Why are the Creative Arts important?
Involvement in the visual arts is associated with gains in maths, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill? Learning visual arts can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.
Our team of four dedicated Art, design and photography teachers and a technician deliver a curriculum which covers the whole range of artistic activity from painting and drawing to ceramics, printmaking, and digital photography. We have a purpose-built photography studio and 2 sixth form studios for art and photography alongside a dedicated computer room and professional quality vinyl printing facilities.
We want to inspire and build creativity within our students to give them the skills and knowledge to develop a passion and understanding of art, craft and design.
To foster independence and confidence in the subject to allow students to enjoy expressing their ideas by exploring all media within all art and design.
INTRODUCTION TO THE CREATIVE ARTS FACULTY
Within the Creative Arts Faculty we aim to foster pupil’s creativity through a structured programme of activities through the genres of graphic design, art and photography. Pupils are taught to observe, represent and record the world around them in detail.
Work is developed from observation, experience and imagination. We encourage pupils to think about and record both visual and tactile elements such as colour, pattern, texture, line, tone, shape, form and space.
We teach pupils to explore the qualities of different materials and processes whilst also allowing them to experiment with combinations for effect. This includes projects in both two and three dimensional forms of varying different scales.
In order to give pupils an understanding in this broad subject they are educated through the ages across a range of art and design movements, photography and graphic techniques and styles and in a variety of cultures.
Pupils are taught to create art, design and imagery and evaluate its suitability for purpose and meaning. They review what they and others have done in order to develop their work and make improvements.
Throughout the subject, we encourage pupils to recognise successes in the exploration work and identify what they might change in their current projects or develop in their future work to reach a successful conclusion.
The Creative Arts Faculty believes that the visual arts should be enjoyed in and out of curriculum time and therefore we set homework projects to complement work being completed in class. We like to offer our pupils the chance to enrich their experiences and frequently take on opportunities and get involved in external projects.
KEY STAGE 3 VISUAL ARTS
Key Stage 3 visual arts aims to engage, inspire and challenge students, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their imagery. Students are introduced to illustration, design and photography as a process to creating personal responses. As students’ progress they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. Students will be required to:
- Produce their own art and develop their own ideas whilst exploring movements, graphic designers, photographers and artists.
- Develop their skills using a variety of media and techniques, including taught and experimental uses of materials, to create outcomes.
- Drawing is at the heart of all visual arts activities and is taught regularly as a discipline for visual communication.
- Understand the meanings of new technical terminology and use it to evaluate their own work and analyse the work of others.
- Develop an understanding of art, graphic design and photography throughout history in context within the development of their personal work.
- Understand the process of experimentation, evaluation and refinement of materials and techniques.
Independent learning is strongly encouraged at Key Stage 3, and visits to art galleries, exhibitions, cultural destinations and architectural sites is a great way of giving the students a greater visual awareness. In addition, students work is regularly used within the faculty and school displays to develop ideas and to show case excellence.
Termly Curriculum Programmes
