We are all about being creative, about expressing yourself visually, about learning new skills and artistic techniques and about understanding that your opinion when it comes to talking about art is just as valid, just as important as other people’s opinions and you will find new words and build your vocabulary to help you express your opinions more elegantly.
We are all about you coming to understand that you are the artist and that your artwork is just as important as a piece of work by a famous artist, say Van Gogh or Picasso. You may not have the technical skills you want yet but you will learn them as you go through the school and even though you do not have them, your artwork is still expressive.
We are all about you discovering new ways to express your creative potential, about discovering new artists and contemporary artwork like street art, sculptures and installations and you will begin to understand that art does not have to be in an actually frame or even on the wall.
You will learn how to develop and keep a sketchbook which shows off your skills but also your thoughts and will put your artistic vocabulary and your ability to develop your ideas to good use. This will be especially important when you get to Year 10 and study GCSE Art.
Whilst you move through the school you will experience a range of projects over KS3 where each year is split into two semesters. Each semester covers a different project with a different focus.
You will learn about using different media and mixing paints as well as portraiture in Year 7. When you get into year 8 you will study Masks and learn to work in 3D and then investigate the Natural world as inspiration in a second project where you might use collage to produce a final piece.
In Year 9 you will start to look more closely at the work of other artists learning more about carefully reproducing the artwork and developing your opinions in order to start producing work in a similar style in reference to a well known artist. You will then start to learn about composition and still life paintings as you begin to produce more sophisticated art work leading you towards Year 10.
In year 10 you will study GCSE Art which over the last 4 years has a 100% pass rate which means which every young person who we have entered has achieved a GCSE Grade. This is when all your skills from KS3 should be reawakened and you will have a good foundation of skills which will be developed and honed as you move through Year 10 and into year 11.
You will complete another two projects in Year 10 as well as keeping a developing sketchbook. There will also be homework, designed to develop your recording skills and observational drawing skills and provide with more coursework.
As you move into year 11 you will discover how to develop your own ideas using a starting point which is just one word, and how to support these ideas with links to other artists and craftspeople, and how you can develop your work in a range of different media. This simulates the process you will go through when you are given your exam title in the April of Year 11, this exam which lasts 10 hours usually done over 4 days, is the culmination of your arts practice at Treetops School and should be seen as a wonderful opportunity for you to show of how you have developed as an Artist and produce what should be your most exciting and fantastic piece of work.
Art is without doubt the best and most rewarding subject you will study, it gives you the opportunity to learn so many skills, to learn so many ways to express yourself to learn so much about the world in which we live and how you and other people see it.
Art teaches you to think in a different way and if you can absorb that message you will never be the same again!
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