Birmingham Ormiston Academy has announced the expansion of its successful arts programme, which is aimed at opening doors for young people across Birmingham and the Midlands.

The programme had been created as part of the national #WeWill campaign, which is a youth social action programme funded by Ormiston Trust and the National Lottery Fund to encourage more young people to take part in social action. Through the scheme, BOA hopes to share insights from its expansive digital, creative and performing arts courses with young people from across the region.

The success of the programme goes against a growing and worrying trend. Across the UK, schools have seen a significant decrease in the number of students continuing their art studies to GCSE, with performing arts uptake declining by 72%, and drama by 45% since 2010. In recognition of the overwhelming benefits that the arts have on a child’s development and aspirations, BOA has been committed to tackling this decline and ensuring children from diverse backgrounds are given the opportunities to explore their talent within performing arts.

The programme is run by a team of 93 student ambassadors from Year 10 to Year 13 who are passionate about working with local pupils to instil a love of performing arts. As a first step, BOA’s student ambassadors support their local primary school partners by creating workshops for each school which fit into their curriculum. These workshops are a way to showcase to the pupils how fun and immersive performing arts can be.

The pupils are then invited to BOA’s Super Saturday School, an eight-week intensive performing arts programme which takes place in the Spring term each year. Within the Saturday school, pupils from ages 3 to 16 are able to take part in a three hour long, exciting and enriching workshop which teaches a range of performing arts skills and showcases different creative career pathways. At the end of the eight weeks, each child is invited to demonstrate and celebrate their new performing arts skill sets during the Festival of Sharing.

BOA is looking to build on the success of their programme to ensure they are reaching as many pupils in Birmingham as possible. This includes creating workbooks to support primary school teachers to implement a longer-term social action arts strategy ensuring a lasting legacy for the programme.

Birmingham Ormiston Academy is encouraging primary schools across Birmingham who are looking to get involved to find out more/get in touch by emailing mary.savva@boa-academy.co.uk