3 minute read
My time at
My time at Churcher’ s
Al Saralis (1997 - 2020)
I joined Churcher’s as Head of Art & Design during Easter 1997 after leaving Eggar’s School. I was looking for a change and a new ‘project’. Churcher’s was just that. The Art Department at the time was small and was situated in the old music block. The facilities were basic. There was one room upstairs and one ceramics room downstairs and the staffing consisted of me and one other. I remember that there was only one student doing Art in the U6 and he was not timetabled, but came in when he could. I realised then that this needed changing a lot and that the Dept desperately needed a higher profile within the College. I remember just after I first joined, being invited by Bedales’ HOD to look around the Dept there. I was impressed but also felt a sense of envy. It was a Tuesday afternoon and I remember coming back to my room at Churcher’s and deciding then and there that I was eventually going to, at least, match the quality of work and sense of achievement that they had established there. It was one of those ‘moments’ that I have never forgotten.
When the new Science block was built a few years later I had the opportunity to move the Dept to the current block that it now occupies, which was previously the old Science block. This provided the additional space that I needed to advance the Dept and improve the facilities. The main difference I found from teaching in the state school was that there was more money available if one could justify it. As results improved and numbers doing Art increased there was certainly a need for better facilities and more space.
After Simon Williams became Headmaster, he sanctioned an extension to the block with what is now the U6 studio. Simon has always been supportive and shown a real interest in what the students in the Art Dept were doing. The Dept went from strength to strength and as the quality of work increased so did the numbers opting to do it. With this increase we were able to also increase the members of staff and when I left the Dept in 2020 I had a talented
and committed Art staff consisting of myself alongside Gwen Roff, Gemma Heath, Juliette Wakeland and David Heath. A great team.
By now the student numbers had increased dramatically with totals of 25 A level and 82 GCSE students over the two years. A few years ago, a parent said something to me that gave me a smug smile. She said that Art was the most important subject for her daughter and having looked around Bedales and Churcher’s, she had decided to opt for Churcher’s as it was ‘better’. You can imagine what memory that brought back for me.
These days I can be found in my own studio. I have always had a dual role in a sense that, as well as my profession as a teacher, I have continued my work as a professional artist. I had always kept the two activities separate as this has been, for me, the beneficial way to manage both professions. Now that I no longer teach, I have been able to spend all of my working energy as an artist. I currently show at a number of galleries in the UK including Clarendon Fine Art who take the majority of my work.
I loved my role at Churcher’s. What I will remember most are two things. First is the one to one conversations with the older students; grappling with their work and creative concepts being explored and secondly the annual exhibitions of exam work and the Private View evenings. The tangible feeling of achievement that the students showed and the absolute amazement and pride on the face of the parents are unforgettable. I feel privileged to have been able to contribute something to all those students’ memories of their education at Churcher’s College.
