Art and Design

Art, craft, and design have a significant impact on a young pupil’s development, embodying many of the highest forms of human creativity. We have designed a high-quality Art education programme in which we aim to engage, inspire, and challenge our pupils. As our pupils progress through the Under School, they experience and reflect on how Art as a subject has shaped our history and contributed to the culture and wealth of both this country and the wider world. Our aim is to equip each individual with the desire and confidence to experiment, invent, and create in readiness for the next stage of their journey.

The aims of the Art curriculum are:

• to improve observational skills through pupils’ sense of visual perception;
• to develop practical, analytical, and technical skills through problem-solving;
• to encourage both critical and literacy skills through verbal and written activities, in the classroom and on gallery and museum visits;
• to advance personal and social skills through self-expression and equip pupils to visualise and articulate their individual ideas.

Observational skills
We encourage pupils to appreciate and be stimulated by the visual world through the ability to record from direct observation and experience.

Practical, analytical, and technical skills
We actively engage pupils in the creative processes by developing their independence as learners, and their critical and reflective thinking skills. We also develop pupils’ creative, imaginative and intuitive capabilities when exploring art, as well as their progressive confidence and skill through working with a broad range of two- and three-dimensional media, materials, techniques, processes, and digital technologies.

Critical literacy
Pupils develop their knowledge and understanding of art, craft, and design in historical and contemporary contexts, and an awareness of the different roles and work practices evident within the creative industries. Pupils are encouraged to articulate their thoughts and ideas in speaking, writing, and visual form.

Personal skills
Pupils develop their confidence in taking risks and learning from experience when experimenting with and exploring media and techniques.

Our central London location offers excellent opportunities for regular gallery and site visits, which we make the most of. Experiencing art first-hand in museums and galleries can have a powerful, lasting impact. As part of the contextual studies programme, Years 5, 6, and 7 visit the National Gallery annually: Year 5 explores the Renaissance, Year 6 the Baroque period, and Year 7 focuses on Romanticism and Impressionism. Year 8 pupils take themed trips throughout the year, including visits to Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill for landscape painting, and exhibitions at the Gagosian and other commercial galleries. Years 3 and 4 often take the opportunity to walk to Tate Britain during one of their Art lessons. Our wonderful grounds and riverside location offer excellent opportunities for drawing ‘en plein air’, and enables our pupils to experience painting, drawing, and photography, developing an aesthetic appreciation of their surroundings.

The Art Department also runs annual competitions: a photography competition in Play term, and a model-making competition in Lent term, encouraging pupils to submit independent work.

Our thriving Art History Club is supported by close ties with the Westminster School’s Art Department. A Level Art students visit weekly to deliver informal talks to pupils at the Under School.

Each year, we submit entries to the Royal College of Art’s Young Art competition, in which our pupils have frequently won top prizes in painting and printmaking.

Miss Emma Black — Art Technician
Mr Andrew Busk — House Master of Lions
Miss Alice Hartley
Miss Mimi Lanfranchi — Art Technician
Ms Ashia Oozeer — Head of Art and Design