School News
Artists in Residence at Excellence Cluster Schools working with Gifted and Talented children - 2007
This year graduate artists have worked with groups of children at Featherby Infant School, Glencoe Junior School, Twydall Junior School and Wayfield Primary School. The artists worked on projects chosen by the schools, teaching the children new skills and techniques and encouraging them to have a go themselves. The aim was to inspire and teach the children whilst they learn different forms of art.
At Glencoe Junior School Year 5 children did a project on animals of India, learning how tones of colour can bring their animals to life. They also used different artistic techniques to produce collages and images of animals. Some of their work is shown below.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
At Featherby Infant School the artist had the task of designing and painting a shed in the playground. Reception class children were involved in designing the decorations for the shed and helping to paint them. The finished shed looks extremely smart and colourful.
 |
 |
At Wayfield Primary School children worked on a project allied to their studies of Ancient Greece. During a visit to the British Museum the children looked at relics from Ancient Greece and how they could use some of the designs from these to create their own wall frieze at school. The children learnt how to create 3-dimensional relief sculptures and finally made a series of tiles in clay which have been fired and put together to form the finished frieze.
At Twydall Junior School the Year 3 children did a project on mini-beasts and created models of insects which now decorate the new garden in the school quadrangle. Some of the children’s mini-beasts are shown below.
 |
 |
|
Mosaic animals at Barnsole Infant School
The children at Barnsole Infant School have been working with artist, Syreeta Bowditch, on a project to decorate walls around the playground of their school with jungle animals. The children designed the animals themselves and then their designs were enlarged and created in mosaics on the walls.
When asked about the project, Syreeta said, “I have been totally overwhelmed by the excitement and interest of the children and their wonderful designs and pictures. It has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with the children and I am so grateful for the support of the staff at the school.”
|
Artists in Residence at Excellence Cluster School
As part of the Aimhigher initiative within the Medway Excellence Cluster, we have four graduate artists from University College for the Creative Arts working in four of our primary schools.
Playground colour at Saxon Way Primary School
Fiona Ravate at Saxon Way Primary School is working with talented artists from each year group to produce panels to decorate a wall in the playground. The theme for the panels is ‘Playtime’. She started by asking all children in the school to draw a picture and the best designs from each year group were chosen. The chosen children are now painting their pictures onto wooden panels.
Fiona says, “The children are really enjoying the project. They are gaining a lot from the experience and are becoming more confident and skilled in their use of paint.”
 |
 |
| A colourful picture
painted by a Foundation Stage child. |
Fiona with one of the panels. |
Myths and legends from around the world at Woodlands Primary School
Daniel Davies is the graduate artist at Woodlands Primary School and he is working with pupils from Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on a project to develop the childrens’ artistic talents and cultural knowledge. The pictures below show some of Year 2’s preliminary drawings on legends from different cultures. They are also making kites, learning origami and will be designing and making artefacts for the summer show.
Watch this space for more information as the project progresses.
 |
 |
| Indian legends, drawn by Year 2 pupils. | This Year 2 pupil
was inspired by legends of dragons. |
Web Design - The Creative Corner
