Art & Design

A R T & D E S I G N

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Art and Design started the year thrilled by the progress made by our outgoing A level students, the “Class of 2006”. Their superb work was featured in a major exhibition in the Sixth Form Suite in late June. This raised the bar for artistic achievement at Royal Russell. The work showed huge interest and enthusiasm, breadth of study and some sophisticated concepts being developed. We are very proud of their work and their achievement. The academic year of 2006 – 2007 has seen some changes in the department. Mr Nigel Lupton reduced his part-time commitment to just two half-days per week. I take this opportunity to thank Nigel for his outstanding contribution to the teaching in the department and his love for his subject. He continues to teach GCSE and Advanced classes and will develop further links with the Preparatory School in the future. The department welcomed Ms Deborah Baldwin as a part-time member of staff who joined us from Warlingham School in September. Ms Baldwin is an experienced teacher, who specialises in sculpture. She has quickly developed good relationships with the pupils and her enthusiasm and cheerful approach is an asset to the department and to the work we do.
In September, year eleven visited the South Bank in London for a day of drawing and photography to support their GCSE coursework. In December, the advanced groups visited the Tate Modern gallery. The Richard Hamilton collection in one of the rooms was of particular interest. In the early summer, one of the year ten groups visited Tate Modern, working to support their projects and the other year ten groups visited the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden at Ockley in Surrey. Both of these visits were very helpful in supporting the students’ GCSE work and were enjoyable and educational events. This year has seen some exciting work from many of our GCSE students in year eleven. Charlotte Bean and Madge Lu were awarded the Lord Cottesloe Prize for Art and the Sixth Form prize respectively. The department looks forward to another challenging and successful year’s work in 2007 – 2008. K W Owens Head of Art and Design