Highlights from Creative Arts
As always, the Creative Arts department has been a hive of activity and creativity. Year 11 Art, 3D Design, Photography, and Hospitality and Catering students received their exam paper in January and have been hard at work starting their preparatory studies. Year 10 students are really starting to get to grips with their coursework. Due to exam regulations, we are unable to share the work with you, however if your son or daughter studies one of our subjects, please do ask to see their work.
Food
It’s been a busy and exciting time in the Food Tech room! Starting with Year 7, the students have completed their ROA project, showcasing some truly fabulous outcomes that highlight their hard work and creativity. Moving on to Year 8, they’ve been delving into the origins of chili, combining research with practical skills by making their own chili dishes. Some students even added extra accompaniments to elevate their creations—such imagination! Meanwhile, Year 9 has been diving into the sweet world of desserts, learning how to plate and present their dishes with flair, turning them into edible masterpieces. Year 10 has been focused on refining their practical skills, preparing for upcoming assessments by practicing complex techniques like whisking and shaping Swiss rolls. They’ve also worked on decorating and plating their Swiss rolls to perfection. Finally, our Year 11 students have been hard at work preparing for their exams, which have just begun. Their PPE exam was a great success, and we’re eagerly anticipating what they’ll produce in March. Their effort and determination have been truly inspiring, making the Food Tech room a hive of activity and progress!
Art
In Art we have enjoyed seeing the KS3 students embracing their projects this rotation and taking the skills they have learned and being inspired by different artists in producing their own individual WOW pieces. WOW pieces are a personal response, where students are encouraged to develop an aspect of the project further to create their own piece which takes approximately 4 lessons to complete and will be different from others in the class too. I have been really thrilled to see some fantastic work both during the projects as well as these individual WOW pieces. The Year 7 have been looking at a project called 'What is Art? Realism v Abstract' where they have enjoyed exploring realistic drawings of people & food, and also exploring more abstract artwork and objects personified in abstract characters inspired by Jon Burgerman. Year 8 have been studying 'Street Maps meets Street Art' where they have learned about Cartography, map design as well as using monoprinting techniques to create their own vintage looking Hogwarts customised maps. They have shown some excellent creativity in their own street art style pieces with place names and map symbols, as well as exploring realistic biro drawing on maps inspired by Mark Powell. Year 9 have been learning about 'Perspective - Real or Illusion?' where they have learned a variety of different perspective techniques and illusions including reverse perspective, they have really gained in confidence and created some excellent perspective outcomes in a range of media as you can see too.
Textiles
The students in Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 Textiles classes have been very busy in this rotation, learning several hand- stitching and printing techniques, design styles and sewing machine skills, which they combined to create fabulous pieces showing off their creativity and technical abilities.
3D Design
The students in Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 3D Design classes have been learning, developing and applying a variety of 3D modelling techniques in the workshop which, combined with some imagination and creativity has resulted in some really great outcomes! The photographs illustrate the Creative Process the students all follow, from initial design ideas through developing prototype model-making to producing final 3D responses to the Design Brief.