Have you ever asked yourself what it means to be creative? You may say ‘talent’, ‘skill’ or ‘gifted’. Here at Queen Mary’s High School the Art Department believes the answer to that question should include motivation, enthusiasm and self belief, being open minded and free thinking.

 
Art education contributes to the development of the whole person, intellectually, creatively, aesthetically, socially, emotionally and physically. It allows for the personal exploration and expression of feelings, as well as a vehicle for observing and interpreting the world about us.

The Art Department aims to encourage our students to gain confidence, achieve their potential whilst raising their standards of attainment. We encourage students to develop their expressive and technical skills through the use of a wide variety of materials. Student’s application and understanding of the work of artists, art movements and other cultures forms an important and integral part of all of our teaching.

It is through a balanced Art curriculum, where students are offered a broad variety of experiences covering ‘explore and create’, and ‘understand and evaluate’, that the students begin to appreciate the relevance of what they are achieving in relation to their own development and their environment.

The Art curriculum enables a student to continue to progress, building up a greater vocabulary, knowledge of skills, materials and a critical awareness as the programme becomes more demanding. Through evaluation students realise this progression and this in itself is an integral part of the learning process.
  

As well as delivering the National Curriculum for Art in Key Stage 3, the Department offers GCSE Art and Design (Fine Art) at Key Stage 4 and AS/A2 Art and Design (Fine Art) at Key Stage 5. The Department has two dedicated art rooms both fully equipped to teach the curriculum requirements: drawing, painting, multi-media, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics.

The Department contributes to wider school life by running workshops in Activity Week and Enrichment afternoons, regularly displaying student work around school, taking students to galleries and museums, producing art work on ‘location’ and arranging for students to work with professional artists. The Art Department also runs an Art Club for Key Stage 3 students, which meets on a weekly basis.