Artist of the Half Term
We are proud that we are an 'Arts' school, we are passionate about the skills of art and giving children different medias to be creative. We have an art corridor in our schools that displays art in an exhibition in frames - our art gallery.
Each half term a pupil is selected across the school from Reception to Year 4 on Dickens and Ruskin sites and is presented with the Artist Award. Their work is hung in a frame. It is awarded at a whole school Headteacher's Assembly, where we celebrate this artist's work and skills together in our school community. It is hung in the external community lobby on both sites for all visitors to see and then in the art gallery.
Artist Award- Summer Term 2025
Summer 1 (2025)
During our Habitats topic in Penguin Class, the children read the story, Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear? Which looked at all the different animals in a zoo and the noises they made. Connecting this to our Squiggle Club the children were asked to draw their favourite animal from the story. Mimi chose the leopard, using all the correct colours and adding detail with the spots. She finished off her work by trying to phonically spell the word leopard. Amazing work Mimi.
Mimi, Penguins
Summer 1 (2025)
Tudor was asked to design a picture for Eagles After School Club. Using his memory and sketching skills he created this impressive eagle. The attention to detail on the eye and feathers is so realistic and clearly time was taken to create this effect. Tudor has his own individual style and his impression of this eagle is just beautiful.
Tudor, Otters
Artist Award - Spring Term 2025
Spring Term 2 (2025)
In Art, Turtle Class have been exploring different printing methods. Finley explored finger printing and elevated his prints by using black felt pens to create a fabulous cartoon scene. Finley included lots of detail to give his characters personality and created a visual story.
Finley, Turtles
Spring Term 2 (2025)
As part of our ‘what is at the ends of the Earth?’ topic we visited the Broadway Art Gallery in Letchworth. Amaya created this beautiful ice inspired woven piece of art. She started by thinking carefully about which materials to choose to represent the snow, ice and water. Amaya then gently wove these in and out of her warp ensuring different colours and textures were used. Well done Amaya, what a beautiful piece of artwork you have created!
Amaya, Robins
Artist Award - Autumn Term 2024
Autumn Term 2 (2024)
In Seahorse class we created our own tiger coming out of a forest by mixing red and yellow to make the orange background. We then followed steps to create the tiger's face using pastels. Mostly white and black, with colours for the eyes and some other features. We then used found foliage and collage to create the forest - using different tearing, cutting and sticking techniques. Martyna's is beautifully done, with striking tones for the tiger and a vibrant forest. She really focussed on the details and took care with each step.
Martyna, Seahorses
Autumn Term 2 (2024)
During Arts week, Year 4 created a piece of artwork which showed the view from a Tiger's eye. Shane used oil pastels to create this amazing piece of art. Around the outside, you can see the detailed edge of the Tiger's eye and fur. Through the eye, the Tiger is looking at destructive things in the world, which are impacting animals around the world e.g. hunting and deforestation. We are so proud of his work!
Shane, Kingfishers
Autumn Term (2024)
In Honeybee's we learnt step by step how to draw a Bee, Oakley looked very carefully and added lots of detail and shading.
Oakley, Honey Bees
Autumn Term (2024)
Thea, Hedgehogs
Artist Award - Summer Term 2024
Summer Term (2024)
For our Science unit learning about plants, Mary-Elizabeth painted a blossom tree and added labels to show the different parts of the tree. She carefully looked at the tree and included lots of detail and a variety of colours.
Mary-Elizabeth, Turtles
Summer Term (2024)
This term Year 3 have been exploring sculpture. Emily used a material called Modroc (bandages covered in plaster) and dipped them in water and layered them on top of bubble wrap to create the base for her artwork. This created an interesting textured surface to paint upon. Next Emily used primary-coloured paints and mixed the colours she needed independently, takin care to adjust the brightness and tone as she went along. She then painted some beautiful lavender fields in the foreground before creating a striking sunset background to contrast. The rough Modroc and the countryside scene together create an eye-catching, rustic-style piece of artwork which Emily should be very proud of!
Emily - Foxes
Artist Award - Spring Term 2024
Spring Term 2 (2024)
In art this term, Year 4 have made Greek mythical creatures out of clay. Cleo has created her own Cerberus by using clay to make a hollow sphere for its heads and she then added details with additional pieces of clay using slipping and scoring. Cleo thought carefully about her design and colours to bring her mythical creature to life. Well done, Cleo!
