Art Department

If you walk through the doors of the art department you will be welcomed by the familiar sights and smells that will bring back an air of nostalgia, reminding you of your own personal art experiences and for those joining the school a sense of wonderment and possibility. These walls are bursting with creativity and it truly is a wonderful and exciting place to work.  With the high ceilings and airy feel the art department has been home to many an inquisitive soul who has often found solace and comfort in these quarters. It certainly is a place where pupils come to enter a world of enjoyment and fantasy, where their imagination is left to run wild and where the possibilities are endless. Here they are encouraged to use their creativity and express their ideas and feelings in perpetual ways.

Although the department is relatively small the work is bold and ambitious and no idea is too big to undertake. Students are encouraged to work with greater independence the further up the school they go and stimulated to really challenge themselves. The facilities on offer are superb and Kings has turned out some excellent painters, sculptors and ceramicists over the years, some of which have gone on to illustrious foundation and degree course around the country. Wherever possible, these students have been invited back to exhibit their work.

The Art department runs the Edexcel unendorsed course at both GCSE and A level which allows the students to follow their dreams of working with video, animation, photography, fashion and textiles, ceramics, 3-D sculpture, painting, printmaking or installation. We also run a life class once a week which allows the pupils to extend their observational drawing skills and gain valuable experience of recording the human form.

The department also runs a very successful History of Art program in the 6th form for both AS and A2 students. Pupils are taught about the sequence of Art movements in both a critical and contextual way. This will also run alongside some practical elements such as making their own paints like egg tempera or oil paint as well as designing and curating gallery spaces. All of this experience is of course coupled with trips to galleries both here in the UK and trips abroad.

When the doors are open then pupils are welcome to come in and while away an afternoon creating a masterpiece. Activities run five days a week and there is an art club for the keener members of the school. This will involve something like a group mural, mosaic or even making clay bowls.

In the Winter term there is the inter-house art competition, a keenly fought out affair which is open to everyone in the school. There is a junior and senior prize for the best three pieces with a local artist coming into judge. 

In the Spring term we run the inter-house Photography competition and this too is very well subscribed with some outstanding entries over the last couple of years. Students can often surprise us with their take on the theme and we have again had some spectacular entries over the years.

Each summer term we like to celebrate the Arts and therefore we hold a two day arts’ festival where we invite dancers, magicians, musicians, artists and actors to come along and perform their skills to the school as well as inviting prep schools from the local area. The day is often finished off with a grand finale where the pupils have chance to perform some of the skills that they have learnt. It is a lovely way to finish the term as well as the school year.