Pupils and staff at Sandbach School are celebrating after receiving a prestigious award recognising its commitment to the arts.

The school has been awarded an Artsmark Award in a momentous year for the programme as it celebrates 20 years of arts, culture and creativity in schools.

The Artsmark Award is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England.

It supports schools to develop and celebrate arts and cultural education, "putting creativity and wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum".

Artsmark "ensures every young person can be creative" and access a diverse, high quality cultural education.

In order to achieve their Platinum Artsmark Award, Sandbach School had to develop its arts and culture provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum.

This was achieved by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school.

The Artsmark assessor commended Sandbach School on "its long history of commitment to the arts which is actively shared beyond its own setting".

"Overall, Sandbach School has continued to stand out as a champion for arts rich learning, and despite some setbacks from Covid, has shown the resilience to find solutions and rebuild engagement where connections may have been lost," the assessor added.

On receiving the award, Headteacher Sarah Burns said: "We're extremely proud of achieving our Artsmark Platinum Award.

"We are committed to delivering a high quality arts and cultural education and we look forward to continue to grow with Artsmark."

Dr Darren Henley CBE, chief executive of the Arts Council, said: "I would like to congratulate Sandbach School on their Artsmark Award.

"Being an Artsmark school demonstrates that through offering a broad, ambitious, and creative curriculum, every pupil can develop character and resilience, increasing their knowledge, curiosity and skills that will remain with them through to adult life."