Art

At St James Hatcham, we ensure our children have access to, and experience, art through both our creative curriculum and extracurricular opportunities.

Art and design stimulate creativity and imagination providing visual, tangible and sensory experiences and a unique way of understanding and responding to the world. Children explore the work of artists, craftspeople and designers, from throughout history and across continents, and from a range of traditions.

Pupils are encouraged to express themselves through a variety of media and to develop their skills in drawing, painting, printing, sculpture and architecture, textiles and collage.

Artwork brightens up the walls across the school and there is a popular Art club, visits from renowned artists and trips to art galleries and exhibitions. We are located in an extremely creative community, with The Portrait Gallery, South London Gallery and Goldsmith’s Centre for Contemporary Art Gallery, of which we are proud to be their school of residence, on our doorstep.

We are delighted to offer Arts Award to all children at St James Hatcham. Arts Award is a range of unique qualifications that aims to inspire young people to grow their arts and leadership talents.

Arts Award can be achieved at five levels - Discover, Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold – by taking on challenges in an art form, participating in arts activities, experiencing arts events and sharing their arts skills with others. Pupils create a portfolio to keep a record of their creative journey and are support along the way by an Arts Award adviser, acting as assessor, facilitator and mentor.

We are honoured to have children who have completed their Bronze award and some who are working towards their Silver award. What an achievement!

Our residency at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) encourages children to engage with a rich tapestry of contemporary artists from around the globe and highlights current issues surrounding identity, race and culture. Our children have had the pleasure of participating in workshops with contemporary artists Holly Graham (#FridayFact), Tyreis Holder (I and I, and We are We) and this coming autumn (2021), Olivia Sterling (Really Rough Scrubbing Brush). Children are provided with opportunities to imitate the work of particular artists to build skills, then develop projects by altering medium, theme, scale, techniques or composition.

We endeavour to broaden our school’s creative links within our local community, ensuring that the immeasurable value of arts education is recognised by staff, children and parents alike.