The Savill Garden Friday 3rd October 2025
On Friday, 3rd October, students from the Year 10 art class visited The Savill Garden for a day of creative exploration and artistic inspiration. Despite a light drizzle throughout the day, the students remained enthusiastic and fully engaged as they took part in plein air drawing activities, sketching directly from the natural surroundings. The vibrant plant life, varied textures, and sweeping landscapes provided a rich source of inspiration, encouraging students to explore composition, tone, and detail in an open-air setting.
The trip offered a valuable opportunity to connect classroom techniques with real-world observation, allowing students to develop their drawing skills and gather visual ideas for future work. Their positive attitude - rain or shine - made the day both productive and creatively rewarding.
The National Gallery Monday 10th June 2024
On Monday 10th June, Year 10 students visited The National Gallery to add to their portfolio of work. The students enjoyed their day exploring art created by many famous artists such as Caravaggio, Titian, Monet and Van Gogh. The Year 10 students independently explored the art and looked to find paintings that inspired them the most. Needless to say, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers was an extremely popular choice for both the students and the public. The gallery was so packed that we could barely get a glimpse! The students will now continue working on their studies in their own time and find ways of incorporating the inspiration into their work.
Tate Modern Wednesday 8th November 2023
Our day at the Tate Modern was intriguing to say the least. Our project at the moment is to do with food, and so visiting a gallery like the Tate allowed us to experience how we can manipulate that. As we moved through different rooms and different exhibitions, we were exposed to different materials, sizes, themes and media of art. From iconic pieces to cutting-edge installations, each gallery held a new surprise, offering a glimpse into the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary creativity. There were many pieces we were all surprised by and had to learn more to find out the meaning behind it. For example, one of the pieces we found was a pile of sand; or at least appeared to be. After reading the artwork description, we discovered that every grain was glued together. Although this doesn't link directly to our current topic, it was still fabulous to learn about the fine details and effort that is put into some pieces of artwork. The Tate was very varied in terms of types of art. As we walked into the main entrance, called 'The Turbine Hall', we were confronted with 'Behind the Red Moon', a Hyundai commission created by El Anatsui. One of the first exhibitions we experienced after this was videographic. On the 1st floor, we stopped to admire an exhibition inspired by African Art, where I also found an intriguing book discussing the art of black and white photography. Overall, our visit to the Tate Modern opened my eyes to the different types of art there really are, and how art pieces are not always going to end up looking like a pretty picture.
London Zoo Tuesday 6th June 2023
GCSE students were fortunate enough to take their learning outside of the classroom this term by visiting London Zoo to draw the animals. Unlike objects that we look at in class, the animals presented a bit of a challenge for the students! The highly challenging task of drawing animals as they move was met with excitement and enthusiasm by the class and they produced a variety of sketches, some of which will be used to produce some work back in the classroom.
Tate Modern Tuesday 15th November 2022
The museum had a lot of unique and diverse pieces of artwork which all created individual impressions and made the experience more enjoyable. There were various ways in which the artwork was conveyed through different types of media like sculptures, photography, digital artwork and more. It showed me that art can be expressed in a multitude of styles and techniques and being able to appreciate this in person was what made the trip worthwhile. One of my favourite pieces was ‘The Darkward Trail’ by Nicole Eisenman as it was almost like a story was being told from the piece and I liked how there were features in it that contrasted each other but still blended well together. There were also political and historical messages shown through the piece which were engaging and added more background to it. Though I was not able to see every single art piece, I would definitely visit Tate Modern again to discover many other extraordinary works of art.
by Jasleen Sohi - 10E
The Sculpture Park 17th Mar 2022
On Thursday the 17th March, both Year 10 and 11 Art GCSE students visited The Sculpture Park in Surrey. We were fortunate that it was warm and sunny, making the experience even more enjoyable. There were a wide variety of sculptures on display as we walked along the scenic forest route: I was surprised to see the numerous materials used. For example, there was a sculpture of four horses that was constructed out of several ingenious items: even dolls, which was a little unsettling. I loved the sculptures that included coloured blown glass: there were some blown glass flowers which I thought were very pretty. There were many sculptures of animals, too. I think my favourite would be the human-sized weasel! As it was a lovely day, the walk was pleasant, enjoyable and quite fun as we had to cross many small bridges across miniature streams. A sculpture that really stuck out to me was an interactive piano sculpture in which you could actually press down on the keys! It was great and the sheer amount of work and technicality that went into it was highly impressive to say the least. Overall, it was a lovely experience. We had a great place to have lunch as we could admire the artwork from the benches we sat at and the park itself was very well maintained and quite easy to navigate as we followed the coloured arrows of our choosing. It was great exposure to have as an Art student!
- Nandini Dutta and Sanchali Sreelan (Year 11 GCSE Art Students)
Tate Britain 30th Sep 2021
On Thursday 30th September, Year 10 and 11 GCSE Art students visited Tate Britain. After such a long wait, it was an experience that the students thoroughly enjoyed. Pencil and books in hand, students were tasked with finding art that inspired them. Students were encouraged to consider whether the work evoked thoughts, memories or reactions and to be able to express their opinion in a constructive manner. One such piece that stood out to a number of students was the painting of a portrait by John Simpson. ‘Head of a Man (?Ira Frederick Aldridge)’ The famous actor in the painting was the first African American man to have a leading role in a Shakespearean play. More information about this painting can be found here https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-simpson-495/racial-identity-politics-head-man
The students thoroughly enjoyed their time and look forward to visiting many more galleries in the future.
