Head of Department: Mr Charley Openshaw cwo@sevenoaksschool.org

The Visual Arts and Media Department
Sevenoaks School Art Department is motivated by the belief that individual creativity is an essential, central and vital part of education. All those who teach within the department are active, practising artists whose concern for the subject is not restricted to teaching alone, and who therefore bring the freshness of experience to the process of teaching. Former students like film director Paul Greengrass, architect Thomas Heatherwick, Turner Prize winner Simon Starling, sculptor Oliver Barratt, shoe designer Emma Hope, and many others, attest to the success of this approach.

There are opportunities for all ages to engage with the Art Department, both during lessons and after school. The department is staffed six days a week between 9.00am and 6.00pm and Sixth Form IB Art students have access in the evenings and on Sundays.

The two full time artist-teachers and the three resident artists offer the widest range of disciplines. These include, Critical and Historical Study, Fine Art, Printmaking, Ceramics, Photography, Digital Imaging, Video, Animation and special effects. A new specialist digital imaging suite, for teaching in digital media, was installed in 2009.

This is a very popular subject with two or three GCSE sets per year, and two sets of IB students. Many other students take courses in a discipline for its own sake. Between joining and leaving, our aim is develop the individual student’s creative identity, and celebrate it by exhibiting, and inviting friends and family.

Years 7 & 8
Developing skills through engagement with the widest range of mediums, is integrated with a rich diet of Critical and Historical Study. This will cover two- and three-dimensional disciplines, like drawing, painting, printing and sculpture, but also includes instruction in digital photography and photographic image manipulation. We always aim to enjoy the experience of making and we use both interior and exterior spaces to do this. There are trips to local galleries and important venues, like the Chagall stained glass windows at Tudeley.

Year 9
In common with the Lower School but at a higher level, developing skills through engagement with the widest range of mediums, is integrated with a rich diet of Critical and Historical Study. This will cover two and three-dimensional disciplines, like drawing, painting, printing and sculpture, but also includes instruction in digital photography and photographic image manipulation. We always aim to enjoy the experience of making and we use both interior and exterior spaces to do this. There are trips to local galleries and important venues. Courses change on a year by year basis according to the particular enthusiasms of the teacher!

Years 10 & 11
The GCSE Course teaches young people how to work as artists. They learn how to synthesise their own ideas with what they may learn from other artists, and with what they want to take from their experience of the world. Confident responses through art achieve the highest grades and there are many life skills to be gleaned here too. Gradually taking responsibility for the development of personal ideas, and nurturing the portfolio are transferable skills! The course is organised into modules which last about a term, and the Edexcel GCSE exam, which our candidates sit, requires three modules; two in the form of coursework worth 60%, and one is the examination worth 40%. This course is the very best training for the IB Visual Arts Course.

The Sixth Form
At this level we define art as a ‘voice’ for the student, and aim to offer a high level of support in terms of realising personal ideas, teaching technical skills and forms of expression. Students quickly establish their independence. The staff works as a team in order that the creative processes are supported by the broadest range of disciplines. Of course, each student has a teacher, but the students are encouraged to use whoever can be the most use to them in the emergence of their particular artistic identity. Termly trips to London galleries also support the course.

At the end of the course they become more or less independent of the teachers and celebrate their achievements through an exhibition and a viva, just before friends and family attend the private view. The Studio Work is 60% of the assessment and the Investigation Work Books 40%. The available disciplines include, Critical and Historical Study, Fine Art, Printmaking, Ceramics, Photography, Digital Imaging, Video, Animation and special effects. A new specialist digital imaging suite, for teaching in digital media, is planned to be completed in 2009.

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