The Art Department at The Charter School North Dulwich is dedicated to nurturing critical thinking and visual literacy through an engaging and supportive learning environment. Our curriculum is designed to foster independence through differentiated and self-directed work. We develop a lifelong aptitude and desire to learn, explore, create and invent. We encourage students to experiment, persevere and arrive at their own unique solution while promoting skill building, discovery, and innovation. Incorporating a diverse art history and contemporary art into an inclusive curriculum exposes students to global awareness and viewpoints other than their own. Working in a collaborative peer-learning environment, students develop creative problem-solving skills, self-expression, and visual literacy.
The curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
- Become proficient in a range of art, craft and design techniques.
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural context of the art world.
The Art Department aims to provide a broad and balanced curriculum across the Key Stages that enables students to maximise their full potential. Schemes of work are designed to ensure that all students can progress and achieve. Students are encouraged to develop ideas by using the inspiration of others, experimenting with a wide range of materials and observing the world around them. The department aims to deliver exciting and engaging art lessons, and we achieve consistently excellent results. The department offers AQA GCSE Art and Design and A Level in Fine Art and Photography. Students work is continually monitored and assessed and the opportunity for study support is provided daily.
Art through the Key Stages
The department strives to promote and develop the knowledge and understanding of all learners. Students are motivated to become independent learners and use their creativity to make more informed decisions. The curriculum is sequenced to enable more complex ideas to build on the fundamental knowledge and skills learned in year 7. Students develop their ideas through contextual studies and observations, with all students encouraged to achieve their full potential. Composition skills are built into lessons through the teaching of shape and proportion, the analysis of art and artists reinforce the evaluation skills learnt in English and specific reference to the history and geography of art allows students to place the work they are studying in context. The artwork of students from across all the Key Stages is annually celebrated throughout the year through house competitions and the Charter Challenge and the annual Art Exhibition at the end of the academic year.
