Every class in school has a weekly art lesson. In KS2, these are taught by our art specialist teacher. In Reception and KS1, art lessons are planned by our specialist and delivered by class teachers.
Throughout the year, children will have the opportunity to develop key technical skills, including drawing, painting, sculpture, print-making, photography and digital art, through a range of exciting projects. Art lessons take place in our wonderful, light and airy art room, which all pupils can access. Units of work are often discrete but may link and enrich other areas of the curriculum if especially relevant. For example Year 6 children studying the Americas develop their watercolour landscape painting and learn to draw using perspective and vanishing points.
We are proud that our artistic achievements have been recognised beyond our school! In recent years, we have been selected for the Take One Picture exhibition at the National Gallery. Most recently our Y6 children were commissioned to make a film in collaboration with the British Museum and Art UK. In Year 5, all children are entered for Arts Award Discover level, an award accredited by Trinity College, London.
As well as weekly art lessons, children have many other opportunities to take part in the visual arts. These include gallery visits, talks from visiting artists and class and whole school workshops. We are always keen to hear from creative people in our school community who would like to share their skills and experience with us. Please speak to Ms Periton or the school office.
At HTSS, our Art and Design curriculum supports children to be:
Caring Citizens (care):
- Children are enabled to care about their creative and cultural heritage through visits to galleries and museums and the contextual study of diverse artists and art movements. Children appreciate tradition while being inspired to think of themselves as creatives of the future.
- Children are exposed to ideas and concepts that encourage them to consider other views. Empathy develops as they learn how art can reflect people’s identities or experiences, and how artists (for example, Emory Douglas and Frida Kahlo) have used art to challenge injustice and try to change the world.
- Children show care through the effort and commitment required for practical tasks. When techniques are challenging or projects take time to complete, patience and dedication develops. Children learn the value of practising and persevering in order to improve. They learn to be observant, reflective and attentive to detail; caring qualities useful for life. Their self-worth increases with the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
- Children demonstrate care through the respect shown to teachers and visiting practitioners who share their expertise, as well as by looking after our tools, specialist materials and the art room environment in which we work.
- Children learn to appreciate the role of creativity in self-care and wellbeing. They understand that making art can provide a relaxing outlet and a satisfying means of self-expression, setting the foundations for positive lifelong habits.
Courageous Communicators (courage):
- The Art and Design curriculum teaches children to interpret and talk about art. Key art and design vocabulary is learned by all children so that they can articulate technical knowledge and express points of view during debate or class discussion. Children learn that the value of art is subjective and that an artwork can mean different things to different people, fostering an understanding that all voices and perspectives are valid.
- In practical tasks, children are encouraged to take creative risks and to embrace ‘mistakes’ as a chance to learn and grow. Courage is shown through curiosity, experimentation and resilience.
- Children make art in a variety of ways using a range of materials and processes and exploring many forms of visual communication. Projects are inspired by diverse themes and subjects, and children are encouraged to express themselves authentically through the artworks that they make.
- Children are given a platform to communicate their creative ideas with others. By taking part in competitions, open submissions, displays and exhibitions, children can see the impact that their artwork has on others, engendering a sense of pride and self-esteem.
Cooperative Learners (cooperation):
- Children follow instructions and pay careful attention during demonstrations so as to work safely at all times.
- Children are given frequent opportunities to work collaboratively, for example; in pairs, in small groups, in after-school clubs such as Set Design or Costume Club, and within whole class projects. They learn to share resources, pool ideas, value differing skills and opinions and understand that all contributions are valuable.
- Children support one another with kindness, and individual confidence is built through receiving encouragement, praise, constructive critique and positive feedback from teachers and peers.
- Children accept a collective responsibility to tidy the art room and put away all materials and resources after a lesson.
Enjoy looking through our gallery of work!
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CAMDEN SCHOOLS ART BIENNALE 2024
We are incredibly proud to have taken part in the inaugural Camden Schools Art Biennale at the Lethaby Gallery at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) in Granary Square. This is a new event for Camden which will take place every two years, showcasing the incredible creativity of our children and the exceptional art provision within Camden schools. For Holy Trinity’s contribution, we submitted six projects. These included ‘Fish Magic’ – a series of ink paintings by Reception inspired by Paul Klee; ‘Jellyfish’ – papier mache sculptures by Year 1; ‘Drawing With Light’ – cyanotype photographs made by Year 2; ‘Ceramic Self-Portaits’ – created by a group of children in Key Stage 2, plus two beautiful paintings made by Lucia and Manasek in Y5. The children’s work looked absolutely incredible in the context of the exhibition – a real highlight of the year. Well done to everyone involved!
