In junior school students will follow the NI curriculum and will receive a ‘good grounding’ in art education by the department facilitating the students’ understanding of art through appreciation of different artists, art styles, practices and attitudes to art. We seek to develop the full potential of the individual in terms of creativity, imagination, sensitivity and spirituality.
We believe the importance of students understanding the role of art in the community and the wider world. We recognise the achievements of the pupils through showcasing work, mounting exhibitions and competitions.
Throughout key stage 3 students will be exposed to a wide variety of different disciplines such as construction, sculpture, mixed media art, textiles, printmaking, painting, drawing, ceramics and digital art. We believe in encouraging students to carry out first hand research and so students will be exposed to live art works and taken on site visits and gallery tours where possible. We do of course make the most of the wonderful examples of Georgian architecture on our doorstep! We strive to provide a classroom experience that will be lifelong and lead to a desire for further study and development in this subject.
The department has a strong uptake at GCSE and A level for a specialist subject. We follow the CCEA specification and there are a high proportion of our students that go on to study arts based degrees across the UK and Ireland.
At A level a strong emphasis is placed on understanding art and its wider contexts, students are therefore students are regularly taken to exhibitions and they also complete a resident printmaking workshop to enhance their learning and understanding of art.
We have an excellent track record of achieving top results. We believe that forging good relationships with our students helps to foster the hard working atmosphere that is required to help achieve these results.