Art

Every child is an artist and deserves to experience the abundant creative culture this world has to offer.

I loved working with the artist, Tyreis Holder, last year - especially as it was a project that we could use to represent ourselves and our heritage. I didn't know that creating a rug could be so fun and I learnt lots of new skills. 

Cyrilla - Year 6 pupil

 At St James, our art and design curriculum ensures that children have access to, and experience, art through a range of mediums and techniques. Below are the key skills that are developed throughout your child’s time at our school:

Drawing

Painting

Printing

Sculpture

Textiles and Collage

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.

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.

Our Arts Award programmes (Discover & Explore) see talented and passionate children from across KS2 collecting evidence of their participation in the arts, researching artists and their work, and sharing their arts discoveries. The programme is a brilliant introduction to the study of the arts and offers further opportunities in Secondary school and university to further their qualification and career in art.