Senior School

Art

Art and Design is concerned with the development of visual perception and understanding, including creative, imaginative and practical skills for working in Art, Craft and Design and the promotion of visual literacy and appreciation of the work of others.

A general course is followed in the first three years of senior school with the opportunity to sample a wide variety of different art medium. An option at GCSE, the students can then continue with a general course or concentrate on Fine Art, Graphic Design or Textiles.

Lower 4 Curriculum Statement for Art

The aim in Lower 4 (Year 7) is for the pupils to try out as large a range of materials as possible to assess their qualities and possibilities and begin to build up their knowledge of the history of art. The development of their imaginative skills is also important, and this is on-going, but a visit to Ripon Cathedral to explore how Lewis Carroll found his inspiration for ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ is an important day out. The termly themes that have been explored are: ‘Undersea World’, ‘Ice-cream Sundaes’ and ‘The Art of Gustav Klimt’.

Upper 4 Curriculum Statement for Art

The aim in Upper 4 (Year 8) is for the pupils to build on the skills gained in Lower 4 (Year 7) by introducing more experimental techniques and gaining a deeper knowledge of the history of art. The pupils will be particularly extending their mark-making and observational skills. The termly themes that have been explored are: ‘Geckos’, ‘Landscapes’ and ‘Chinese Culture’. A visit to the Oriental Museum in Durham for a range of activities will help consolidate and extend their knowledge and understanding of China.

Lower 5 Curriculum Statement for Art

The aim in Lower 5 (Year 9) is for the pupils to consolidate and extend their knowledge, skills and understanding of Art and Design in readiness for GCSE. A full day’s painting workshop is a key event in their year where they work with a visiting artist to produce acrylic paintings on canvas. They conclude the year with a typical GCSE. assignment where they are given more independence and responsibility for their own learning. The termly themes that have been explored are: ‘Fruit and Veg.’, ‘Portraits’ and ‘Islamic Art’.

Middle and Upper 5 Curriculum Statement for Art

In Middle and Upper 5 (Year 10 and 11) the pupils follow the AQA G.C.S.E. course. During the Middle 5 year the pupils do a practise Controlled Assessment project, which this year has been based on the theme ‘Word and Image’. To enable them to gather the necessary material for this they went to London where they visited The Saatchi Gallery, The Imperial War Museum and Camden. For the last term in Middle 5 and the first in Upper 5 the pupils will do the real Controlled Assessment based on the theme of Whitby which is again accompanied by a visit to look at 4 key elements: the abbey, the harbour, the beach and the amusement arcades. The last two terms of Upper 5 will be taken up doing the Externally Set Task.

Art & Music Evening 2011

GCSE ART POSTER DESIGN

The pupils generated these posters using the computer after a visit to Newcastle and The Biscuit Factory last year. They looked at the work of Hundertwasser to influence their use of colour and composition in their final design ideas.

Visit Newcastle