Leatherhead Trinity School and Children's Centre

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Leatherhead Trinity

Our Aims & Objectives

• To enable children to record from first-hand experience and from imagination, selecting their own ideas to use in their work.
• To develop creativity and imagination through a range of disciplines such as painting, drawing and sculpture.
• To improve our children’s ability to control materials, tools and techniques
• To increase their critical awareness of the roles and purposes of art during different times, cultures, artists and artistic movements.
• To develop increasing confidence in the use of visual and tactile elements and materials
• To foster an enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts as well as knowledge of artists, crafts people and designers.

Teaching & Learning

At Leatherhead Trinity we use variety of teaching and learning styles in Art lessons.  These are linked very closely with our topic allowing for cross-curricular links to be made. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in Art through the creative process.  We ensure that the act of investigating and making something includes exploring and developing ideas, critical thinking and evaluation of their own and others work.  The emphasis is on the learning journey rather than the end product.  We do this best through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities.  Teachers draw attention to good examples as models for other children.  They encourage children to evaluate their own ideas and methods, as well as the work of others, sharing what they think and feel about them.  Within lessons, we give children the opportunity to investigate the work of famous artists, develop skills, work on their own and collaborate with others on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales.  Children also have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including ICT.

Useful websites

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/art.shtml

http://www.starfall.com

http://www.redtedart.com

Winter Art Exhibition at the Swan Centre, Leatherhead.

This year we were delighted to be asked by the Swan Centre in Leatherhead to take a major role in their Christmas dectorations.  Every child in the school created a wintery themed art work which was then displayed in the shopping centre throughout the Christmas period.  It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to have their efforts on view for the general public.

Take One Picture - An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump - 

Joseph Wright of Derby.

Annually, the National Gallery selects a work of art from it's collection for schools to use in a large art scale project.  Schools must ensure that children learn new skills and that work is cross curricular and most importantly that the learning is child led.  Schools then have the opportunity to submit their projects for consideration for an exhibition at the National Gallery itself.

The chosen painting was introduced to each year group individually by their class teacher.  This was to enable unique responses from each year.  Retrospectively we were able to see a diverse range of ideas and art.  The wealth of ideas that the children developed was overwhelming.

Through discussion and analysis with their peers and the class teacher each year group discovered the elements within the painting that interested them most and what they wanted to use to drive their learning forward.  Some year groups focused on one element within the painting whilst others looked at the painting as a whole.

The majority of curriculum subjects were linked from literacy – (narrative, drama and poetry), maths (tesselation and symmetry) and science – (refraction and forces) to history and music.  An abundance of artistic opportunities were involved from giant collage to optical illusion and painting with air.  The Children had the opportunity to work individually and collaboratively developing and refining new skills. Parents were encouraged to get involved by home projects being set.

We hoped that the project would raise the profile of art in school and enable all of us to see how it can be totally cross curricular.  All of us wanted to learn new skills and fully immerse ourselves in the painting.  We wanted to see raised self esteem of the children as they took ownership of the direction they wanted the project to go in.  I think all of us were surprised as to how deep we could go with the  painting, how it brought us all together as a school community and by the diverse journeys each year group went on.

It was for all of us a deeply rewarding experience for all of us – staff and children.

Leatherhead celebrates 100 years since the end of

the First World War (LC100)

Last year Leatherhead Trinity were invited to participate in the LC100 celebrations to commemorate 100 years since the end of the First World War.  All Leatherhead schools were asked to complete art work on the theme of poppies with each child creating their own piece.  We were delighted to be able to take part in this venture.  The children created a wide range of different poppy paintings and this week we were overjoyed to discover that they have been displayed in Leatherhead's Swan Centre.  We are all very proud to be part of this tribute.