St Joseph's Catholic Primary School has received the award from the Arts Council England for its commitment to, and excellence in, arts education.

To win the award the school had to show it includes work on four areas – art, music, dance and drama – for a minimum of ten per cent of its teaching time across the curriculum and for all year groups in the school.

Kieron Flood, headteacher, said: "I'm delighted that the Arts Council has recognised St Joseph's dynamic arts education programme.

"Our pupils have really enjoyed working with a range of dancers, writers and artists, and I'd like to thank all our staff for their hard work in achieving this award.

"In school the children are getting a broad, balanced diet of the four key areas of arts and we have visiting artists coming in, opportunities to experience theatre or for theatre groups to come in."

Projects have included liturgical dance workshops for year six pupils, involvement in the Castleford primary schools' choir CASPAR and working with the Premier Inn in Castleford to create Henry Moore-themed artworks for its entrance lobby.

Mr Flood added: "I believe in sustained work, rather than one-offs, so children know when they get to a particular year they'll get the chance to do certain art-related work. We are trying to embed the arts across the curriculum.

"This is the first time we have applied for the artsmark, and our goal next year is to look at getting the Artsmark silver."