A huge thank you goes to Foundation-HV, AM and TE-because the art studio was continually transformed from a blank canvas to a colourful record of their learning week on week throughout the month of June. Who would have thought that in just four days there would be treasure hunts to find the main character of our story ‘Leaf’; cave building using the weird and wonderful resources from ‘Scrapshed’; a dance with a conga and a lift to Avicii’s ‘The Nights’ (yes a lift by four and five year olds was definitely a first); the baking and icing of polar bear buns; as well as painting, printing and drawing…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On top of all of this, there was a story written and orally performed by each and every class as well as an independent story written by the all the ninety authors in Reception!

‘Crow Drive’ and ‘Bird Bingo’ along with the dance, art and writes-story and letters of apology- gave parents and interested adults a taster of the learning experienced and enjoyed by Reception last Friday.

‘Creative Ones’ across school have been chosen, in consultation with their class teacher, to participate in the Thursday after school D’Art club.

So far we have looked at and created rubbings of textures around school, listened to the sounds in the school grounds and creatively used found materials to capture what we discovered outside in our sketch books. Ellie-an ex pupil but still creating at Allerton High, Nyiemah and Alexia (inspired Y5 pupils who worked alongside the Leeds Beckett Graphic Design students back in the Spring Term) are leading the group whilst Miss Whiteley and I facilitate. How will these initial sessions contribute to the D’Art exhibition to be held in the school entrance? Hopefully all will become clear within the next couple of weeks…

Inspired by Catherine Raynor’s book ‘Augustus and his smile’, Year 1 has explored the story and our beautiful world through play, paints, press prints and dance. Our school grounds provided the natural materials to create beetles; card, collage, fabric, buttons and sequins were imaginatively used to create exotic birds and our own unique reflections inspired our wonderful, smiling self-portraits!

The possible mountains and oceans Augustus crossed in order to search for his smile were found in an atlas; riddles of sea creatures read and then watched; and finally our own stories planned, shared and written.

There have been many challenges along the way-especially in dance. Year 1 had to work effectively as a team in order to bring Miss Allison’s challenging yet inspired choreography to life. Collaboration and active listening were essential so that movements were in time to the music and the many elements correctly sequenced.

Baking with Mrs Walker produced some delicious tiger buns which were very much enjoyed by all on the Friday celebrations. Well done Year One for working incredibly hard throughout your class fortnight.

These are some of the comments from proud parents, grandparents and interested adults who were asked what they really liked:

“It was a lovely afternoon seeing the children’s work. It made a real difference splitting the class in two. It’s lovely to see the school spending time doing the arts-very refreshing.”

“The enthusiasm of the children and the staff. The beautiful art space and seeing all the work. It was all wonderful.”

“The range of the things-the art studio and getting to join in and do some art together, enjoying a tasty treat in the café and seeing work in the classroom. The dance and explanation was also a real treat.”

“The fact so many different mediums have been used to teach (dancing, art, baking etc.)-there was something for everyone…How inspired Tommy has been over the past two weeks. He has brought a lot of the learning home-wrote his own story and created artwork.”

Drawing and Risograph, Photograms and Stop Motion, Storytelling and Haikus were all experienced by 5RA in three intense yet enjoyable workshops this Tuesday at Leeds Beckett Graphic Art and Design department. To get a glimpse of some of their creations, the students have kindly shared some of the photographs that captured the learning throughout the day on the link below. DART 27022018

It was a relief to see that the lockers had travelled with 5RA too- thanks to Tetley coaches! Now they are just waiting  for the students to work their creativity on them.

Next Friday will see the students working with Y5RA at Allerton CE, as they support them to create their own lockers from shoe boxes.

This week, Y5RA stepped out into their local area with the Leeds Beckett Graphic Design students. Each pupil had with them a booklet to record their journey as well as a bag to collect any items of interest.

The weather was kind-sunny with a blue sky-and although a little muddy underfoot great fun was had by all as they observed, created rubbings, collected objects of interest and listened to and recorded the sounds in each location.

Next week, Y5RA join the Graphic Design students at their school…

Excitingly, the D’Art project was launched this week with Year 5 RA and some Graphic Design art students from Leeds Beckett University. The brief is to find beauty in the banal-LS17. After a game of SPLAT, dart throwing commenced so that the locations for the commissioned Locker installations were established. What beauty waits? Revelations will hopefully start unraveling in a fortnight, when Y5RA and the students start the process.

Last week, Alexia and Leo had the opportunity to work alongside Miriam Laville-a local artist. Their artwork from the day (created at Highfield Primary) comprised of a mixed media piece of work inspired by an observational drawing, as well as their own pastel flower drawing on canvas.

Leo’s mixed media

Alexia’s mixed media

Excited by the day, Alexia independently wrote the following:

I really do wish that I could rewind the day! On Friday 2nd February, me and Leo got the chance to work with a local artist: Miriam Laville, at Highfield Primary. 

