At LEH we provide a high-quality art and design education which engages, inspires, and challenges students, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft, and design. The visual arts foster self-expression and creativity as well as confidence and a sense of personal identity.
Important to our ethos is the study, celebration and merging of Chinese and International art, of traditional and contemporary visual arts practice and the provision of a diverse, broad, rich curriculum.
Art Facilities at LEH Foshan
We have an impressive range of five fine art specialist studio classrooms, and a large gallery space. There are two large, well-resourced painting, drawing and textile rooms, a ceramics studio and a print room. In addition, we have a dedicated Arts and Crafts room in our Prep school.
Our state-of-the-art kiln fires earthenware, stoneware and porcelain and our large print press facilitates intaglio and relief print processes. Our textile equipment includes sewing machines and a heat press.
In addition to our specialist equipment, we have an impressive range of materials and tools, which enables us to deliver a rich and broad curriculum.
Head of Art, Ms Hayward supports a Year 11 student in the dry point etching technique using our wonderful print press and Y8 students show their Day of the Dead Ceramic skulls fired in out state-of-the-art kiln from Germany.
Art Curriculum at LEH Foshan
- Year 4-6 (Key Stage 2)
- Prep School
At key stage 2, LEH students are taught how to develop artistic techniques, including their control and use of materials, with creativity, experimentation, and an increasing awareness of the different disciplines of art, craft, and design.
Year 6 students makes coral sculptures from clay. They learn how to make textures, model and attach clay and glaze their sculptures
Students explore, experiment, and investigate two-dimensional and three-dimensional media. Their skills, knowledge and understanding are developed through diverse contexts, which relate to their studies in their other subjects. For example, this in two of their art projects, Year 6 explored the theme of ‘Save the Pollinators’, and ‘Under the Sea’. Both projects created awareness of the impact of climate change and pollution on our environment and ecosystem and linked to their studies in Science, Geography and History. They researched artists, visited the Nanfeng Kiln and Shiwan Ceramics Museum, whilst learned techniques and skills in drawing, painting and ceramics. They are becoming increasingly aware of the broad diversity across the visual arts.
Year 6 students, show their wonderful drawings whilst on a field trip to the Nanfeng and Shiwan Ceramics Museum.
Students also evaluate and analyse artists and their own work. They develop their skills and knowledge of key art terms and the English language, both written and spoken.
- Year 7-9 (Key Stage 3)
At key stage 3, LEH students are taught to develop their creativity and ideas and increase their proficiency in their execution. They develop a critical understanding of artists and designers, expressing reasoned judgments that inform their own work.
Each year group works within an overarching art genre or theme that is divided into varied projects that allow students to use a range of techniques and media.
In Year 7, they focus on Natural and Man- Made Forms, In Year 8, World Culture, and in Year 9- Portraiture and Identity. Each year group experiences a two and a three-dimensional project.
In painting and drawing students learn how to use wet and dry media such as: watercolour and acrylic paint, ink, charcoal and chalk, graphite pencils, and pastels. They gain skills in colour mixing, tints, shades and temperature and how colour can affect pictorial space, and the communication of emotions. In drawing they learn to draw from observation, memory and their imagination and improve on their ability to control and apply, line, shape, texture, tone, pattern, and space.
Year 9 students create ceramic self-portraits as part of their portraiture project
In the ceramic’s studio, students produce sculptural and functional outcomes using clay techniques such as coil, slab, pinch, creating textures, modelling and glazing. In Sculpture they learn construction techniques using, card, paper, wire, glue-guns, binding and structural armatures in papier-mache and found/ recycled materials.
Year 7 students create animal shoe sculptures from old shoes using contruction and paper mache techniques, whilst developing their imagination.
In our print room, students learn how to make mono and relief prints, experimenting with printing onto different papers and fabric. Whilst In Textiles students explore hand embroidery, design, batik and Shibori dye techniques.
Key Stage 3 students learn monoprint and relief print techniques and experiment with combining drawing and hand embroidery.
- Year 10-11 (Key Stage 4)
- IGCSE Art and Design
Year 10 students experiment with painting and drawing techniques to communicate emotions in portraiture.
IGCSE Art and Design provides an excellent opportunity for students to develop their creative potential and become independent learners and critical, reflective thinkers. Through the exploration and making of images and artefacts they develop their creative imagination.
