‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.’
Scott Adams

Our curriculum vision

The aim of Art education at Harlington is that our students will enjoy being creative, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences. They will become more proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft, and design techniques. We want them to learn to evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft, and design, as well as to learn about great artists, craft makers and designers, and begin to understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms. Art students learn to use their experiences and ideas from a range of artists as the inspiration for their own artwork. Through drawing, painting, and sculpture, they learn a variety of techniques and ways to express themselves.

Year 9

The Year 9 course at Harlington is the final year of Art education at Key Stage Three. Our exciting and varied course builds on students’ earlier experiences and skills as we work closely with the schools in our Trust to ensure that students gain a broad and balanced understanding of key artistic skills and movements across their compulsory study.

Every student maintains a sketchbook that is used to explore and experiment as we guide them through the course in which they will use different media and materials to reflect on various artists and their techniques. Homework is set regularly and encourage the development and consolidation of their research and independent learning skills.

Using natural forms as a source of inspiration for their own work, students will:

• work from first-hand observation of a wide range of natural objects.
• explore a range of different materials.
• make purposeful images to generate ideas and present their sketchbook work with care and purpose.
• research and understand the work of others and reflect upon this work to come up with ideas of their own.
• study examples of the different artefacts from both given resources and their own investigations.
• develop, modify, and refine their ideas for an outcome based on natural forms and use a range of techniques and processes to create it.​

Years 10 and 11

GCSE Art and Design is an exciting course that helps students to develop their practical skills and abilities. Through exploring how ideas, meanings and feelings are put across in Art, students learn to relate art to the lives of the artists who created it and their own work to their own experiences. Students studying art at GCSE will be ‘practitioners and critics’: put simply, you need to be a ‘thinker’ about art and a ‘maker’ of art at the same time.

Skills and working practices established at Key Stage 3 are built upon in this course: the portfolio students complete across the two years of study and practice is a vital record of your ideas and development as an artist. This course is excellent preparation for those looking to take our Fine Art course at A level or for higher qualifications or careers in related areas.

How to find out more

Edexcel GCSE Art and Design Exam board specification

The National Gallery http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

The National Portrait Gallery http://www.npg.org.uk/