Through our rich and exciting curriculum, our intent is to equip our students with a repertoire of practical skills that can be applied to a wide range of art and design practices. We encourage our students to experiment and explore media, materials, techniques and processes and not be afraid to make mistakes but to experience art in a fulfilling and meaningful way, irrespective of ability.
Lessons are designed to offer a mix of direct instructional teaching and personal investigation, so students can see how we model the tasks and techniques and then have the opportunity to explore them in an individual way. KS3 students learn the fundamental concepts of the visual language and how to apply these to different situations. We develop skills and knowledge gradually to prepare them fully for study at GCSE level, where they then are able to hone their interests by specialising in one of the varied disciplines we offer. The GCSE course focuses on individual interpretation, so through our specially design programmes of study, students apply their prior skills and knowledge whilst also learning a whole range of new ones. This prepares our students well for future study at A-level and beyond.
Understanding the context of Art is also integral to our practice. We teach our students about the History of Art and how this fits into the development of different disciplines and practices. They learn how to “read” art through discussion as well as gaining the ability to analyse in detail and write fluently with genuine insight. Visits to local, national and international galleries helps students to fully appreciate Art at first hand and we are passionate about instilling a culture of inquisitive learning into our practice.
We strongly believe that the development of art skills is a journey and not a destination and we encourage our students to be open-minded, to give everything a go and be persistent in their pursuit of personal exploration.
“The Visual Arts at Crossley Heath encompasses a whole breadth of discipline areas within the creative field, including Fine Art, Photography, Textile Design and Graphic Communication. We embrace the belief that art is a means of discovering oneself through creative exploration and communicating our ideas, thoughts and opinions in visually stimulating ways.”
Mr G Hirst (Department Leader)