Cleo - Toucans
Spring Term 2 (2024)
In our Year 2 art lessons, we looked at mono-printing a simple pattern or design onto paper using a polystyrene tile. Evie-Rose was inspired by our lessons in school and printed this eye-catching design onto paper using printing ink and a tile she had embossed. Evie-Rose thought carefully about her colour choices of ink for her printing and ensured they were contrasting.
Evie-Rose - Robins
Spring Term 1 (2024)
Seahorse Class learnt about the life of mexican artist Frida Kahlo focusing on her self portraits. Elia created her own using bright colours.
Elia - Seahorses
Spring Term 1 (2024)
In Year 1 this half term we have been exploring printmaking. We learnt to print with found objects, including fingers; explored relief printing with plasticine and printing onto a background. Our outcome was to create a piece inspired by Starry Night using learnt printing techniques.
Ava has created a beautiful piece inspired by Starry Night and used all the printing techniques that we learnt this half term. Ava thought about how to create the feeling of wind in her piece and used both colour and materials very thoughtfully to show this weather type. Ava noticed the detail around the stars in Van Gogh's Starry Night and tried to convey this in her work too. What a beautiful piece or artwork! Well done Ava.
Ava - Badgers
Artist Award - Autumn Term 2023
Autumn Term 2 (2023)
During our Asian topic WOW day the children were asked to create a background using water colours and blending them to recreate a sunset. Then they decorated an Asian elephant using repeated block patterns in felt tips.
Autumn Term 2 (2023)
In our Year 2 art lessons we have been looking at different artists and how they incorporate colour and shape into their work. Frankie was inspired by our artist Charlie French and painted this fantastic piece of abstract art. He looked at how Charlie uses a vast colour palette and different techniques to blend the paint. Frankie started by using green acrylic paint for the background and layered on different shades of pink and purple over the top.
Autumn Term 1 (2023)
During our WOW day for our Stone Age topic, Year 3 drew their own cave paintings. Gita created an amazing cave painting using skills such as sketching and blending using pastels. She has painted a vivid picture of what Stone Age life would have been like.
Autumn 1 (2023)
During Stone Age day Panda class recreated the famous cave painting-hands from Argentina. Whilst learning about blow painting, children used the medium charcoal and pastels on fabric to represent the stencil effect
Artist Award - Summer Term 2023
Summer Term 1 (2023)
Esther was inspired by a cuddly toy bee in the classroom. She used felt tip pens and looked carefully at the shape and lines on the bee before drawing and colouring in her picture. She wrote ‘I love you bee’ on her picture because they are good for our environment. Well done Esther!
Esther - Honeybee Class
Summer Term 1 (2023)
During our WOW day for our new topic ‘What’s on the other side of the world’, Mia and Alice decided to create a picture of a Kookaburra, which is a bird native to Australia. They studied the picture carefully and picked out materials which matched the colours in the picture. They then used a variety of materials to create a collage of their own Kookaburra. They did this with no help from an adult and worked beautifully together sharing materials and discussing colours. Excellent work!
Mia & Alice - Hedgehog Class
Artist Award - Spring Term 2023
Spring Term 1 (2023)
Emily created this beautiful piece of artwork in her home learning for our new topic 'Ice Worlds', where we researched different animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctic. Emily decided to do a poster about Polar Bears where she used a fork and white paint to create the fur effect on the Polar Bear, the ears and sea waves were stuck on with sparkly paper for a 3D effect. Emily used a mixture of different colour paints to make the Northern lights and mountains stand out.
Well done Emily on an excellent piece of home learning.
Emily - Swan Class
Spring Term 1 (2023)
Zoe created a piece of graffiti wall art by researching graffiti styles and lettering. She then created her own graffiti tag for her name. Zoe blended her colours to make a smooth transition between her colours.
A fantastic piece of artwork, well done Zoe.
Zoe - Panda Class
Artist Award - Autumn Term 2022
Autumn Term 2 (2022)
Year 3 have been experimenting with colour and pattern linked to their 'Asian Adventure' topic. The children explored colour and tone using a palette of primary colours and white. They then applied their learning to create a sunset-effect background. Children used observational drawing skills to develop their use of line and form. Finally, we learnt about painted elephants in Asian culture and experimented with pattern to create our own painted elephant designs. Eve's bold design and detailed pattern contrast beautifully with the background colours to create an eye-catching piece of artwork. Well done Eve!
