The creative skills that pupils develop are vital not just for careers in the arts, but also to invigorate academic studies – and simply to bring joy to life.
The Art and Design department is situated in the Leonardo Centre, with its award-winning facilities and industry-standard creative environment. The department promotes creative, ambitious and experimental work in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and film, textiles and fashion, and conceptual art.
All pupils enjoy a combination of traditional teaching in the creative disciplines and individually tutored project work. Our courses are vocationally focused and in touch with contemporary ideas – giving pupils the skills, experience and insights they will need to excel in higher education and beyond.
Pupils are guided to develop the core creative skills of observational drawing and painting.
We strive to instil a joy of ‘making and doing’, favouring the traditional skills required to make images and objects, supported where necessary by digital media and technology. The department works in close co-operation with DT, taking advantage of a full wood, metal and plastics workshop and access to a 3D printer.
The department’s teachers are themselves practising artists and designers. Our outstanding studio facilities are open seven days a week, allowing pupils to explore their creative ideas and develop their own projects. With the teaching talent and multi-disciplinary facilities available, nothing is too complex or ambitious for our pupils to achieve.
The stunning diversity and quality of work they produce is further inspired by regular exhibitions, trips, visits by artists and designers, seminars and competitions.
All pupils in the first year (Fourth Form) study Art and are encouraged to work outside lessons in their free time. The GCSE course gives pupils an opportunity to develop their own specialisms from the many disciplines on offer. The subject is a popular choice in the Sixth Form, and we support a number of dedicated Art scholars.
Recently, pupils have been selected for the Royal Academy of Arts online summer show, and gained admissions to Cambridge, The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, Central St. Martin’s, Kingston and other leading colleges.