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Grenville Combined School |
The Arts | |
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Page last updated 11/03/2009
Art and Artists at Grenville Early in the Spring term, Year 4 were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to work alongside Emily Brady, a local artist. Emily specialises in character and cartoon art, and helped the children to develop their figure-drawing skills. The initial lesson was spent appraising Emily’s work, which had been displayed in the school entrance hall. The children made some excellent observations regarding media and subject, fuelling questions in preparation for their work with Emily. The working sessions involved the children creating sketchbooks to practice and develop their figure drawing skills. They looked specifically at how the body comprises of shapes, as a building block, and developed these into proportional figures. The final lessons focussed on applying all they had learned from Emily to create a “weather” character; this involved inventing the character’s personality and history, drawing the character and filling these in using oil pastels to simulate the rich depth of colour in Emily’s work. The class thoroughly enjoyed this project and Grenville pupils are eager to work alongside Emily again in our Tuesday Art Club. Encouraging Art at Grenville Our aim to provide the children at Grenville with a rich variety of experiences in the arts has also led to some exciting developments in the school reception area. Gill Barstow, governor and chair of Grenville’s arts committee, has contacted numerous local artists who in turn are exhibiting their work in this space. The children have enjoyed viewing a wide variety of different art, including screen prints, glass sculpture and manga art. Central to this idea is that each artist also comes into Grenville to work with the children, explaining their techniques and leading hands on workshops. Local artist, Emily Brady, is currently working closely with our year 4 class leading character creation workshops which the children are thoroughly enjoying. This has proven such a success that we are now privileged to offer an after school club led by Emily and open to all ages.
At Grenville we encourage all children to experience the enjoyment that can be found through the arts. We also strive to provide opportunities for every child to communicate their thoughts and feelings. In the arts this can be achieved without words, allowing each individual, regardless of academic attainment to express themselves. This fully inclusive dynamic is at the core of Grenville’s commitment to the arts and motivates the extensive provision we offer.
Street Dance at Grenville The arts are given a high profile at Grenville where the children have fantastic opportunities to develop their performance skills. At present children across Key Stage Two are enjoying Streetdance classes taught by a local professional dance teacher, Kirsty Watling. Her classes are dynamic and inspiring as these children’s words convey: ‘The music was always just wicked and loud. Kirsty is a brilliant teacher, I never thought I’d do it but she helped me and I really could streetdance!’ Joshua - year 5 ‘The teacher was so kind and let us go to the front as we’re little; I know the steps off by heart’ Keira - year 3 ‘For me the classes were great fun and it was really good exercise. To have the opportunity to do streetdance was fantastic, it wasn’t that expensive so lots of people had the chance to join in.’ Reis - year 5
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