Framing Principle

This badge acknowledges schools that have demonstrated exceptional commitment to fostering artistic expression, cultural awareness, and creative thinking. These schools prepare students to explore diverse perspectives, express themselves confidently through the arts, and develop the creative skills essential for personal growth, interdisciplinary learning, and societal contribution in ways that are appropriate to their context and resources.

Criteria For Earning This Badge

These criteria are based on global evidence regarding arts education, cultural literacy, and creative development. They draw from best practices in creative pedagogies, cultural competency, and inclusive artistic expression.

To earn this badge, schools must provide evidence that they have excelled in the following areas:

1. Artistic and Creative Excellence

Schools must demonstrate high-quality provision in one or more artistic disciplines (visual arts, music, theatre, dance, literature, film, design, etc.) and foster creative thinking across the curriculum.

· The school nurtures technical proficiency, critical reflection, and creative risk-taking in its students across artistic disciplines.

· Students engage in regular artistic practice that is innovative, expressive, and reflective of diverse traditions and styles, and can articulate the creative process behind their work.

· Creative thinking skills—including ideation, experimentation, and problem-solving—are fostered across curricular and co-curricular activities with examples of how these skills are transferred to other learning areas or real-world contexts.

2. Cultural Literacy and Intercultural Understanding

Schools should actively promote cultural awareness, heritage appreciation, and cross-cultural dialogue.

Students learn to appreciate their own cultural heritage while exploring global cultures through inclusive, respectful engagement demonstrating increased intercultural understanding through projects, performances, or reflective work.

· The school integrates local and global artistic and cultural practices into teaching and school life, supporting intercultural understanding and empathy.

· Partnerships with local artists, cultural institutions, and community groups enhance students' cultural learning.

3. Equity, Access and Participation

The school must actively remove barriers to creative participation and foster inclusivity in the arts.

· The school purposefully identifies and addresses inequalities in access to arts and cultural education, supporting underrepresented students and communities tracking participation rates and outcomes for these groups.

· Programmes ensure all students have meaningful opportunities to participate, showcase their work, and receive constructive feedback in safe, inclusive environments with evidence of increased engagement from previously underrepresented groups.

4. Creative Leadership and Innovation

Schools demonstrate a commitment to fostering creative leadership, using the arts to innovate and address broader challenges.

· Students are empowered as creative leaders and contributors to their communities, using the arts as a tool for social engagement and change with examples of initiatives that have achieved tangible community or cultural impact.

· Creative thinking informs whole-school practices, encouraging staff and students to apply artistic mindsets—curiosity, exploration, iteration—to school improvement and community projects.