Welcome to the Art and Design Department.
We are a happy and creative bunch of teachers with varying skills and talents in a host of disciplines; drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles, ceramics and photography. We are passionate about what we teach and how we deliver. Our department is not huge but it is perfectly formed with well organised rooms, good resources and tempting materials, in addition to a library of books, both contemporary and historic that are used for inspiring and learning about the history of art and we also subscribe to three bi-monthly magazines.
From the First Form through to the Third Form we believe teaching the pupils drawing skills enables them to express themselves visually and aids their creative progress. We also introduce to them the theory of colour and this is used in many projects they are involved with. The pupils will do some printing processes, clay work and textiles so they are working with both two and three-dimensional materials. By the time the GCSE options are presented to the pupils in the Third Form, they are aware of the skills they possess or not and whether a qualification in Art and Design or Textiles is the way forward for them.
At GCSE Level pupils can either study Art and Design or Textiles. They make this choice to study our subject because they feel they have an innate skill in art and a desire to learn and develop their talent. The new specifications at GCSE level come into play in September 2009. We use AQA for GCSE Art and Design and Textiles and like the ‘A’ level, AQA have developed the specifications to allow more versatility and freedom of creativity. Therefore the course now looks like this: a Portfolio unit followed by an Externally Set Assignment.