Having the opportunity to work with a local artist is incredible! We experimented with collages, charcoal, and even soft pastels. Miriam taught us how to really express our observational drawings.

Here are some of the photographs from the day. It was lovely to hear that both ‘Leo and Alexia were very enthusiastic and polite!’

Alexia’s pastel work

Leo’s pastel piece                                                            

The animated book ‘Angel Boy’ has inspired the dance and drama, writes and art work as well as the baking over the past fortnight for Y6SK.

Once again, the Friday celebration provided the stage and an audience for what was a ‘powerful and emotive’ dance performance on the theme of bullying. Well done Amir for portraying Angel Boy and Y6SK for trusting each other implicitly as you incorporated the lifts and a staircase choreographed by Miss Allison into the routine. Miss Allison shared after the performance that she had loved watching you grow into dancers.

Bird feathers, owls, winged creatures and angels were the hooks for the independent and collaborative pieces of art. This work was celebrated and admired in the art studio on Friday and as one interested adult shared: ‘I loved all the colourful artwork and the different techniques used.’

Drama based on the story as well as the transcripts provided the genres of diary and advertisement. Hopefully, you will have greater independence in your editing from now on as you show the attributes of perseverance and resilience. Keep being gritty! A special well done to Megan, Gurleen and Amir for displaying both of these, as well as demonstrating creativity and enthusiasm in your learning too.

Here are some more of the comments shared on Friday afternoon:

‘I loved the whole thing. The dance was amazing and matched the story perfectly. The art work was great and Dom’s writing was lovely.’

‘Everyone put in lots of effort to make it look brilliant. It’s good that the learning will help them to deal with bullying if it happens to them in real life-I hope it doesn’t. The art studio was amazing.’

‘What I really liked was how enthusiastic Megan has been throughout this topic. She has really enjoyed it and has been so involved.’

‘I really loved the performance and the effort all of the children put into it. I think they did the topic justice.’

‘I really liked the art work and the dance. Also the work Gurleen has produced has impressed me. Thank you to everyone involved.’

The opening pages of Robert Swindell’s book ‘Ice Palace’ provided the hook for the arts fortnight with 3ES. Through storytelling and non-chronological report writing, weaving and observational drawings, dance and baking the pages were brought to life.

It was such a privilege to work with a class who created magical stories; persevered and triumphed in their weaving; in stillness focused and looked so that their drawings captured the objects; and in dance expressed through movement and drama the tyranny of Starjik! As those who had the fortune of sharing 3ES’ learning journey, the avalanche boulders were delightful too.

These comments capture the learning and enjoyment, pride and celebration of Friday afternoon.

Thank you to all of the interested adults, parents and grandparents for being an attentive and engaged audience in more ways than one! In addition, thank you for supporting your child in the editing of their writing, listening as they shared their learning and being prepared to have a go.

Who would have thought Clive King’s novel ‘Stig of the Dump’ could continue to inspire and provide a hook for a new generation? From creating their own ‘Stig inventions’ from observational drawings of bottles and kettles to lamps and coat hangers, Year 3LH wowed me with their imaginations and ingenuity! If only Jake’s machine was in operation-providing food for a poor family from just one piece of fruit.

Onto corrugated card fiery colours of reds, yellows and oranges were coloured with oil pastels followed by a layer of black acrylic paint.  Stags and campfires, beehive huts and beech trees were then etched onto the card to create the setting Barney and Lou encountered one Midsummer night.

Miss Allison once again worked her magic as she choreographed another memorable dance. This time Stags, stones, beech woods, ponies, arrow heads and Stonehenge were weaved seamlessly into the routine!

Parents and interested adults were the willing audience so that Year 3LH could perform to the powerful music entitled Dark Jungle-Jurassic World. Here are just some of the lovely comments:

“The dancing was wonderful to watch.”

“I was very impressed by how quickly they had picked up the routine.”

“The children portrayed such confidence.”

A pastel Summer solstice captured Stonehenge scenes which definitely brought colour into the art studio. After selecting a section of their drawing using a viewfinder, Y3LH then drew and painted onto plaster of paris. It was lovely to see such pride in their finished piece of art which will no doubt take pride of place on a window sill/mantelpiece very soon!

One of the most powerful writes was inspired by the chapter in the book when Lou greets the chief and communicates with him in her own language. What could we say to someone very important about who we were? How would we speak to them? What would we need to make sure of? Around the fire pit on a very cold November afternoon, Y3LH did speak to the chief of ACE. This they did in their own language even though the wind was whistling and smoke smarted eyes!

Below are just a few comments from the numerous parents and interested adults who turned up for the celebration…

“The art studio gives parents an insight into what their children have been doing, and an opportunity to interact with their teachers.”

“I really enjoyed the performance and I am so proud of the effort the teachers are putting into the kids learning.”

“I really like being able to spend time with Layth and for him to show me his work. I really enjoyed seeing him get excited as he showed me his work. He has really enjoyed the last two weeks.”