At the Milford Academy, pupils experience a wide range of inspirational, creative projects within the Art and Design curriculum. Pupils learn age appropriate skills and techniques and explore a wide range of media throughout their school journey. Art and Design projects are often linked to topic work to give a context to Art and Design skills and help pupils make connections in their learning. Pupils have the opportunity to study a range of Artists. Activities are planned in each phase to ensure a progression of skills, techniques and media.Creativity is also developed through partnership projects, such as with Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Schools Trust and Nottingham Contemporary. Milford pupils are given the opportunity to visit Art galleries and work with professional artists (See School Life – Nottingham Contemporary Partnership Projects and Nottingham Trent University Art Partnership).Art Ambassadors across school are inspiring other pupils to develop art techniques and think creatively. Milford Academy is part of the Schools of Tomorrow project and a professional artist, Laura Eldret works regularly in school as well as with the Nottingham Contemporary.These planned, creative, progressive activities foster aspiration and enjoyment in the arts.Early Years and Foundation children develop a range of skills and techniques and use a range of media. Milford pupils begin to make marks with pencils, felts, chalks and paints. They begin to develop collage techniques, choosing colours, textures and patterns. Pupils have a range of opportunities to explore 3D work.Collage, colour and texture workKey stage 1 pupils continue to develop drawing skills, 3D work, print techniques and choices in colour, texture and pattern. Linking with the Science topic,’ Seasonal Change’, pupils took photographs of leaves in the school grounds. As well as developing photography skills, pupils used pastels to create the colours and textures captured in the images.Pupils used the natural objects in the school grounds as inspiration for sketches.As part of the ‘Marvellous Me’ topic, pupils were inspired by Matisse portraits to create their own pastel portraits.Key Stage 1 pupils created patterns and clay sculptures inspired by nature.During the ‘Under the Sea’ topic. pupils created 3D seascapes. Decisions were made about colour, texture, materials and orientation. Pupils enjoyed thinking imaginatively about space, depth and direction.Pupils developed shading skills and the use of different pencil grade while visualising scenes from ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes.Creating stone tiles inspired by Roman mosaicsLower Key Sate 2 pupils studied Roman mosaics then planned and created a stone tile of their own.Weaving skills and techniques in Year 3Year 3 explored a range of techniques, resources, colours and textures to create these beautiful art works.Year 3 pupils entered the wonderful world of texture and weaving. They tried weaving with a wide range of materials such as, wool, paper, straw and ribbon! Different sizes and styles of weaving looms were explored. Do you like the range of colours and textures created? Year 4 pupils worked in 3D to create Ancient Egyptian Death MasksWhile making the masks they used a wide range of skills; sketching, cutting, paper mache, moulding, modelling and painting! Pupils were very proud of the results!Year 3 pupils developed 3D modelling techniques using clay in partnership with Nottingham Trent University. Year 3 pupils were then able to glaze their clay work and see the beautiful results after they were fired in the kiln at Nottingham Trent University. As part of the ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ topic, Lower Key Stage 2 pupils used fruit and vegetables to develop a wide range of skills including pencil sketches, charcoal drawings, oils pastels, printing and painting. They also discussed a range of artists using fruit and vegetables as their subject.Year 5 were inspired by South and central American artists to create print work of their own.Year 5 and 6 have been inspired during the ‘Fairgrounds’ topic and their visit to Goose Fair to create images of rides using chalk, paint dots and special paper.Year 5 printed onto fabric using flowers and leaves.Upper Key stage 2 pupils worked in 3D to create Viking longboat models.Upper Key stage 2 developed Observational sketch techniques.Pupils helped each other explore different pencil grades, shading techniques and shadow.Year 6 pupils also explores water colour techniques and used then to create faded landscapes.Art Club – For more details of Art Club work see – School Life – Art ClubMilford pupils worked with professional artists, Elaine Winter and other schools in the trust to create a collaborative print panel called, ‘Under One Sky’. Milford pupils visited Lakeside Arts Centre to see the work exhibited.Individual artists also felt proud to view their own work in the exhibition.Year 4 exhibit at the Nottingham Contemporary 2018-2019Year 4 exhibited their work as part of the Start project in partnership with the Nottingham Contemporary. Year 4 pupils exhibited a variety of art forms including a dance performance on screen, 3D wire sculptures and free drawings.For more details of this project see School Life – Nottingham Contemporary Partnership Project 2018 -2019.Year 4 pupils also explored the exhibition by Daniel Steegmann Mangrane linking with their rainforest topic.Hoodwinked BookBench Project (Sponsored by East Midlands Airport)Congratulations to the talented artists at the Milford Academy who designed, drew and painted an amazing BookBench. Pupils created a design that represented a reading journey through the Milford Academy showing the diverse genres and interesting authors children meet along the way!Pupils sketched out ideas on paper, planned the areas faintly on the unpainted bench then created the design using acrylic paints and posca pens for outline detail. Finally, the BookBench was varnished.Can you spot your favourite book, author or character on the BookBench?French Artist Studies on Culture DayDuring Culture Day this year, the Milford Academy studied famous French artists. EYFS discovered the bold colours and collage techniques of Mattisse, KS1 explored the magic of Monet, Lower Key Stage 2 studied the pointilism movement through the artist Georges Seurat and Upper Key Stage 2 explored the still life compositions of Cezanne.Which famous French artist is your favourite?Milford Pupils Exhibit their work at the Nottingham Contemporary 2017 -2018Nottingham Contemporary Partnership Project 2017 Initial Gallery VisitYear 4 pupils were fascinated and inspired by the ‘States of America’ exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery. Reflecting on the photographs, discussing images, creating poses and imagining emotions gave pupis plenty of creative ideas. Images at the gallery inspired Milford art work including masks, poetry, portrait thoughts and drawing with words!For more images, see School Life – The Nottingham Contemporary Partnership Project 2017.Congratulations to all the talented, creative pupils of Milford!