ART BYTES ENTRIES 2024
Huge congratulations to our brilliant Year 5 pupils who again entered Art Bytes with great success! We are very proud of all our entries, but especially congratulate Cali, Clara, and Maya whose work was chosen for exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery! It is so exciting for our pupils to get to see their work on the walls of a well-known London gallery! Well done to Cali for the double honour of being crowned London regional WINNER and national RUNNER-UP. What a great day for HTSS!
ART BYTES ENTRIES 2023
Last year, we took part in the inaugural Art Bytes competition and did exceptionally well. Three of our children were selected to have their work exhibited at Camden Arts Centre, and one child was crowned Regional primary winner for London! This year, we have entered again and are excited that some of our children will have the chance to exhibit at the Chisenhale Gallery. Have a look at our wonderful entries below and pop back in a few weeks’ time to find out which images were selected by the art industry judges!
AUTUMN ART : BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2022
The children have produced some wonderful artwork in response to their Black History Month work. Reception learned about Jean Michel Basquiat’s graffiti-style paintings and enjoyed looking at his illustrations to Maya Angelou’s book ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’. Year 1 created super textural collaborative paintings inspired by Frank Bowling’s abstract work. Year 2 studied Alma Woodsey Thomas’s bold patterned paintings, while Year 3 created striking silhouettes in the style of Kara Walker. Year 4 children learned all about the significance of Ghanaian kente cloth designs, and wove their own out of paper. In Year 5, children developed their portrait painting skills with reference to Turner prize-winning artist Chris Ofili, and in Year 6, children looked at the work of Emory Douglas and the Black Panther art movement before creating their own posters promoting racial equality. Do come into school and see the artworks on display in real life!
ART HIGHLIGHTS 2021-2022
It’s hard to believe that another academic year has already zoomed by, but as usual, the children of HTSS have continued to show amazing imagination and creativity. All classes have followed our exciting, rich, art curriculum, working on a wide variety of projects and developing their skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, printing, collage, D&T and much more. Here are just a few examples of their wonderful work from 2021-2022.
ART BYTES SUCCESS!
This year, all of our Year 5 children entered an artwork into the inaugural ART BYTES national competition for primary and secondary schools, and we were delighted when three of our pupils had their work selected for exhibition at Camden Arts Centre! It was so excited to see their work on the walls of a real gallery. Well done, Oliver, Jason and Darcy – with particular congratulations to Darcy, whose portrait of Malala (below) was not only the Primary winner for London, but also the National Primary Runner-up! Everyone at HTSS is very proud!
Shakespeare Exhibition
Our Shakespeare exhibition is up in the church and looking wonderful! We hope you’ll find time to pop in (safely) and see it! It’s a real testament to everyone’s hard work this term – children and staff – and a very creative end to the year.
Here are the art highlights…
RECEPTION made love heart collages, using warm and cool colours. They also created beautiful fish for their performance props.
YEAR 1 used warm and cool colour palettes in their oil pastel illustrations, and collaged decorative masks, fit for the Capulet ball.
YEAR 2 created family crests for the Montagues and Capulets, using symbols to represent their values. They also studied a very famous depiction of love – Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, which inspired their patterned illustrations.
YEAR 3 designed and made fantastic rod puppets, based on the characters of the play!
YEAR 4 showed off their growing expertise in both polyblock printing and ink painting.
YEAR 5 have been busy working on a D&T textiles project for Arts Award, but they took time out to explore printing on fabric.
YEAR 6 learned all about contrast in art, using complementary colours, silhouettes, and positive and negative space to create their eye-catching poster designs.
Spring Home Learning
What amazing, resilient and creative children we have in our school! Despite all the change and disruption to our lives, everyone has shown such a positive attitude to Home Learning, especially in Art! Weekly tasks have been set for each class and I’ve loved seeing the work posted on the Purple Mash Art Blogs. I thought I would share some examples with our wider community – please don’t be disappointed if you work isn’t here this time, there were so many images to choose from! Everyone is making an amazing effort.
