Arts Awards are a range of unique qualifications that support anyone aged up to 25 to grow as artists and arts leaders, inspiring them to connect with and take part in the wider arts world through taking challenges in an art form – from fashion to music, pottery to poetry.

Through progressing through the five levels, young people get to:

• discover the enjoyment of creating and participating in arts activities
• experience arts events
• develop creative and communication skills that are essential for success in 21st-century life
• explore the work of artists and craftspeople and gain insights into the professional arts world
• gain experience and knowledge to help progress into further education and employment

There are no entry requirements, no time limit for completing the award, and no set rules on how to present final work.

Find out how it works.

To achieve an Arts Award Discover, children and young people collect evidence in an individual arts log of their experiences of:

• participating in arts activities
• researching artists and their work
• sharing their arts discoveries

To achieve an Arts Award Explore, children and young people collect evidence in an individual arts log of their experiences of:

• active participation in a range of arts activities, including a personal response about what they have learnt from taking part
• arts organisations, artists and their work
• creating a piece of art work
• identification of what they have enjoyed and/or achieved, and their communication of this to others

To deliver Arts Award you must be a trained Arts Award adviser at the relevant level, and operate through a school or organisation registered as an Arts Award centre.

Find out how to become an Arts Award adviser.

You can now use an Out of the Ark Musical, or our subscription service Sparkyard to gain your Discover or Explore Arts Award Certificate.

There are several ways in which you might like to do this:

• Through singing and performing our songs as part of everyday school life – in the classroom, in a school assembly or performance to parents and carers
• Performing one of our nativities or musicals
• Taking part in a singing festival with a group of local schools
• Through an Arts Award lunchtime or after-school club
• Through an Arts day, week or project

Find out more about how to gain your Arts Award using either Out of the Ark Musicals or Sparkyard.

Out of the Ark are proud to publish a large variety of children's musicals. With age-ranges spanning 3 to 11 year-olds and with cast sizes ranging from small to large, we're sure you'll find a schools' musical that's just right for you! Whether you are looking to stage a class assembly, Christmas pantomime musical, a Year 6 leavers' musical, an end-of-year production or an engaging traditional tale set to music for younger children, we have it all.

You can gain your Arts Award using any of our Out of the Ark musicals, which allow pupils to work together to put on a spectacular show, enabling them to develop and explore new creative skills along the way. Through drama, dance and song, our musicals take you on an exciting journey, exploring topics and themes in a fun and creative format. Not only that, you can now gain an Arts Award certificate at Discover or Explore level at the same time.

Click here to download our free Discover log book and teacher guide for Musicals.

Click here to download our free Explore log book and teacher guide for Musicals.

We’ve put together some ideas here for the ‘Create’ section of your Explore award which you might find a useful starting point.

Click here to view and download ideas.

In March 2022 Out of the Ark launched Sparkyard; an intuitive, easy-to-use subscription service jam-packed with nearly 1000 songs, as well as a plethora of resources, assemblies, a flexible music curriculum and much more. Sparkyard is a visionary approach to primary education that we're certain will transform your school through singing.

If you already have a Sparkyard subscription, head on over to your account and find the Arts Award Collection in the collections area, where you’ll find everything you’ll need to gain your Arts Award using the many songs and resources in Sparkyard.

As part of your Arts Award you might like to find out a little bit more about Out of the Ark. Here are some useful links:

Go to our About Us page to find out more about Out of the Ark.

Go to Our Writers page to find out a little more about our composers and writers.

Or find out more about the people who work at Out of the Ark Music.

Click here to read our research report A Singing School is a Successful School.

Once you have completed your Arts Award log book please email us at info@outoftheark.com. We’d love to hear which songs, class assembly or musical you worked on and what other creative ideas you came up with.

To deliver Arts Award you must be a trained Arts Award adviser at the relevant level, and operate through a school or organisation registered as an Arts Award centre.

If you are not already an Arts Award adviser you can find out how to train here.
  As part of the partnership between Arts Award and Out of the Ark we are offering a discounted rate to all schools and partner arts organisations who are running Arts Award linked to Out of the Ark’s programmes. This discount is available for Arts Award Discover and Explore, and will run between 1 June 2022 – 31 March 2024. Visit our partnership page to take advantage of this discount.

The discount rates are as follows:

• Discover at £3.05pp
• Explore at £11.50pp

The offer runs for moderations/certificates booked up to the end of March 2024. For Discover certificates, this offer can be claimed by entering the offer code OOTA23 in the box titled Provide a brief description of your project when completing the Discover enrolment spreadsheet. For all other levels, the offer can be claimed by entering the code OOTA23 in the contextual information box when requesting your moderation via the adviser portal.

For further information on moderation and certification and for terms and conditions click here.