Art and Design Technology

ART & DT

This academic year has been a busy and productive one for Junior School Art and Design. Art Exhibitions have been back in business prior to year group showcase performances and it’s been a lovely opportunity for parents to see the wonderful art their pupils have been producing in school.

Year 3 highlights have included rainforest themed work in the medium of collage, printmaking, felt making and sewing. In DT pupils enjoyed learning about different mechanisms and worked together to create seaside themed moving pictures. Year 4 highlights have included some exciting Ancient Egyptian themed work where the children produced some intricate clay plaques as well as colourful selfportrait collages many of which have been on display all year round in the Junior School Hall. Year 5 highlights have included a new space themed project which saw every pupil successfully design and make their own cushion drawing inspiration from contemporary textile artist, Karen Rose, as well as using photographs of real nebulae and galaxies as stimuli. These were highly praised by all who saw them. Each Year 5 class also enjoyed a dedicated DT Day where they designed and made lunar buggies using gent saws and hot glue guns. The Year 6 classes spent a morning in the Senior School workshop also making buggies, but they got to make theirs move with a clever mouse trap mechanism. During the final term Year 6 worked on a new exciting project involving lino cutting. Each pupil had the opportunity to create a three-colour reduction print. These were inspired by nature with work by designer, William Morris, as a starting point. Some of the prints produced were outstanding and the children worked with real care on this project. Competitions this year have included one ‘in house’ set for Year 6 which asked for artwork entries with an anti-racism message during Black History Month. Ayotunde Dauda in Year 6 won this competition with a stunning fist shaded with different skin tones. Pupils across the school also had the opportunity to enter the annual IAPS art competition which this year had a theme of role models. We were delighted that one of our Year 2 pupils, Darius Brightman, came joint third nationally in this competition with his super portrait of Elton John. Early Years and Key Stage One have continued to enjoy working creatively and the year ended with an exciting mural project in the Woodland Classroom. Pupils saw this space transformed as two artists spent Festival week painting a wonderful woodland themed picture. Pupils got to paint a tiny section each which was lovely! The standard of work has at times been breathtaking and I would like to congratulate the pupils for their hard work throughout the year!