We started Spring 1 by working on DRAWING skills. We explored different marks for creating texture and tone, looking at the work of Chris Riddell. This led to observational drawing of our favourite toys and imaginative drawings of monsters!
Next, we moved onto PAINTING! We refreshed our colour mixing knowledge and created lots of hues, tints and shades. We were then inspired by the Impressionists and created painted or digital landscapes showing movement and light. A PRINTMAKING project follows – I’ll add more images soon! Well done to all.
Black History Month Art
Black History Month is celebrated in October but in the HTSS art room we aim to engage with the work of BAME artists all year round. We think that inclusivity and diversity are essential principles for planning rich and exciting art lessons. We still enjoy Black History Month as an opportunity to bring even more attention to the work of Black artists – either by celebrating amazing achievements, or shining a light on work that may have been overlooked. We hope you enjoy our gallery!
Year 6 – Emory Douglas
Year 6 studied the work of graphic designer Emory Douglas, known for his work with the Black Panther art movement of the 1960s. We talked about how his work used symbols and slogans to make an impact. Year 6 then created printed protest art inspired by Emory Douglas, demanding a better, fairer world.
Year 5 – Chris Ofili
Year 5 were fascinated by the work of Turner prize winning artist Chris Ofili, and especially the unconventional materials used in his paintings (elephant dung, anyone?) They borrowed from his colourful and highly patterned work to make portraits of inspiring Black figures, using oil pastels. Who do you recognise?
Year 4 – Jean Michel Basquiat
Year 4 learned about the work of Jean Michel Basquiat, famous for starting out as a young graffiti artist in New York. We were inspired by his story of overcoming hardship to become one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Year 4 created mixed media portraits in Basquiat’s uniquely recognisable style.
Year 3 – Kara Walker
Year 3 focussed on the work of Kara Walker, a contemporary modern artist whose work uses silhouette and references to African folk art to make a powerful comment on society. (Images coming soon!)
Year 2 – Alma Woodsey Thomas
Year 2 loved learning about the colourful paintings of artist Alma Woodsey Thomas. Her work isn’t as well known in the UK as it is in the US – she was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum and Obama hung her paintings in the White House. Year 2 loved creating colourful abstract painted patterns in Woodsey Thomas’s style. (Images coming soon!)
Year 1 and Reception – Frank Bowling
Reception and Year 1 watched a film of Guyana-born artist Frank Bowling making his beautiful abstract paintings. His process involves pouring or dripping paint and adding strange materials. Reception and Year 1 had a fabulous time emulating this process – their resulting work is multi-layered and beautiful!
Whole School Self Portrait Art
It’s so wonderful to see the children back in school and to kick off a new year in Art, we started with a whole-school project on SELF PORTRAITURE!
This work will be adorning the walls of the lower hall very soon, but as we sadly cannot invite visitors in to enjoy it, I hope you will enjoy viewing a selection of images here instead.
Reception Self Portraits
Reception learned how to take photographic self portraits and then enjoyed using digital art app Artset to creatively ‘enhance’ their images! It’s already clear that this class is a very creative bunch!
Year 1 Self Portraits
Year 1 looked at the work of Cubist artist Pablo Picasso, before creating their own portrait collages. They used fantastic scissor skills and thought very carefully about shape, colour and placement.
Year 2 Self Portraits
Year 2 studied the paintings of Amedeo Modigliani before attempting to recreate his signature exaggerated style in chalk pastels. I love the expressive faces and the attention to detail in these portraits.
Year 3 Self Portraits
Year 3 learned how to draw themselves profile – this is much trickier than you might think! They then created line-drawing illustrations to show us what really goes on inside their heads…
Year 4 Self Portraits
Year 4 practised the important skill of drawing faces in proportion. To add colour they then took inspiration from Paul Klee and used bleeding tissue paper to create the unusual background.
Year 5 Self Portraits
Year 5 created these wonderful sculptural self portraits using papier mache over cardboard armatures. They then worked extremely hard to mix skin tones and add fine details in acrylic paint.
Year 6 Self Portraits
Year 6 looked at the work of artists such as Peter Blake and David Hockney who have used collage, before creating these humorous self-portraits combining found imagery and their own illustrations.
