The Schools Specialist activities fall into a number of obvious categories:
• In school inset
• In school display
• In school provision of hardware
• Community business links and the Art Office
• Community school partners Junior
• Community School partners secondary
• Local community links
• International links
We have a vast number of business links with the Art Department. These are used in a variety of ways. They provide us with subject matter to base our projects on from year seven to year thirteen and are essential to our vocational courses. ‘Live, projects are vital when your course aims to have relevance to industry and the real world, therefore basing graphics projects on local industry and video projects on council needs gives students an edge. When they realize that their work may become a local or (in the NHS project) a national campaign adds a definite realism to their artwork. Having to present their finished artwork to the real clients also means deadlines become very realistic and students pace themselves better. These clients also have rewarded the students and us for this work (which in most cases would cost them much more from industry!) which prompted us to set up the ‘Art Office’. This is our business which is a vehicle for accessing and dealing with businesses. We have funds, having been given an initial £10,000 form Rubic’s Cube toy company. Our vocational students have designed a corporate identity package for the company which was presented to them recently. The money which comes into the Art Office is used to buy equipment for these projects to make finished artwork as professional as possible. This approach is why our vocational students and ‘A’ level students are so successful in gaining good university places and in achieving good examination results.
We have seamlessly continued our Junior school work from our Beacon links into our specialism. We have worked over the last few years with Norwood Green Junior and Infant schools, Sparrow Farm, Feltham Hill, Bedfont and lately Rosary School. The main thrust of our work has been to provide them with activities that would be impossible for their own teachers to provide either through lack of expertise or through lack of equipment. We have provided teachers for arts weeks on several occasions, but mostly our work has related to year group themes. All of this work is then used by the school for display, consequently the thrust of the lessons is on providing impressive artwork that teachers can use as classroom display. We have taken photographic lessons, portrait and landscape painting, sculpture in wire and plaster, printing, Photoshop, collage, textiles and drawing. These are all connected to critical and historic examples, making it possible for the schools to fulfill national curriculum requirements. Another of the aims of these sessions is to provide inset to the junior school teachers, although some of our sessions have been solely in giving subject specific inset to their staff. Another of our services has been to film their lessons to enable them to use the edited video as a teaching or inset resource.
The secondary links have fallen into two categories - providing help and advice and providing teaching and equipment. The teaching has mostly involved Oaklands and Marjory Kinnon Special Schools. Oaklands have been sending us a range of students on a weekly basis for a few years now. The lessons are always ambitious, aiming to stretch and stimulate the students whilst providing links with our own students who they have usually worked alongside. They display all finished work at Oaklands and this year the projects have been used to provide entry level art GCSE work for their students. Marjory Kinnon has had similar projects with similar outcomes. Lampton School has joined us in life drawing sessions, which has improved their ‘A’ level students drawing. The other aspect of our Secondary provision has been advisory. We are recognized throughout West London as being a large, innovative and successful department. This recognition is due to our many external exhibitions of student work and to our conferences. Teachers have attended from 4 surrounding boroughs, therefore our reputation has spread. We have been visited by many Inspectors, PGCE tutors and a wide range of examination officers over the years with our work being requested by exam boards for their inset. The consequence of this is that many teachers and trainee teachers are sent to us to see how we operate as a department and to view good practice. S. Hook also has visited many schools to help, observe, writ reports on and give inset to art teachers. The local schools where I have worked the most are Lampton and Isleworth and Sion .
We have recently worked with Hecra in providing help, premises and advice to our cluster schools. These schools are within our local community, therefore our impact is very relevant to our specialism and the school. We have always worked within our local community, having in the recent past been a very active community school. We have provided opportunities for local film makers, artists and designers, working to develop a positive profile to our near neighbors. We have worked extensively with British Airways and with BAA and Sky Television, putting up student exhibitions, creating artwork for Terminal 1 and providing students for Sky committees. These activities are beneficial to all concerned, as good community links should be.
We have recently developed contacts through the Comenius project, providing web design skills to enhance the site that is their main digital link
The Future
The Arts team have just move into the new Hogarth Building named after William Hogarth a local painter and satarist. The new department has been designed to reflect the needs of the department and the specialism and we are excited in anticipation of the move. We are planning a substantial project involving the new website, with sections open to other schools to view our good practice and to suggest their own ideas on good practice in art and design education. We believe this resource would be original, with no parallels existing at present. We also want to publish all our worksheets and support documents for external access by students. We are looking to use the website towards our series of projects designed to put our profile onto a national stage. This will include a workshop at the national Art Specialism conference.
