Art

February Half-Term homework 

Fourth Plinth Art Competition

Your half-term homework is to design something for the Fourth Plinth to enter this London-wide competition!

Children in both Primary and Secondary schools across London are invited to create their own artworks, inspired by the commissions for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.

The theme this year is:

London Life.

You can create anything you like to represent what ‘London Life’ means to you.

Include a title and a short description of your piece. Your work can be 2D or 3D. You can use the template below to draw your design if you wish, but you can create your sculpture design anyway you like. If you create a large structure you may take a photograph to bring to school instead.

Your design must be your original work, or else it cannot be entered into the competition. Artwork featuring copyrighted materials cannot be accepted. You cannot copy another artist's work.

Curriculum Overview

At Our Lady of Grace Juniors we teach a knowledge-rich curriculum, believing that Art and Design knowledge should be is valued and specific, well-sequenced, and taught to be remembered. Below you will find the topics taught across the school.

The curriculum focuses on different concepts of art (line, shape, colour, tone, form, space, visual texture and tone) and how an artist combines these elements and produces different styles. Children will study the work of artists, architects and designers critically and make connections between and their own work. Our students will learn through a range of media, subject matter and historical periods or geographical cultures. We want our students to become informed about art and have meaningful opportunities for self-expression and individual response, learning who they are as artists.

Year 3

To kick off their Art Career at OLOG Juniors, Year 3 experimented with different uses of line in their brand-new sketchbooks. They used continuous line drawings to show still life objects and multiple lines next to each other to show the 3D form of a hand.  Year 3 then looked at the art of Hokusai and considered how printing can create lines in their own printing.

Year 3 then moved on to consider a range of artists from wall-paintings at Herculaneum from 79 AD to the work of Andy Warhol in the 1960s, comparing the techniques used by these artists to show the form of an object. They have used the work of Morandi to investigate the meaning of form, and how artists use different techniques to create the illusion of three dimensions in a two-dimensional drawing. Year 3 have worked hard on practising their pencil techniques to show form, drawing their own still life observations using cross hatching. After investigating Cezanne and Stubbs’ use of colour in still life paintings, our artists have created their own still life pieces, layering oil pastels from dark to light.

This term, our Year 3 artists have been excitedly learning about Ancient Egyptian art, looking at sculpture, paintings on papyrus and walls as well as buildings. Since much of the art we have from ancient Egypt is from tombs, Year 3 have had to think about how we can use art as an historical source: how people lived, how they were ruled and the power of the pharaohs. Year 3 have had great fun sculpting sphinxes from clay, using mixed media to make Egyptian collars and drawing Egyptian gods and goddesses on their own homemade papyrus!

Year 4

Our busy Year 4s began the year with a close consideration of how artists use light. They looked at Caravaggio to consider how light can create drama in a work, and over the term the students in Year 4 developed their skills to paint a still life using tone to create form, building on their colour-mixing techniques.

Our Year 4 artists then went on to consider how space is used in art, using varying tones in graphite drawings to create the illusion of three dimensions. Year 4 have carefully considered how space is used in paintings, such as Millet’s ‘The Gleaners’  and Brugel the Elder’s ‘The Peasant Wedding’ 1567.   learning about foreground, middle ground and background. Using all of this knowledge, and their understanding of light, colour, shape, scale and detail, the marvellous artists of Year 4 have created landscape cardboard reliefs from paint, oil pastels and card.

  Since Christmas, Year 4 have been learning about Expressionism, thinking about how artists use colour and line to communicate strong emotions. They have discussed the different elements which contribute to the design of a piece of art and looked closely at Munch’s The Scream. They are currently working towards creating their own Scream using mixed media, developing their ideas in their sketchbooks.

Year 5

Year 5 spent their Autumn term considering how and why artists can use different techniques to alter their style. They have compared different styles of brushwork, looking at Edvard Munch's The Scream and George Stubbs' Whistlejacket, and tried out contrasting techniques for themselves when drawing pears. Year 5 had great discussions comparing two very different styles: Rococo and Modernism. After learning about the Abstract Art of the 20^th Century, they used their knowledge of colour theory to design a create their own abstract work of art, which you can see in the slideshow below.

Year 5 have also explored at Art from Western Africa, looking at Malian antelope headdresses and the Benin plaques from Nigeria. Year 5 observed how the Chiwara headdresses are designed using simplified natural shapes and used this as inspiration for their own designs of insects which they planned and created using cardboard, decorated with paint and oil pastels. Within this topic, Year 5 have also been considering how some Artwork comes to be in Museums, looking at the examples of the Benin Plaques which are currently in the British Museum.

So far in this busy Spring term, Year 5 have looked at Chinese painting and Calligraphy. They have tried their hand at painting bamboo, cherry blossoms, and at using traditional Chinese brushes, aiming to produce clear, expressive brushstrokes, creating their own idealistic Chinese paintings. 

