Art is a visual / conceptual driver within society. It defines and manipulates meanings and signifiers through the interaction of cultures across a plethora of interactive communication platforms and exhibitions.

As a response, we challenge our students to develop their technical skills within a variety of media and processes in order for them to construct a coherent, cohesive, personalised response to any given stimuli. We also encourage students to incorporate a breadth of knowledge from a range of subjects (philosophy, history, science, psychology and sociology) in order to contextualise their thinking and add academic rigor to their outcomes. As a result a number of our students have gone onto studying the arts at prestigious establishments including; Central St Martins, Chelsea, Slade, Ravensbourne and Reading. 

Our Art faculty has strategised interconnecting schemes of work which develop the skills and understanding of our students year on year. We promote a multifaceted approach to the use of materials which are later conflated into mixed media developments and outcomes. This promotes confidence in the formal elements which later facilitate good outcomes at both GCSE and A-Level.

KS3 Art:  Hand Textures Project, Pop Art Project, Aboriginal Project and Picasso Project

·         Observational drawing

·         Scaling up

·         Mixing and applying paint

·         Directional shading

·         Art movements / artists (Pop Art, Aboriginal, African, Impressionism and Photo- realism)

 KS4 Art: Townscapes Project

·         Photography

·         Observational drawing

·         Painting

·         Monotone/duo-tone printing

·         Artists (Gaudi, Hundertwasser)

·         Trips (Embankment Tate Modern)

 KS5 Art: Political Art Project

·         Political art project

·         Challenge ideas through the artistic process

·         Contextualise work with other artists / thinkers

·         Main sketchbook

·         Mark-making sketchbook

·         Prep sketchpad

·         3,000 word essay

·         1500 word annotation 

We offer extensive support within the Art Faculty where students are encouraged to attend lunchtime sessions which run on a daily basis. We also run after school clubs in order to accommodate students that can’t attend at lunchtimes. We take students on research gathering trips to London Embankment as well as the Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery.

Parents / carers are encouraged to visit art exhibitions across the country, encourage their children to draw as a form of recreation and watch art based programmes / documentaries to enable a good grasp of Art History which will enable coherent written work and annotation throughout their art education.

Links to art based programmes / podcasts:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts

http://littleatoms.com/

www.tate.org.uk

https://www.art2day.co.uk/

https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/