Over the last few weeks we have been very busy with visits in the Art Department. GCSE Art and Photography students have had the opportunity to visit galleries and places to help them with their current projects. For Year 11 students, this research has contributed to their final coursework project.

In Year 10, Art students have visited Kew Gardens and in Year 11, Art students have visited the Tate Modern, whilst Photography students visited Brighton. We have a further Year 10 Photography trip this week to the London Southbank.

Students on these visits recorded their ideas through photography and sketching. They worked hard to capture ideas for use back in the classroom and are now exploring and editing these photographs and drawing from their sources, to inspire creative ideas.

Cornwall Creatives 2025

In addition to our day trips, we have also led our Year 10 Fine Art students on a four-day residential visit to Penzance, Cornwall.

On the trip, we explored and examined artwork in the Tate St Ives and Kurt Jackson Foundation galleries and the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden.

Our students were very focused drawing from the artwork, working with a visiting artist and discussing their work.

We also visited the beach in St Ives to make sand sculptures and paintings inspired by the artists we will look at in the project, as well as the Eden Project to gain a wealth of images of natural forms, for our Organic Structures project. Whilst at the Eden Project some students had the opportunity to take the zip wire over the biomes – an amazing experience!

We are very proud of how our students were complimented several times for their engagement with the work and how polite they were. They were brilliant ambassadors and it was a pleasure to take them out of school.