Head of Art: Colin Davies (c.davies@swr.gloucs.sch.uk)

Our intent:

The Art Department aims to provide a curriculum which:

  • Enables all students to find success in Art. This could be through attainment, improved mental health or through the acquisition of life skills.
  • Instils a passion and appreciation for the subject with all students, so that they can understand the value and benefits of Art.
  • Develops an invaluable set of life skills which can be drawn upon in any scenario in the Art room and beyond. These skills include resilience, confidence, self-expression, patience and, most importantly,
  • Progressively builds a range of artistic skills, knowledge and understanding throughout a student’s time at school.
  • Introduces students to various Art styles from a diverse range of artists from different cultures and times.
  • Creates an aspirational and ambitious culture for all students.

Extra-Curricular

Art Clubs at SWR focus on more ambitious work and skills which are also fun and engaging. Students sometimes will create personal work based upon a certain theme to take home. Students also have the opportunity to create larger collaborative mural work which will be displayed in SWR School and beyond.

The Art room has an open door policy during lunchtimes.

The Big Picture

KS3

Students are delivered 1 hour of Art per week with homework’s set at various points throughout each term.

The Art Department aims to deliver a rich and broad KS3 curriculum by:

  • Creating Schemes of Work which are accessible and enjoyable, which cater for all ages, abilities, genders and tastes.
  • Continuously impressing the idea that Art is not just for talented students who are seeking a career in it.
  • Creating Schemes of Work which allow students the freedom to express themselves and to produce more varied personal responses within the boundaries of the topic.
  • Designing a Key Stage 3 Curriculum that enables students to revisit particular skills at gradually more advanced levels throughout their 3 years. The skills will be built upon at Key Stage 4.
  • Delivering more lengthy KS3 projects which allow students to learn about topics more in depth.

Teaching high quality lessons, every lesson.

Unit Y7
1 Everyday Objects: Students will develop their drawing skills and learn how use 3D shapes to draw everyday objects. For their final piece, the students will draw a bottle which is split into 4 sections. Students will learn about 4 different modern Art movements. They will produce each section of their bottle in the style of the modern Art movement.
2 Animals in Art: Students will learn a brief history of Art using the theme of animals. Throughout the project, students will develop a set of skills which will enable them to create a painted final piece based around Tinga Tinga Art. These skills include drawing skills, design skills, colour theory and painting skills.
Unit Y8
1 Greek Myths: Students will develop their portrait drawing skills by drawing facial features and then by advancing to full portraits of Hercules or Medusa. They will continue learning about various Greek Myths before designing the head of a mythical creature. Students will then use clay to create a final piece from their design.
2 Diversity in Street Art: Firstly students will develop their drawing skills by drawing spray cans. Students learn about a range of street artists all chosen for their diversity in terms of their social and ethnic backgrounds, their gender and sexual orientations. Their final piece involves them creating a street art wall. A selection of work is created in the style of each artist they have learnt about, then they add the pieces to their street art wall.
Unit Y9
1 Surrealism: Students develop their design skills, drawing skills and painting skills whilst learning about the artwork of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. The students have a choice of whether to design a final piece based upon a famous Rene Magritte painting, or whether to design a final piece based upon a famous Salvador Dali painting.
2 Day of the Dead: Students will learn about the Day of The Dead festival and specifically the work of ceramic artist Calan Ree. For the final piece, students will have the opportunity to use clay and to create a 3D figurine based upon the Day of The Dead.

KS4

Students are delivered 5 hours of Art every 2 weeks. They will be entered for the AQA GCSE Fine Art course. This course is very broad and allows students to use a wide range of media such as pencils, paint, print, photography, sculpture, textiles and IT.

  • Students begin their Portfolio of Work at the beginning of Year 10, which consists of 2 projects. The Portfolio is 60% of the total marks. The projects are designed to progressively build upon skills learnt at Key Stage 3. They are personalised projects which allow students some degree of creative freedom within the chosen themes.
  • In January of Year 11 students will hand in their Portfolio of Work and begin the Externally Set Assignment. Students must choose 1 appropriate starting point from the selection given by the exam board. They will create a sketchbook full of research and experimentation in lessons leading up to the exam. Students will then create a final piece for this project during a 10 hour exam.
Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3
Year 10 Me, Myself and I.

Through a range of different media, students will explore objects from their childhood, their family and friends, their hobbies and aspirations. They will use this exploration to design and create a final piece.

 Project of  Choice.

After being given stimuli of a wide range of different themes and Art styles, students will select one that interests them and build their project around their chosen theme.

 To be completed in Year 11.
Year 11 Project completed in Year 10. Project of Choice continued.

Students continue their exploration into their chosen theme which they began in Year 10. The project concludes with a final piece.

 Externally Set Assignment. Students choose 1 starting point from the selection given by the exam board. They create a sketchbook of research and experimentation in lessons leading up to the exam. Students will then create a final piece for this project during a 10 hour exam.