Year 6

Year 6 started the year with Art in the Italian Renaissance, learning about the ‘rebirth’ of Art which took place in Italy from about the 1400 influenced by classical art and culture. They investigated work create by Leonardo Da Vinci, looking at his anatomical drawings, creating their own observational pencil drawings of hands, ears and landscapes using linear perspective. They used the opportunity of studying the murals of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo to explore painting on plaster, making their own plaster discs and creating their own painted designs.

Year 6 used their knowledge of Renaissance art to consider Renaissance Architecture and Sculpture, creating line drawings of Florence cathedral which they used to plan a clay relief tile, understanding that sculpture can be created both in relief and in the round and on different scales (e.g. Michelangelo’s David).

In the Spring term, Year 6 have been learning about Victorian Architecture, looking at the examples of gothic and classical style of the Houses of Parliament to the Victorian architecture in their local environment, Year 6 have created detailed drawings of famous London buildings showing gothic or classical influences.

The children have had the opportunity to discuss the works of Millais and Rossetti (pictured below) and consider how these artists reflect reality in their paintings. Year 6 have then produced paintings of flowers, working from light to dark in contrast to their previous work with acrylics and oil pastels going from dark to light.

Artist in Residence 

The children in Years 3 and 4 were very lucky to experience an artist working with them in school a little while ago. Sarah Pimenta, a textile artist, has been teaching the Year 3 and 4 children how to print and we have completed a beautiful banner which will be on display in the hall in due course. This has been an amazing opportunity for our school community as we accessed this artist through the Artist In Residence charity https://www.artistsinresidence.org.uk/ at no cost to the school. It has raised the profile of textile art as an art medium as well as allowing children to spend time with a professional artist learning how to screen print. This was linked to their weekend art task and draws upon important themes in our school such as stewardship and being a Green Flag School. 

La Musique

At Our Lady of Grace Junior school, we aim to make music an enjoyable learning experience and to develop an understanding of the cultural capital of music in London. Children will acquire knowledge and skills to support them in developing their own appreciation of music and to develop a love of music. We encourage children to discover and develop their performing skills to enable them to participate in social music making activities. Music is taught to each class once a fortnight. Whole school singing assemblies are held weekly. Children learn to listen to and appreciate music and develop the language in which to speak about what they hear.  We speak about the inter-related dimensions of music and are beginning to look at how music is written.  

In our school many children are also taking part in different musical instrument lessons. Year 4, 5 and 6 children are given the opportunity to take weekly violin lessons and to take the ABRSM grade exams.  Children use their musical talent to support community and school events. 

The Blue Peter Badge for Music

Did you know you can apply for a Blue Peter badge for music?  This badge has been specially designed by Ed Sheeran.  Some children in year 5 have already written applications to Blue Peter which demonstrate their knowledge of and interest in music.  We look forward to successful replies.  

Our Musical School

The children taking instrumental lessons on guitar and violin took the opportunity today to share their talents with the whole school.  Demonstrating confidence and skill, they performed in their class groups.  Well done children.  Should you wish to learn either of these instruments then a new set of applications will be opened in the new academic year.  

Body Percussion Workshop Autumn Term

There was a whole lot of stomping going on this week in school!  We enjoyed a whole school body percussion workshop where the challenge was to break down a performance into phrases.  Then we learnt each phrase, practicing over and over.  Finally we put the performance back together.  

Year 4 visited the Barbican this term

We visited the Barbican theatre to attend a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra.  We will use some of our knowledge to support our learning this term.  The challenge is to create a piece of exciting music.  We will use the Magical Looking Glass to inspire us. 

Year 5 visited the Royal Opera House

In early October, Year 5 were lucky enough to visit the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. 

We attended a performance of l'Elisir d'Amore by Donizetti. The opera was sung in Italian with English surtitles.

The story follows country boy Nemorino trying to win the haughty Adina's heart. She refuses to give him the time of day, so he turns to Doctor Dulcamara's co-called 'elixir of love'. 

We loved hearing the arias we had heard with Mrs Kevane, and had fun identifying the different voices - Sopranos, Tenors, Baritones. 

Design and Technology

Similar to our Art curriculum, Our Lady of Grace Junior's DT curriculum values knowledge and aims to offer our children authentic experiences which build skills and knowledge.

DT is taught every term through an intensive DT Week, in which children will either be cooking, building or sewing. 

Through a variety of creative and practical activities, our students gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in the process of designing and making within a range of contexts e.g. the home, school, enterprise, industry, leisure, the wider environment. 

In their 'Cook' units, our students are taught not only how to cook a specific recipe, but to apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating, learning crucial life skills and opening a door to one of the great expressions of human creativity.

Below are some photos from our Autumn DT week in which our Year 3s and 4s were sewing key rings and cushions, and our Year 5s and 6s were building Cams Toys and Water Walls.