The Arts

It’s taken studying a creative subject to develop my visual understanding of the world and it’s opened up my imagination.

The Worth Art School provides large and light studio spaces, divided into specialist areas of Fine Art, including paint, print and sculpture, Textiles, Design and Technology, with IT suites and workshop, and Photography, with a studio and digital facilities, and a separate darkroom.

Fine art

Worth’s Fine Art department is forward-thinking, embracing new technologies and combining them with traditional techniques. Both the working environment and teaching experience offered encourages each pupil to communicate and share their identity through the use of visual language. 

Drawing underpins all creative processes at Worth and to refine this skill projects are provided to introduce pupils of all ages to a wide range of drawing techniques and media, and weekly life drawing classes are offered to Sixth Form students to learn measured academic drawing as well as other experimental drawing techniques. An additional strength is 3D sculpture and installation-based work. The pupils who choose this discipline are encouraged to make large-scale sculptures in a variety of materials using techniques such as construction, modelling and casting.

The creative atmosphere generated in the Worth art studios presents a very different learning environment for a Worth pupil and the department runs an open door policy, offering both time and space for boys and girls to explore their ideas and experiment with materials.

Click here to see a panoramic view of one of the Art studios.

Textiles

Are you creative, determined and highly motivated but perhaps not confident at drawing? Are you good with colours and textures? Do you want to develop your own visual language that allows you to express yourself without being restricted to realistic or representative modes of communication? Textiles, particularly Fine Art textiles, allows for this passion and interest.

Textiles, which was introduced as an A Level option at Worth in 2022, is about the manipulation and application of a wide range of different materials and processes; these fabrics can then be applied to a range of different purposes – from fine art to fashion and interiors.

There are so many applications for a textile student: from designers who create fabrics for interior applications like linins, curtains, wallpapers, carpets and rugs or upholstery to the world of fashion with its fast-moving ever-changing innovations.  

Design and technology

Our expanded workshop facilities, accommodated in the Art School, include equipment such as lasers, 3D printers and a computer suite with the latest design software.

Design and Technology is a compulsory subject for all pupils in Years 7 to 9, introducing the boys and girls to a range of practical and theoretical skills and knowledge, whilst also offering an insight into potential career opportunities, such as product, graphic, interior and furniture design, architecture, engineering, computer gaming design and web design. Design and Technology GCSE is a popular choice in the expanding department, and pupils have the choice to go on studying Design and Technology at both A Level and IB Diploma (International Baccalaureate).

In addition to the formal academic curriculum, students can also choose Design and Technology as a co-curricular activity, where games and design and construction challenges are combined to produce aerodynamic gliders and remote-controlled racing cars.

Click here to see the Design and Technology studio.

Photography

The Photography department has strong roots in the visual arts and design sector of school life, and is an important outlet for pupils to explore their creativity and nurture an understanding of visual literacy.

Photography is the world’s local language and thus one of the most democratic art forms widely practised. At Worth, the photography courses harness a pupil’s natural visual interest and enthusiasm and then deepen the pupil’s love, appreciation and understanding of the medium. This starts with stepping inside a camera, as pupils build their own from very basic materials and household items, and moving into practical exercises they explore and make links between darkroom processes and the tools that replicate this skill on Photoshop in a digital arena.

GCSE and A Level Photography are popular subjects but the opportunities to develop an interest in the medium are available to all pupils whether they study the subject or not. Workshops covering studio portrait photography, darkroom processing, Photoshop editing and graphics communication are popular across all years and also become a useful outlet for pupils looking to provide evidence for their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and CAS for the IB Diploma.

Click here to see the Photography classroom.