Welcome to the Art Department
Departmental Philosophy
It is the main aim of the department to encourage students to do the very best work that they can in this subject, to discover where their artistic strengths are and to enjoy being creative and imaginative. It is vitally important that students learn to understand and appreciate how art, craft and design enriches all our lives every single day and how they too can work and think as artists, craftspeople and designers. We recognise that each student is an individual, and that not everyone is able and confident in this area of the curriculum, but we also believe that everyone can improve their skills and enjoy some measure of success in art and design.
With this philosophy in mind, the art course in Years 7, 8 and 9 spends one term in each of these areas of study: drawing and painting, printmaking and ceramics. Gradually, we are trying to expand and introduce the more up to date technology to all students, ie digital media, film making, animation etc, but we need to build up a larger stock of equipment to make this possible at KS3. In organising the course in this way, students have the opportunity to experiment with different materials and techniques and to discover their strengths. This also ensures that, at the end of year 9 when option choices are being made, students have a strong foundation of skills on which to build at GCSE or diploma level should they choose to follow one of the Art courses, and they will have a realistic idea of whether Art GCSE or the BTEC diploma is the right course for them to pursue.
Cross-Curricular Work
Where appropriate and relevant, the Art department may work with other subject areas. Projects to date have included several workshops on Africa with Drama and Music, including dance also. The recent cross curricular project has involved art and science in which some Year 10 students were taken to view the Body Worlds exhibition at MOSI to study the controversial work of Gunther Von Hagens, attend a lecture on the history of anatomy and art, discuss the ethical issues regarding the appropriate use of the human body with the Transplant Team at the Royal Northern Hospital in Sheffield, and then bring all their findings together with an art workshop with professional painter Jackie Berridge, (www.jackieberridge.co.uk) and present their discussions and views to the rest of the Year 10 students. This project was funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust Foundation. See photos for more details and information.
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