Thirty four pupils travelled to Oxford for an amazing day of art on Tuesday 31^st January, writes Wayne Spilsbury, Head of Art.

Our first port of call was the Ashmolean Museum. We made excellent time and so arrived earlier than anticipated. The 5^th Form were taken to the Early Civilisations and Ancient Egyptian galleries and began with a Q & A session designed to get them thinking about how they might marry works to their theme of ‘Beginning or End’. The 6^th Form started with the 19^th and 20^th Century galleries on the higher levels and worked their way down towards the Casts Hall. The Art Historians also visited the Pissarro and Baroque galleries. The morning was most enjoyable and the pupils gained a great deal from the various galleries.

After lunch we took a short walk to the Pitt Rivers and Natural History Museums. This vast and unique collection of artefacts piled high to the roof was almost overwhelming. In fact I may have used the specialist educational term ‘bonkers’ to describe the obsessive nature of the innumerable categorised cases. Shrunken heads, masks, boats, hat pins, shells, puppets, totem poles and hangings suggest just a fraction of this cornucopia. The pupils were allowed to simply wander and wonder for a while before selecting items to record.

As always the pupils were excellent, always prompt and courteous; they have all returned with really useful first hand recordings. A gallery of photos from the trip can be viewed below. 

Wayne Spilsbury - Head of Art