Art

The world is but a canvas to our imagination” Henry David Thoreau.  

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Edgar Degas.

Art helps the development of practical skills using a variety of materials, instilling confidence through creativity and expression in areas such as line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, and shape, developing key skills in drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture. Students also develop theoretical skills through investigations of historical and cultural movements, craftspeople, designers and specific artists and their artwork in order to take inspiration from, create, analyse and evaluate their own and other artists work.

Key Stage 4 

Year 10 is the start of the 2 year GCSE course in AQA GCSE Art, Craft and Design and Textiles Design. Our curriculum is specifically tailored to ensure our students achieve their full potential in examinations set by AQA. Click here to see the exam board’s website.

Learners take inspiration from their own interests as the source for their creative portfolio. The course outline includes:

  • AO1: Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources. 
  • AO2: Refine work by exploring ideas, selecting, and experimenting with appropriate media, materials, techniques and processes.  
  • AO3: Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions.
  • AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates understanding of visual language. 

British Values, SMSC and Cultural Capital 

We encourage students to enjoy learning about the world around them as they study the works and contextual themes of other cultures and the environment in which we live, for example, architecture, natural materials used in art and expression, colour theory, land art, sculpture, and textiles.

Pupils experiment with and explore various media to express and nurture their creativity. They understand how artists create work to articulate their emotions about the world around them.   The fusion of artwork inspired by other cultures promotes mutual respect. Working in a safe and encouraging environment builds on self-confidence where students are confident in exploring their ideas and concepts. Students maturely critique each other’s work.  

Art has many cross-curricular links with MFL, Maths, Geography, History and Design & Technology.