Art

Art has a significant contribution to make to the development of every individual. Intuition, creativity, sensibility and sensory motor co-ordination are as vital for pupils as the more academic skills. In developing the full variety of human intelligence art is a fundamental way of organizing our understanding of the world, requiring profound qualities of discipline, insight and a firm grounding in knowledge.

The physical interaction between individual and materials should cover as wide a range of media, processes and methods as possible. This, and the study of art of the past and present, is integral. It provides a means of formulating and clarifying the pupil’s own ideas as well as gaining a grounding of art history.

In making art it should:

• be intended – art does not happen accidentally
• have content or a meaning
• function on numerous levels to be appreciated intellectually, emotionally, skilfully and visually

The department’s philosophy, aims and exam board requirements provide a structure both intellectual and practical. Learning takes place in a multiplicity of ways and the department’s wish is to work pupils across as many disparate situations and working practices, encountering as many staff as possible. Fostering artistic and experimental growth, we present pupils with problem solving situations that challenge perceptions, guided discovery procedures and opportunities to create and discover how to make sense of a small, but important, part of their lives.

Our philosophy is a fluid and changing thing that is influenced by exam boards, a changing staff and pupil body as well as a shifting cultural climate. Evolution is integral to a healthy, dynamic and thriving art department.

As the pupils develop through the school, they are actively encouraged to take ownership of their work and projects are devised to allow individuality to flourish. In taking control of the generation of ideas, decision making and results, pupils develop a responsibility for their creative growth. Teachers work with their ideas wherever possible in order that the work created is genuinely personal to each pupil. The pupils who opt for Art from the LE through to Grecians are given an Art Pack that contains the basic materials that they need to make artwork whilst in the department and back at house, giving them the responsibility to make art wherever they are. We enhance their studies with exhibitions, competition, lectures and trips.