Plymstock Art Department

The Art Department is an exciting, progressive part of Plymstock School.  We offer a broad and engaging curriculum including printmaking, photography, ceramics and 3-D, as well as traditional painting and drawing work.  All our teaching is based in a strong contextual approach, ensuring that students are exposed to as wide a range of inspiration as possible, from Aboriginal or Native American art through to cutting edge contemporary practice, such as the forthcoming BAS9 exhibition.  We regularly visit London and St Ives with groups of students to enrich and facilitate this element of our curriculum.

We use a sketchbook-based approach to developing work, and student sketchbooks are integral to curriculum delivery throughout the course.

The Department has two full-time and two part-time specialist art teachers, and one technician.  Our skills are spread throughout course delivery, with groups in Years 7, 8 and 9 experiencing a mix of teachers and approaches across the three years.  At GCSE groups retain their teacher for the two year course, whilst at A level the Art and the Photography students are taught by a mix of teaching staff, again to reinforce diversity of expertise and practice.

Recent successes include:  our Creative Futures events, working with professionals from across the creative industry to introduce students to the incredible range of careers open to them; commended and prize winning work in the annual city Rotary Art Show; attending workshops in 3-D printing and design at Plymouth College of Art; and contributing artwork to the Plymouth Hope Festival.

In short we are a happy and thriving part of a really excellent school, where Art is celebrated as an important part of the curriculum, results are strong year on year, and where Art lessons are creative, engaging, challenging and relevant.