7 minute read
Keeping Generation Alpha Engaged
10 WAYS TO USE BESPOKE WALL ART IN YOUR SCHOOL
Advertisement
Schools are full of plain and tired walls and surfaces that could easily be brought to life using inspiring Wall Art. Below are 10 tips for using bespoke wall art to the best effect in your school.
1TO WELCOME
The first of our school wall art tips is a simple one – Wall Art on your school’s exterior walls and fencing gives a window into life at the school and makes it an inviting place to visit. First impressions and the way you present yourselves count. Well designed Wall Art in your reception area can make that all-important first impression a good one. A friendly and welcoming reception area will make your visitors feel comfortable and at ease and more likely to be keen to come back in the future.
2TO INSPIRE
Impactful Wall Art with interesting and ageappropriate content will encourage children’s natural curiosity and inspire staff. Wall Art can be effectively used to raise pupils’ ambitions through carefully chosen, aspirational wording and images.
3TO INFORM
Bespoke artwork that showcases curriculum information can act as visual resources to support your pupils’ learning and encourage engagement in subject knowledge. For example, using timelines of historical events can reinforce class-based learning and open pupils’ eyes to the impact of key figures and events in history. Themed areas representing various environments can widen children’s understanding of the world around them.
4TO SPARK THINKING
Inspiring Wall Art can stimulate curiosity and interest in the subject matter being depicted. Themed and curriculum-based areas can encourage investigation and deeper thinking as well as spark imagination. Stimulating wall graphics can be used to initiate conversation and discussion between groups of pupils and with their teachers.
5TO MAKE YOUR SCHOOL MORE ACCESSIBLE
Using Wall Art to zone areas, such as a computing themed corridor leading to the computing department/suite, is a great way to assist pupils in finding where they need to go, and it also helps to get them into the right frame of mind for a subject as they wait to go into lessons. Including way-finding information designed into the graphics can further support pupils and visitors.
6TO PROMOTE YOUR VISION AND VALUES
Celebrate your school and everything that you stand for through visual boards that communicate your values and vision. Values-based Wall Art is a great way to illustrate the meaning of your vision and raise the profile of how you aim to help children to learn, grow and develop.
7TO REDUCE WORKLOAD AND ADD EFFICIENCY
Maintenance of your walls and creating displays can be both time consuming for teachers and use more of your school’s budget than you may first think. Professional, bespoke wall graphics last many years; therefore, reducing maintenance costs as well as giving more time back to teachers, allowing them to focus on what they do best.
8TO COMMUNICATE YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
Branded Wall Art is more than just your logo. Branded Wall Art tells the world outside of your school who you are and what you stand for. In addition, it creates a sense of unity and belonging and can motivate staff, children and parents towards a shared goal.
PLAY VIDEO
9TO ADD A ‘WOW!’ FACTOR
In school, we are always looking to create awe and wonder moments for the children. A well designed Wall Art can add a ‘wow!’ factor to your walls and separate you from the rest.
10 TO RAISE A SMILE A stimulating feature wall can help to make school feel like a fun and positive place to be and cheer up any drab and dreary area. Most of all it can just make pupils and staff feel happy to be in school.
Using your walls effectively is an important way to communicate your school’s message to your pupils, staff, parents and other stakeholders. The value of a school’s walls is often underestimated and is an improvement area that shouldn’t be overlooked.
LEARNING WITH PURPOSE
THE ARBOR SCHOOL PROVIDES A PURPOSE-DRIVEN EDUCATION THAT HONOURS THE BEST TRADITIONS OF THE KNOWLEDGE-RICH BRITISH CURRICULUM WHILE APPLYING IT TO REAL-WORLD LOCAL AND GLOBAL ISSUES. ITS SECONDARY CURRICULUM, WHICH IS DEDICATED TO FOSTERING LONG-TERM TRANSFORMATION, IS BUILT ON THE NOTION THAT PEOPLE ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED TO ONE ANOTHER AND TO NATURE.
VISION
The Arbor School is a community of learners who are developing the knowledge, understanding, skills and dispositions needed to be innovative and capable leaders, with a strong set of ethical values, anchored by a deep sense of Ecoliteracy, sustainability and environmental justice.
Student Character Strengths: Strength of Will. Strength of Mind. Strength of Heart.
KEY INFORMATION
Students/teacher ratio:
Low
Average class size:
22 students
Curriculum:
British Curriculum
Tuition Fees range:
Visit: www.thearborschool. ae/admissions/school-fees
Location:
The Arbor School, Al Furjan PO Box 413898, Dubai
EVER-EVOLVING
An international, ecological school, currently offering places in Foundation Stage 1 through to Year 9, the Arbor School will launch its secondary Year 10 programme in September 2022.
The school will offer a broad portfolio of traditional GCSE options, providing familiarity and security to families and students; A-levels will follow soon after. With superb facilities and knowledgeable staff, the Arbor School will have a focus on sustainability and science subjects, design and technology and the visual and expressive arts. The introduction of the bespoke ‘Global Impact Certificate’ supplements the core subjects and continues the eco-literacy journey of the Arbor School’s secondary students into Year 10.
This individualised approach recognises the future’s unpredictability and will prepare students for it by focusing on universal competencies through diverse but interconnected disciplines. Students will have the opportunity to expand their creative capacities and discover their purpose and passion thanks to a strong emphasis on trans-disciplinary studies.
The school will also offer the BTEC and ASDAN programmes, as well as unique options from a selection of carefully curated alternatives that will stimulate students’ curiosity and help them to evolve from problem solvers to change-makers.
THE CURRICULUM
The Arbor School’s curriculum is a necessary response to changes in the nature of education, society, and the environment. It has been established to ensure that the subjects, programmes of study, and outcomes are delivered to the highest standard while ensuring that children are engaged, challenged, and reflective. It is based on the National Curriculum for England.
The school believes that real-life projects and themes provide meaningful context and purpose for children, allowing for projectbased, cross-curricular topic approaches that foster independent learning.
Literacy and numeracy are given particular attention. The Arbor School then adds to the curriculum with specialised sessions in languages and creative disciplines, with a strong emphasis on experiential learning.
ECOLITERACY OVERVIEW
Ecoliteracy, sustainability and environmental justice form the three pillars at the core of the Arbor School vision, ‘Enough for all, forever’.
Ecoliteracy provides an overarching way of thinking about the world in terms of its interdependent natural and human systems, as well as the consequences of human actions, while sustainability and environmental justice give framing contexts for deep and ethical thinking, learning, and action.
More than just content or subject matter, Ecoliteracy is a way of life. It’s how we plan a meaningful and long-term path that values the environment as the common foundation for all human social and economic interests and activities. Human well-being and growth are compromised without globally healthy and fully functioning ecological systems, and our vision of a society where there is enough for everyone forever is unattainable.
Despite the immensity of the task, the Arbor School remains optimistic and has opted to define its learning curriculum in Ecoliteracy terms.
Ecoliteracy differs from previous environmental education approaches, which saw humans as a destructive force in nature and saw education as a means to mitigate that destruction. Ecoliteracy is a teaching method that educates students on how to think about ecological and human social well-being in their daily lives and in community decision-making.
