arts educators.

In September 2020, we were pleased to be back in school providing our on-site creative delivery to all of our partner schools across the country. We provided schools with in-depth risk assessments and offered all of our Artis Specialists enhanced training to support them working safely in schools during the pandemic.

Thanks to crucial funding from the Arts Council Emergency Fund and the London Community Response Fund, we were able to offer schools Artis Anywhere, our online creative learning platform, as a contingency during partial closures or school bubbles ‘bursting’.

Artis Anywhere includes creative sessions for 28 curriculum topics which are available to access, from school or home, and cover each year group. Each topic contains 6 weekly creative session videos, lesson plans and details of any additional resources required.

Earlier this month, due to school closures, our Artis Specialists returned to remote delivery, setting up creative classrooms in their own homes and using our virtual system for them to upload their videos. Using music, dance and drama activities, Artis Specialists are pre-recording sessions for their class groups. Children at home (or at school, for children of key workers) are able to join in with songs, movement sequences and drama activities to learn about classroom topics. Children see the Artis Specialist that they know and love in a weekly video, strengthening their connection to school, and offering children fun ways to learn at home. The delivery also reduces teacher workload, with one Deputy Headteacher calling the remote delivery a “godsend”.

The feedback from remote delivery has been overwhelmingly positive:

“I just wanted to say thank you for the videos.  I have used them with the children who are in school and they have loved them!  They join in enthusiastically and the mix of activities is perfect.  I have also heard very positive feedback from parents who have used them at home.  One mum was delighted to finally ‘see’ Flick as she had heard so much about him from her children!  It is lovely to know that the children are getting the opportunity to do upbeat, fun activities.  I feel that you cannot help but smile when Flick is teaching; he spreads joy and that is hugely important at this time.”

Michelle Cavanagh, Malmesbury Primary School

From January 2021,  we are offering access to Artis Anywhere for all schools so that children across the country have access to high quality creative provision that links to curriculum topics. We have been so thrilled to see lots of schools and parents take up this offer, and we look forward to sharing the incredible feedback.

If you are interested in registering for Artis Anywhere for your school during the closures, please get in touch.

“Fizz has done a great job.  The sessions are engaging and it is brilliant for us to be able to offer something that is tailored to our children and classes. Our home learning package now contains a number of elements.  My team and I will think carefully about how to build Fizz’s resources into an integrated daily/weekly message for our children working at home.”

Michael Bradley, Headteacher, Merton Abbey Primary School