SCHOOL NEWS: Family arts day at Greenfylde

GREENFYLDE First School in Ilminster hosted a family arts day led by Charlotte Steel of the Royal Academy of Arts.

The opportunity to work with Charlotte was the result of the National Pupil Premium Award which the school won last year.

A group of pupils and their parents participated in an all-day drawing workshop using charcoal, pencil, pastels and scraper boards.

Along with her model Carol, Charlotte led the group through a range of activities including life drawing and interpretive mark making narratives.

The day started using just charcoal to complete life drawings of the model looking at form relationships of size and perspective. They then had a mark making activity with charcoal and then by adding in just one or two colours for highlights and emphasis created a narrative based on their work. The children were encouraged to talk through the ‘story’ of their artwork and present it to the rest of the group.

This was followed by a session on imagination and use of different marks to create mood and drama in monster pictures. There was even an opportunity for everyone to model a pose, hold it as long as possible and then interpret how each part of their body felt rather than how it looked.

Charlotte presented the school with a copy of her book ‘The comic adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her dog’ show casing her use of monochromatic art.

Greenfylde headteacher Clare Oaten said: “Despite some nervous ‘grown ups’ at the start of the session, everyone had a very enjoyable day and some amazing work was produced by both adults and children.

“The children gained a huge amount of confidence seeing the adults learning and working alongside them rather than just being there to help them.”

The school is now hoping to extend the learning from this day to work with children to gain certificates and qualifications through The Arts Awards scheme from Trinity College, as another part of their Pupil Premium prizes from last year involved five members of staff being trained to become accredited arts awards advisors and assessors.

Further details of the arts awards can be found at www.artsaward.org.uk .

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