Art deals with the sense of vision in a way that no other subject can, partic­u­larly with the processes of percep­tion and its expres­sion in a visible form.

Art and Design are essen­tial elements in a sound general educa­tion and are neces­sary tools for every other subject, from the aesthetic look of a piece of writ­ten work to a scientific diagram. It is the Art Department’s aim to ensure that your child has the neces­sary skills to help them in all areas of the curriculum.

Art is also capable of giving shape and form to the inef­fable and there are strong links here with the sensual, mental and emotional life of the indi­vidual. Our world is affected by our visual culture and your child will be exposed to both histor­ical and contem­por­ary links to further their social devel­op­ment. It is the Department’s aim to cover these areas across the age range.

Years 7 and 8
At this stage of your child’s devel­op­ment, image making is domin­ated by their need to use draw­ing, paint­ing and 3-D model­ling as the means to compre­hend better how the world works, how it is put together, what it looks like, how differ­ent things compare. Through their work they can gain better under­stand­ing and control of complex factors that make up the natural and man-made world.

The teacher’s role here is to support this need to make “real” images. The teacher will provide source mater­i­als and resources to help the student commu­nic­ate their ideas and responses in a personal and imagin­at­ive way. The student will be taught the basic skills required to develop self-expression.

Listed below are some of the topics that we have used in Year 7.
These will change or be added to by indi­vidual teach­ers, but the differ­ent skills will all be covered.

Painted portraits of each other
Obser­va­tional draw­ing skills
Mixing colours
Social co-operation
Learn­ing how our art room functions

Imagin­at­ive Compos­i­tion - Autumn Paint­ing
Draw­ing and paint­ing skills
Control of paint
Colour mixing
Devel­op­ment of imagination

Pottery Anim­als - devel­op­ing 3-D skills
Craft skills
Learn­ing to follow through a process

Pottery Boxes
Re-enforcing skills learned above
Learn­ing slab making

Making wire insects

Outside obser­va­tional draw­ing and painting

Collage making with found material

Learn­ing about colour wheels
Study­ing artists such as Albers, Seurat, Kand­in­sky
Re-enforcing colour mixing and control
Imagin­at­ive work based on the above

Year 9
Students in Year 9 are encour­aged to develop their own indi­vidual style. Draw­ing skills are rein­forced and more complex processes are intro­duced. The students will continue work­ing with a vari­ety of differ­ent media, includ­ing 2 – dimen­sional and 3-dimensional work. An in depth artist study is required as part of their crit­ical stud­ies. Finally the year is roun­ded off with an inde­pend­ent study of the student’s own choice in their own preferred medium.

Perspective-Landscape paint­ing
Atmo­spheric perspect­ive
Aerial perspect­ive
Colour mixing
Draw­ing and paint­ing skills

Perspect­ive – Theatre set
Linear, vanish­ing point perspect­ive
Design­ing faux space
Devel­op­ing three dimen­sional design

Pottery gargoyles
Craft skills
Hollow build tech­niques
Modelling

Lino-printing
Reduct­ive three colour tech­niques
Learn­ing to follow through a proscript­ive process
Colour

Artist study
In depth research from books/internet/gallery visits
Invest­ig­a­tion of tech­nique
Evaluation/critical judgements

Inde­pend­ent study
Compos­i­tion
Draw­ing and paint­ing skills
Control of medium
Power of the image