Inspection

Inspection Report: Art and Photography

This is a vibrant and successful department where pupils, often of modest ability, are nurtured by enthusiastic teaching to achieve unforeseen potential.

Standards of attainment throughout the department are good and often high. Younger pupils show keenness in developing individual skills but also communicate their ideas effectively in group work. Every pupil in Year 9 has his or her work displayed in a very good annual exhibition. Pupils in Years 10 to 13 show an awareness of different skills and techniques, a high standard of composition and a willingness to make bold experiments with colour, design and texture. Recent visits to London galleries have enhanced their appreciation of established artists and inspired their selection of coursework pieces. Photography pupils achieve similarly good standards and showed considerable skill in exploring the darkroom effects of solarisation, opposites and creative printing.

Very high standards are achieved in public examination results in relation to pupils’ abilities.  They are well above the average for maintained selective schools. In the past three years over four-fifths of GCSE art candidates have gained grade A* or A, and a similar proportion of A level entrants has achieved an A grade. In A level photography, all candidates have gained A or B grades.

Progress is good in Year 9 and rapid thereafter. From an initial stimulus, the piece of work is refined through several stages with growing confidence and perception. Year 12 pupils responded imaginatively to the Op Art of Bridget Riley and the Pop Art of Lichtenstein and Warhol, whereas photography pupils pursued a detailed project on Surrealism.

The quality of learning and behaviour is very good. Pupils are well motivated and listen attentively to instructions. A-level candidates respond well to advice yet have the confidence to trust their own judgement in developing their pieces. They are especially articulate in explaining their responses to the initial ideas and show obvious enthusiasm for the subject, regularly working out of lesson time and at home.

The quality of teaching is very good.  Teachers show an obvious love of their subjects and successfully communicate this enthusiasm to their pupils. Lessons are meticulously planned, expectations are high and time is generally well managed. The principal teaching strategy is to explain the requirements of a new project and to illustrate this with well-chosen examples.  Once the pupils are more familiar with the piece, an effective question and answer technique is employed to elicit individual responses.   Pupils’ artwork and photographic images are used as examples, and whilst the best features are highlighted, this is never to the detriment of the less talented.  Each piece of work is regularly assessed and detailed records are kept of the progress of each pupil.

The art building has three working areas and a well-equipped darkroom. Space, however, is very limited, which leads to congestion because of inadequate storage facilities. This also prevents desired extensions of the curriculum such as sculpture. The open-plan lay-out of the ground floor studios, with two classes in adjacent areas, sometimes leads to a distraction of background noise. The adjacent Burstow Gallery provides a valuable exhibition area and many fine examples of pupil artwork are on display in other prominent locations.

The department is energetically led, well managed and effectively resourced by a generous budget. The head of department is assisted by another full-time teacher and one part-time member, who also acts as the technician. Great benefit has been derived this year from the contribution of the Artist in Residence, who has taught some regular classes as well as helping individual pupils. The department has three libraries, two for fine art and one for photography, as well as an appropriate selection in the main library.  Two computers, with internet connection, are installed in a smaller adjoining room and these are used for image making by the GCSE fine art pupils and more generally for background research.