GREAT NEWS!

The Young Artists’ Summer Show is a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4 - 19 studying in the UK. Artworks are judged by a panel of passionate artists and arts professionals, with selected artworks displayed online and on-site at the Royal Academy of Arts.

This year, there was over 21,000 entries and we are delighted to announce that one of our artworks was selected for the online and onsite exhibition. The successful entry is a collaborative piece by Year 2 Hummingbirds class entitled 'Art on Toast'. We were exploring using different tools and materials to make art, hence the burnt toast! 

Intent

As a school, we believe that art is a vital and integral part of children’s education. It provides them with opportunities to develop a range of ways in which they can share and express their individual creativity, whilst learning about and making links with a wide spectrum of different types of art in our society. Art contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self reflection. Moreover, it enables pupils to develop a natural sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them and therefore links strongly to our school values. The focus is in developing proficiency in drawing, painting, understanding colour and shade and sculpture, with the overall aim of developing a rigorous understanding, critical awareness and inspiration of art and design.

The art curriculum will develop children’s critical abilities and understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages through studying a diverse range of male and female artists and designers throughout history.

Children will develop their understanding of the visual language of art with effective teaching and carefully thought out sequences of lessons and experiences. Understanding of the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape, 3D form) will be developed by providing an accessible and engaging curriculum which will enable children to reach their full potential.

Implementation

We teach a skills-based art curriculum, which allows children to express their creative imagination as well as providing them with opportunities to practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture. This is supported through the studying of key artists and the development of a knowledge of their work.

Lessons are taught in blocks on a half termly basis and involve studying existing pieces of art, sketching aspects of these, with a particular focus on the necessary skills, before completing a final piece. The children will then be given constructive feedback and next steps, with further opportunities to create the art piece, to improve their work and ensure that the skills are being developed. The evidence of their work is collected within the art sketch book which follows the children through the school. Photographs of larger, group or 3D pieces are also kept within this book.

Impact

The pupil’s knowledge of art history and visual elements of art is recorded through half-termly assessment (e.g quizzes) whilst the development of their physical skills will be evaluated against Key Performance Indicators in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.

The Royal Academy Young Arts Prize

Huge congratulations to Elka and Abigail in Year 6 whose artwork made it to the shortlist out of almost 7000 entries for The Royal Academy Young Arts Prize! We are all extremely proud of you! Keep drawing!

"Viva Pangolins" by Elka

"Future NOT Bright" by Abigail

The school is entering the Turner Contemporary's school art competition again.

Please follow the link below to see the art works that the children - from ours and other schools - have entered:

https://portfolioartcompetition.com/gallery/

Well Done to Cleo (Yr 5) for being awarded Miss B's prestigious Artist of the Month award.

Year 3 having fun exploring the Stone Age using virtual reality headsets kindly lent to us from Sevenoaks School.

Following a very successful showing at the Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks...

our 'Flip Side' exhibition has come home to our very own library and main school corridor!  We think it's looking wonderful in it's new home, where we can all enjoy it every time we visit the library and walk around our school.

As you walk along the main corridor, you will see that we have three new updated boards, dedicated to the wonderful work that our students have produced, under the direction of Ms Bird.

We are very proud of the amazing art work that our pupils have created and would love you to take a look when you are next in school.

The Flip Side is a collection of work produced by the children of Otford Primary in their art lessons with Ms Bird.  The children have been introduced to a number of great artists and encouraged to discover and explore their work and experiment producing their own pieces of great art, influenced by those artists.

The collection is currently being shown in the Kaleidoscope Gallery in Sevenoaks library and is open to the public for the following week. 

We look forward to sharing the children's work with you and hope that you and your families will go along to the gallery and see all of the collection.

We are very proud of all our students and the amazing pieces they created.  When the show finishes in the gallery, we will bring it 'home' to our very own school library, so that we may continue to enjoy our art work and share it with students, guests and teachers.

Our wonderful Hospice pony, which is called "Horse Power', will be exhibited at the Kaleidoscope Gallery  (Sevenoaks Library) with a number of other local ponies from other schools from 19-30th September. 

Do go along and support this wonderful charity and enjoy all the amazing entries.  They will then all be moved on to Tunbridge Wells.  Our entry was a wonderful collaboration between three of our students winning entries.  Ms Bird did an outstanding job of bringing each of their designs together on our very own pony.

A message from Mrs. Roberts:

"Our school "Otford Pony" (Herd of Hospice) has now been collected from the school to be exhibited with the many other horses and ponies across Kent. The children unveiled the Otford Pony today in assembly.

Huge congratulations to Max, Jess and Harry for their winning designs. 

During the summer Ms Bird painted the pony and incorporated elements of the designs including the Otford crest, the School Values, paint palettes, the Otford pond, Forest School and tree climbing and many, many  more aspects of the school.   It was wonderful to see the reaction of so many of the children and thank you to our resident artist!

After the exhibition the Otford pony will return to school and be displayed in the hall for many years to come!  We will shortly be putting a display in the reception area showing photographs of the pony and the winning designs.

Thank you to all our children who entered this competition."

Graham Upton is an award winning community artist with 20 years experience.

His past projects have included:

Edenbridge Sation 2016

Edenbridge Town Station 2015

Dunton Green underpass 2015

Maidstone Skate Park

Various television work, including 60 minute makeover and Room Rivals.

We are thrilled that Graham created such an outstanding piece of work in our KS1 playground to fire up our imaginations and inspire play and work time outside.  Do go and have a good look at it yourself!

Our thanks go to the PTFA and Ms Bird for their hard work in organising this installation and working with Graham to create something so special for us to enjoy every day.

Herd of Hospice - competition!

Herd of the Hospice? is a major, free, public art installation and the first of its kind in the area. From July-September 2017, a herd of 25 uniquely decorated horse sculptures will be exhibited across West Kent and East Sussex.

Designed and painted by local artists (and us!) and generously sponsored by local businesses; our ‘herd’ will be displayed in parks and other public spaces to generate a positive atmosphere and encourage public interaction, draw people to local areas and create a fun experience for the community Hospice serves.

- See more at: http://www.hospiceintheweald.org.uk/fundraise/herd-of-the-hospice#sthash.JBGlXLq7.dpuf

HOW DO YOU ENTER?

Download and print out the back and front pdf picture of the hospice horse (above) and design/draw/paint/colour the horse with your very own design.  

Think about what would make it truly unique and a part of Otford Primary?  What would make our Otford Primary School horse stand out - what are our unique values, what makes our school special?

Entries must be in on the first FRIDAY after half term - so that Mrs Bird can carefully create your very own design on one of the special horses that we have been given.  Ask one of the teachers or TA's in the staff room if you can have a quick peek at our wonderful little horse! This is an unique opportunity for your art work to be displayed across West Kent and East Sussex and support Hospice in the Weald.

We ask for a minimum donation of £1 per entry per person - all funds raised will be going to Hospice in the Weald.  This competition is open to everyone in school.

Please write your name clearly on the design sheet and remember to design BOTH sides of your horse.

THE CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRY IS THE FIRST FRIDAY BACK AT SCHOOL AFTER HALF TERM.

Any questions, please see Ms Bird.

Good luck and enjoy being creative!

https://www.turnercontemporary.org/portfolio/?filter_agegroup=Teachers

Welcome to the Otford Primary Art Gallery!

Watch this space to see the amazing art we have created in school and find out who is our ' Artist of the Month'.