The Creative Arts faculty is a high energy and stimulating environment that has high expectations of all students, provides opportunities to develop their skills and talents and continually celebrates their success throughout the year.

The Arts helps students develop their skills in preparation for a potential career in the Creative Industries and a variety of transferable skills that are recognisable as vital in the workplace:

Developing creativity and independent thought
Learning to express themselves
Understanding and celebrating different cultures
Developing their social, emotional and intellectual well-being

The Arts aim to develop excellence in Irvine Royal Academy's young people by developing engagement in learning and self-esteem. In Creative Arts there is a wide range of subjects that have their own skills and tradition but also share common ground since they are all concerned with engaging young people in the acts of making, creating, problem-solving, responding, appraising and evaluating.

The Creative Arts Faculty celebrates success through texts home, end of session postcards, and regular celebrations of individual and class success on Twitter. We also display ‘Artwork and Photography of the Month’, and will be establishing a ‘Musician of the Month’ very soon!

Christmas Concert 2021

Click here to watch our 'Virtual Christmas 2021'

Staff

Music / Music Technology:

Mrs L Cook – Faculty Head of Creative Arts

Mrs K Clark

Mr C Hill

Mrs E Lamont

Mrs K Lowrie

Art & Design & Photography :

Mrs K Reid

Miss L Cadden

Mrs B Mitchem

Mrs D Donaghy

Miss S Murray

Visiting Music Instructors:

Mr O Costar – Cello – Tuesday

Mr S Rankin – Woodwind – Tuesday

Mr J Walsingham – Piano – Wednesday

Mr J Boax – Brass – Friday

Mr R Watson – Upper Strings – Friday

Mr F Bolam – Guitar – Friday

The Creative Arts Faculty teaches the following subjects:

Art & Design

Course Overview

The following links give an overview of the courses and contents offered in Art & Design:

Department Overview

BGE Art & Design Creative Journey

Pupils will learn all about the visual elements and will complete work by exploring a range of different mediums and materials including watercolour paints, acrylic paint, pencils, felt tip pens, oil pastels, clay and printing. The units covered in S1 Art & Design are:

Unit 1:Visual Elements introduction

Unit 2: Portraiture - Identity Project & Creating a self-portrait

Unit 3: Still Life - Basic shapes and composition understanding

Unit 4: Design - Clay Chang Fish

All 4 units will covered at various points throughout the year to accommodate all classes and the sharing of rooms and resources.

Unit 1: Expressive - Landscapes - David Hockney

Unit 2: Expressive Still life - Vanitas Life and death

Unit 3: Graphics/Printing - Packaging, shop fronts, posters (teachers choice)

Unit 4: Design - Clay cupcakes in the style of Wayne Thiebaud

All 4 units will covered at various points throughout the year to accommodate all classes and the sharing of rooms and resources.

Pupils will continue to learn about the visual elements and will complete work by exploring a range of different mediums and materials including watercolour paints, acrylic paint, pencils, felt tip pens, oil pastels, clay and printing. S3 units provide more personalisation and choice and pupils will be encouraged to choose their own inspiration. They must complete work from the following categories:

Design – Graphics/Product Design

Design – Textiles/Body Adornment

Expressive – Portraiture

Expressive – Still Life

S3 Photography:

Pupils will work through a series of photography ‘shoots’. These shoots will allow young people to develop the key photography skills and techniques that they have learned thus far, such as “Rule of Thirds”, “Viewpoint”, “Exposure”, “Leading Lines” and “Composition”. Young people will learn about professional photographers, using their images to inspire high quality photoshoots.

Photoshoots will be stored in a shared folder. Pupils will use these photographs to complete their ‘Record of Work’ document which is on google classroom. Literacy skills are key in photography. Using creative writing skills learned in English, pupils will write about their photographs in evaluations of their shoots.

N3/N4/N5/H/AdvH

Art & Design:

All pupils from National 3,4,5 and Higher Art & Design will complete 1 expressive and 1 design unit. Pupils choose their own expressive theme and their own design outcome, allowing them to be more creative in how they approach their artwork.

They can choose from:

Expressive – Portraiture OR Still Life

Design – Graphics (poster/book cover design) OR Textiles/Body Adornment/Costumes

In Advanced Higher pupils will only focus on one area – either expressive or design. Their final project will showcase either still life or a graphic design advertising campaign.

Pupils must also complete written tasks; each pupil will be given a critical booklet at the correct level.

Photography:

The aim of the NPA course, offered in S4, is to develop an understanding of photography in everyday use.

This involves working through some of the creative processes involved in photography and creative media. Students will acquire a basic knowledge and understanding of practical skills when working with photographs, and learn how to create images in two main categories – ‘People’ and ‘Places’. Students will also develop critical thinking skills and seek peer and tutor feedback. Pupils will use their literacy skills to evaluate the work of professional photographers, and their own work.

S4 students will get 4 periods a week to plan, shoot and evaluate their work in outdoor and indoor locations, as well as learning post-production techniques using Adobe Photoshop. There is no exam for this course.

The Higher Photography course, is designed to inspire and challenge students. Candidates are required to represent their personal thoughts visually through the medium of photography in a personal project, which is worth 100 marks and assessed by SQA. The project uses an integrated approach to learning, students plan, develop and produce imaginative photographs.

They also must develop their skills in photographic analysis and techniques for a written exam worth 30 marks. All pupils’ projects are kept on their own Google Drives online so pupils can access the course work from home.

Students use creative and technical problem-solving skills, and are required to reflect critically on their own work and that of others. The learning experiences in the course are flexible and adaptable, with opportunities for personalisation and choice.

Supported Study

Art & Design:

After school supported study will run Wednesday and Thursday 3pm to 4pm.

Senior pupils are always welcome to complete their art work in the department at lunch.

Photography:

After school supported study will run Wednesday 3pm to 4pm.

Senior pupils are always welcome to complete their projects in the department at lunch.

Extra-Curricular Opportunities

Screen-Shot-2021-09-24-at-18.15.57web.jpg There are specific extra-curricular activities offered in Art and Design on Tuesday 4pm to 5pm.

Art & Design/Photography:

The Art department has worked with Ayrshire College and their textile department on ‘Fashion Burst’. We are linked with Art UK and have had practicing artists such as Shona Kinloch working with pupils. We are also linked to Widening Participation with GSA.

DYW

The faculty are looking forward to working with Miss McNeil (PT DYW) to develop career education and embed this in our courses.

My World of Work:

https://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/my-career-options/subjects?group=job_profile&subjects=1936

https://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/my-career-options/subjects?group=job_profile&subjects=5086

The Creative Arts Department teaches Art & Design to Advanced Higher level. We also teach Higher Photography.