Art UK film commission
We were really fortunate to be selected by Art UK to make a short film about a local sculpture. We visited ‘The Tree of Life’ which was made by a team of artists from Mozambique for the African galleries at the British Museum. We were so inspired by the way the artists repurposed materials to make art with a positive message that we used the same principles back in school to make our own collaborative work. Please watch the film to find out more!
Click here to watch our Art UK film about the making of this artwork!
Art Home Learning
I am so proud of how creative everyone has been since we have moved to Home Learning. Every class has been set a weekly art task, and children have been so engaged, going above and beyond to make some really original art!
Some of the projects we have done have included:
• Drawing games such as Exquisite Corpse and The Shape Game
• Sharing our favourite artworks, with the reasons why we like them
• Animation – including making thaumatropes and waterfall cards, and using digital programmes like 2Animate
• Creative photography
Photography in particular has been a huge hit across school! First, children were challenged to take a photograph of something familiar and make it unfamiliar by changing the angle or frame. Then we looked at STAGED PHOTOGRAPHY and the work of artist Jan Von Holleben, which inspired us to make playful, humorous images. Finally we explored LAND ART, inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy. I am sure you’ll agree that the results are amazing and just what we all need to cheer ourselves up at this time!
Check out the images in our Home Learning gallery and I’ll add more soon.
The Tempest: Whole School Art Exhibition
This term, our lovely children have been working hard in class, learning all about William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and this is especially true in Art!
We always look forward to displaying children’s work in a big exhibition during production week. It is a real highlight to invite parents and carers to come in and share all our achievements. We are so sad that this year it’s not possible to do this – but we hope that this wonderful online gallery will give you a sense of what children across all year groups have achieved in art.
For reasons of time and space, I haven’t been able to include absolutely everything – there was so much to choose from! I’m sorry if you don’t see your work here. Please rest assured that I’ll do my best to get many more examples of this fantastic creative work up onto our school walls in the near future, for all to enjoy.
Well done, everyone. You should all be so proud of yourselves.
Ms Periton
The Tempest: Reception Art
Reception children created large-scale process art of a tempestuous storm. They also made 3D models of islands, using all natural materials.
The Tempest: Year 1 Art
Year 1 children focussed on the feast in The Tempest. They made brilliant observational drawings and delicious looking 3D papier mache food. They also painted great landscapes of stormy seas and shipwrecks.
The Tempest: Year 2 Art
Year 2 children created ancient maps of Prospero’s magical island, using strong lines and eye-catching colour and graphics.
The Tempest: Year 3 Art
Year 3 children’s paintings of the storm and the shipwreck were inspired by JMW Turner. The children worked hard to create atmosphere and impact through texture.
The Tempest: Year 4 Art
Year 4 had a wonderful time building boats in D&T. For their fine art project, they made mixed media island landscapes, using ink and printing techniques.
The Tempest: Year 5 Art
For their Tempest projects, Year 5 focussed on faces! Using a character from the play, they learned how to draw a face in proportion, then applied those skills to working in 3D with clay. Year 5 also helped to create the wonderful set design which we hope to use later this year.
The Tempest: Year 6 Art
Y6’s fabulous collages were created from scratch, first by making a huge range of gorgeous textured paper, then by carefully layering up their scenes. Like Year 5, Year 6 also worked hard on the wonderful set design which we hope to use later this year.
Pop Art Hall Displays
We hope by now you have had a chance to look at our wonderful displays in the lower school hall. Every year we have a theme and this year it was POP ART! Every class learned about a significant Pop Artist and created work inspired by them. Check out paintings, printing, collage and photography inspired by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Peter Blake, Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney!
Black History Month Art
As a school we always celebrate Black History Month in October and in Art, children take part in projects linked to their learning. We hope you enjoy these paintings by Y5 and Y6. Their work on Scots Nigerian poet Jackie Kay led them to contrast the different landscapes of Scotland and Nigerian and mix cool and warm colour palettes to paint them.
Christmas Show Set Design
We love to get our junior children involved in designing the sets for their fabulous productions. Our Christmas show retold moon myths from different cultures – so in Art, children enjoyed learning about Aboriginal art from Australia, printmaking from Japan, Inuit art from Greenland/Alaska, and batik textiles from India – then made banner backdrops for the set.
