Overview

The departmental aim is to work towards providing an environment which nurtures and actively encourages creativity and talent in Art Food and Design. Practical work is developed through an ethos of praise and constructive dialogue between student and teacher striving to develop resilience and intrinsic motivation.

Students are exposed to a range of creative media and techniques to develop their appreciation of creativity through the generation of their own work and through the opportunity to see other creative outcomes. All students are encouraged to have ownership of their ideas and work, developing work with guidance from the teacher rather than instruction whenever possible. Choice is an important aspect of the curriculum and students are encouraged to develop work based on their own ideas where possible. 

The department will continue to raise the profile of the creativity within school, with the aim of encouraging more students to undertake exam courses. The department is also working towards a wider involvement within the whole school environment through the use of displays in order to enhance the whole school profile.

For more information, please contact Ron Lester, Creative Arts Lead

Lower and Middle School Creativity

It is the departmental aim to generate enthusiasm in students and provide educational, challenging, varied and enjoyable schemes of work. To achieve this the following steps are being taken:

• All schemes of work are under constant review to increase validity and engagement, necessary improvements and alterations are noted and appropriate changes made ready for the next academic year.

• A wider range of media choices. New media are trialled in order to present greater potential for creativity.

• The links between creativity whether Art, Food or Design and careers are highlighted from year 7 onwards

• The links between creativity and other subject areas are highlighted from year 7 onwards with a view to encompass some stem based projects towards the end of the year.

• The profile of the creative department within school is being improved through regularly changing displays. Trips to galleries and visiting Artists and Crafts people are also provided.

• The marking schemes and individual target setting policies are reviewed annually.

• Year 9 students are provided with detailed information about the nature of the GCSE art course, so enabling them to make informed choices about their subject areas

GCSE Art

More students need to be encouraged to take Creative subjects at GCSE level. It is the departmental view that by raising the profile of Creativity within school, by offering a variety of experiences at lower and middle school level, by emphasising the cross curricular links, by providing information about career paths and by developing an ethos of positive encouragement, numbers will increase.

GCSE students are provided with opportunities to go on gallery visits. Guest artists are also invited into school.