Art education plays a crucial role in the Prep School curriculum at LEH International School Foshan, promoting individuality, creative thinking, and mastery of Art and Design skills. By studying diverse fine art forms, such as painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, and fine art textiles, students can develop their skills, engage in a fun and stimulating learning environment, and prepare for their future.
Head of the Prep School comments: The role of the visual arts in early childhood education has long been recognised and valued as an essential component of the curriculum. The different forms of art such as dancing, drawing and painting, performance art, sculpturing, and many more need to be included in the school’s curriculum and this helps encompass the knowledge of the arts education to the students. Knowing and understanding the arts also helps students to express themselves in different creative art forms in which they are comfortable. Art nurtures the student to be inventive as it engages them in a process that helps in the development of self-esteem, self-discipline, cooperation, and self-motivation. Students’ self-esteem will improve as there is no right or wrong in self-creative creation.
In this article, we invite Ms Hayward, our Head of Art and Design Faculty, to share further insights into art education in our Prep School. The below content is written by Ms Hayward.
Head of Art and Design Faculty
Above: Ms Hayward with last year’s Year 6 students on a school trip to the Nanfeng Kiln and Shiwan Ceramics Museum
At LEH Foshan Prep School, the Art curriculum is based on the British National Art Curriculum which fosters students’ creativity through the exploration and discovery of artists, architects, and designers.
Thematic Learning Approach
The Art curriculum is thematic-based and follows the same themes as each Prep year group. For example, in this term the ‘Wider World’ theme is taught in History, Geography and English. This holistic approach provides deeper learning because students make and build links between subjects and content, which develops their independent, creative thinking and ideas and supports their ability to process and recall.
Art Discovery in Multi-Mediums
Important to the ethos of the Art department is the study, celebration and merging of traditional and contemporary international visual arts practice. Prep School students study fine art, covering a range of mediums, such as painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, and fine art textiles. They have access to diverse materials, techniques, and processes and benefit from a curriculum that encourages and nurtures their individuality, creative thinking and develops their mastery of Art and Design skills.
Confident Development of
Artistic Expression
Language, literacy and numeracy skills are embedded in the course delivery. The teaching and learning of key terminology, artist research and project evaluations, give students confidence and the ability to discuss and write about their own and others’ artwork. By responding to artists’ ideas and concepts and through experimentation with varied art media and processes, Prep students are inspired to produce inventive and creative artworks.
Student-Centred
Learning Environment
Prep Students enjoy classes with small numbers of students in a stimulating fun, learning environment where they are encouraged, given praise and challenged to stretch themselves further by qualified, experienced staff. All student’s voices are heard, each student is treated as an individual and the teaching approach is adapted to suit students’ differing needs.
At LEH Foshan, the Art teachers teach across both Prep and Secondary School, which enables both students and teachers to get to know each other well; this makes the transition to secondary school particularly easy for our students.
Head of Art & Design Faculty
Ms Helen Hayward is the Head of Art & Design Faculty. She graduated from Chelsea School of Art with a Fine Art honours degree and later from the University of the Arts London, Camberwell with a Master of Arts in Visual Arts: Printmaking, with Distinction.
Ms Hayward has been teaching Fine Art for 20 years in secondary schools and colleges and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Westminster. She is a practising fine artist and exhibits her work internationally. Previous to her teaching career she worked as an Art Psychotherapist for the National Health Service.
Ms Zhou is currently serving as the Art Technical Instructor at LEH Foshan, where she provides support to Ms Hayward, the Head of the Art and Design Faculty. After graduating from the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in 2017 with a degree in Sculpture, Ms Zhou gained valuable experience working as an art teacher and curriculum developer in various art academies. Throughout her career, she has developed a talent for engaging students in art activities and fostering a love of art among them.
Ms Zhou holds a High School Fine Art Teacher Qualification Certificate, which demonstrates her commitment and professionalism to the field and her passion for art teaching.
Diverse Art Projects at Prep
In the first term, Art Department at Prep School explored ‘Self-Discovery’ and students made two very different self-portraits both influenced by artists.
In their Fruit and Vegetable Self-Portraits students studied the work of Guiseppe Archimboldo (1527-1593) and in response drew a self-portrait made from their favourite fruits and vegetables.
In their second Self-Portrait, students responded to the work of French artist Stephanie Ledoux and explored ways in which they could communicate aspects of their identity. In these works, they learned about proportions and measuring techniques to help them draw themselves accurately. They then learnt and applied the pen and wash technique using watercolour painting techniques and fine liner pens.
For their Winter Fayre Project, students worked individually and collaboratively to make a large mural of a winter landscape inspired by the Artist Pieter the Elder (1525-1569). Each year groups produced different mixed media pieces, using processes such as collage, painting, and printmaking to make wintery trees, houses, snowmen and reindeer.
Prep students are currently working on an African project where they are drawing their inspiration from their research on the Warrior Masks of The Grebo Tribe of the Ivory Coast in West Africa. Analysing a painting based on the Atlantic Slave Trade, made by one of Ms Hayward’s ex-students when she taught in the Caribbean, gave the basis for the concept of a mask that they will make from recycled materials using the papier-mache technique. The mask’s purpose is to scare the slave raiders that took the slaves from Africa to the Americas. Students have been designing scary masks by mixing human and animal features and using scary colour palettes.
Above 2 photos: Students choose recycled materials to plan and make their mask from
Our students are very talented in varied ways. Students have strengths in different areas. For example, they may not be so strong at drawing but excel in their three-dimensional work such as in their sculptures and ceramic works. I love Prep School artworks because at this age they are so willing to experiment and try everything without any constraints on what they think a piece of art should be or look like. This allows for creativity to flourish, and we see some very exciting artwork.
Looking ahead as students move on from Prep School, the Secondary Art curriculum will continue to inspire students to explore and discover the world of art, while teachers will provide them with the further guidance and support they need to develop their skills and express themselves in unique and innovative ways. With the knowledge and experience gained from the art lessons, LEH Foshan students will have a solid foundation to pursue their interests and passions in the visual arts in the future.
Click below to learn more about Art Curriculum at LEH Foshan Secondary School.
