REDDITCH schools have proved their artistic ambitions with success in the latest round of Artsmark awards.

Church Hill and Walkwood middle schools and Coppice Primary School all have gold awards, while Oak Hill first and Ridgeway and Woodfield middle schools have silver awards.

The county council's Insp-ector for the Arts, Stephen Belinfante, said: "Our results in the arts have improved every year for six years. Quite simply, we take the arts more seriously than other education authorities because they improve creativity, which students then take to other subjects.

"Through the arts, pupils become creative and independent learners. If we just concentrated on data, performance tables, maths, science and English, we would not produce children equipped for learning in the 21st century."