Eve - Fox Class
Autumn Term 2 (2022)
The children in Raccoons club were asked to design a picture for the new Ruskin Drive after school club. Dylan in his own time came up with this artwork which was eye capturing to the staff in Raccoons. It was an amazing start to the new club and gave the club an identity. Dylan used the whole sheet to design this wonderful raccoon in a vibrant eye catching red.
Dylan - Panda Class
Artist Award - Summer Term 2022
Summer Term 1 (2022)
During art this term Kestrels have been exploring different artists and their techniques. They have looked at Laurence Stephen Lowry with his matchstick men and industrial designs and John Constable’s landscapes.
The children have explored different watercolour techniques and showed a range of sketching and painting skills.
Summer Term 1 (2022)
In Art we have been looking at Aboriginal dotty art. Matilda chose to use the techniques she had learnt in her own independent painting. She mixed her own colours and spent lots of time adding detail to produce this lovely picture of a Koala.
Artist Award - Spring Term 2022
Spring Term 2 ( 2022)
Benji is a super artist. He has loved creating artwork linked to our ‘Under the Sea’ learning. He is very good at noticing details and worked carefully describing these, whilst drawing. This is a Leopard Shark he painted using a photograph for inspiration. He has done an excellent job of copying the long thin shape of the shark and recreating it’s stripy and dotty markings.
Spring Term 2 (2022)
Eva was inspired by the artwork of Ted Harris. She used line and colour to create this amazing piece of work!
Artist Award - Autumn Term 2021
Autumn Term 2 (2021)
As part of our art lessons in Year 1 children have been using a variety of textures to represent different objects. Jessica thought carefully about the textures she wanted to use before creating her final piece. Well done Jessica!
Autumn Term 2 (2021)
This half term, Year 3 have been exploring Art through our Asia topic. The children have learnt how to sketch elephants and also use print-making to create a border for their final piece. Here is Arya's amazing sketch of an Asian Elephant. She has used sketch-marks and shading to make her elephant come to life!
Artist Award - Summer Term 2021
Summer Term 1 (2021)
In Hedgehogs Class our topic this term is all about Australia. We have been exploring Aboriginal art and took inspiration from some spectacular designs to create our own pieces. Evangeline took time and care in her work, used bright colours and was very patient to be able to create this bold and wonderful turtle. Fantastic work!
Summer Term 1 (2021)
Eden looked at the work of L.S Lowry, thinking about the ‘Urban Environment’ Eden then created an observational piece in the style of Lowry focussing on ‘our school’. Well done Eden an incredible piece using water colours!
Artist Award - Autumn Term 2020
Autumn Term 1 (2020)
During our Totally Tropical topic, Year 3 explored using watercolour to create still-life artwork of the fruits that they tasted. We also explored using pen to outline our paintings which we think makes our artwork really stand out! Well done Felicity!
Felicity
Autumn Term 1 (2020)
Riley enjoyed learning about snails as part of our Minibeast topic. She practised drawing spirals on a whiteboard and then she drew and decorated a spiral using oil pastels. Riley was inspired by The Snail by Matisse and created her own artwork in a similar style by sticking paper into a snail shape.
Well done, Riley! We love your gastropod artwork!
Riley
Artist Award - Autumn Term 2019
Autumn Term 1 (2019)
In Seahorse class we have been thinking about autumn colours by recognising them and mixing them. Harrison has used this to inspire his autumn collage of a squirrel where he has used different textured materials to form his picture.
Harrison
Autumn Term 1 (2019)
As part of our All About Me topic we asked the children to draw a picture of their family. Dorothy used sketching and coloured pencils to a fabulous picture of her family to include her pets.
Dorothy
Artist Award - Summer Term 2019
Summer Term 2 (2019)
Explore Keith Haring Art Children looked at the bold and simple illustrations and designs of Keith Haring. They thought about different sports and created eye catching designs using felt tips and three or four colours. They simplified the human body, creating thick outlines.
Summer Term 2 (2019)
Jaelen was asked to design a sculpture of a polar animal using a pencil, he used shading techniques to sketch a penguin chick for his design
Jaelen
