Impact16th July 2025

‘Our children grew ten inches taller’: Arts Week at Ark Little Ridge

As part of our pilot year Ark Little Ridge delivered a full arts week of activities for children including performances and workshops, artists in residence and a chance for pupils to showcase their own skills in a forest school art installation.

Ark CultureArk Little Ridge Primary Academy

Denise Lennard, deputy headteacher at Ark Little Ridge, reflects on how students at the school benefitted from Arts Week…

“We talked about our favourite things this year with the children, and straight away it was the Arts Week. For them to come off timetable and be enriched in such a different way, they were so excited by it.

“You could see the opportunity for many more children to shine in many different ways and to really push themselves to do something that they wouldn’t perhaps necessarily do. There was a real buzz around the school which I think is still there. There was such a community feel to bring everybody together off timetable and laugh with joy.

“Our children grew ten inches taller because they were doing their own performance. They really got that idea of ‘I’m a performer now and this is what I’m doing with my turn to showcase what I can do’. I think they were much braver. They really wanted to take part and do.

“These opportunities have given us the ideas of how we can enrich the curriculum even more going forward.”