The course supports the acquisition and development of technical skills through a broad range of materials and techniques, building on what they have already learnt and by learning more advanced skills such as oil paint on canvas, dry point etching and reduction lino techniques.
IGCSE students learn dry point etching, reduction lino, monoprint and mixed media print techniques in our dedicated Print Room.
Artists’ research and observational work forms the starting point for students to experiment and take risks in their artwork. It also supports the development of their ideas. Students are encouraged to mix media and work on a larger scale.
The IGCSE examination is divided into two components. The coursework project goes towards 50% of their overall grade and is completed over 7 months, which allows students to successfully achieve all the assessment criteria and produce a refined final outcome. The exam component is also 50% of the overall grade, students have an 8-week period to complete the preparatory work after which they sit an 8-hour exam over 2 days.
We are very happy that all of our IGCSE Art students are returning to study A Level Art with us in the new academic year and have ambitions of being an architect, interior designer and illustrator.
Examples of Jasmine’s IGCSE Coursework final-outcome, ‘A Moment in Time’ and her Final Exam piece, ‘Boxed-In’.
- Year 12-13 (Key Stage 5)
- A Level Art and Design
We deliver the AS and A Level in Art and Design (fine art pathway), where students specialise in or cross over painting, drawing, mixed-media sculpture, ceramics, installation, printmaking and fine art textiles. At A Level students experience a greater depth of study. This is achieved by greater specialisation in a particular medium or process, extended development of particular themes, ideas or issues and further theoretical research and increased requirement to demonstrate understanding through integrated practical and written forms.
The course and exam work produced during the A level course is used towards creating a portfolio, which is needed as part of the application to universities if studying the arts or architecture. Students are fully supported in in their applications to universities including producing their digital art portfolios.
Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs)
ECA’s are divided into upper- and lower-year groups and vary each year. This year the ‘Painting, Textile and Print Techniques’ and ‘Art for All’ have proved very popular. Students have been learning how to print onto fabric using the heat press and transfer dyes, digital sublimation printing, batik techniques and relief printing.
Additionally, studio access is available after school for IGCSE and A Level -students to develop their coursework, and workshops are delivered to support exam work.
In the Textiles and Print ECAs, students use lots of techniques including: fabric paintings, created by using transfer dyes on the heat press, batik, lino relief prints, photo transfer and hand embroidery.
Art Field Trips
Visits to local museums and galleries are an essential part of the research process and we believe it vital that students experience art works and artefacts first-hand. This year all year groups visited the Nanfeng Kiln and Shiwan Ceramics Museum, which informed the development and creation of many wonderful ceramic sculptures at school and supported their learning of ceramic Shiwanware from ancient times to present day.
Next academic year students will visit the Guangdong Museum and The Hem Museum. This will broaden students’ knowledge and understanding of historical and contemporary Chinese and International art and feed into their school-based projects.
Key stage 3 and 4 students enjoy using the pottery wheel and drawing during their visit to the Nanfeng and Shiwan Ceramics Museum field trip.
Meet the Teacher
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Ms Helen Hayward Head of Art
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Ms Helen Hayward joins LEH Foshan as the Head of Art. She graduated from Chelsea School of Art with a Fine Art 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 art in schools and colleges for nearly 20 years. Previously to her teaching career she worked as a qualified Art Therapist for the National Health Service (NHS) in London.
Ms Hayward is a practicing fine artist who has received awards for her work and has exhibited in the United Kingdom including The Royal Academy of Art in London and internationally at the Sydney Contemporary Open, Australia and at The Museum of Macau, China. She practices printmaking, painting, ceramics, sculpture and installation.
Awards
2019
Contemporary British Painting Prize (final 12 shortlist)
2018
The Mike Brennan Memorial Prize
2016
The Gwen May RE Award
The Bainbridge Studio Award
The John Purcell Paper Prize
Hot Questions
- What do you love about your job at LEH Foshan?
I love the art department at LEH and the students’ enthusiasm. It has been an amazing opportunity for me to come to China and set up an innovative new visual arts centre at LEH. We have such fantastic facilities and resources where I can offer students an exciting range of art specialisms, which I love to teach. It is great that we are still growing and there is so much to look forward to.
- What inspired you to learn art when you were in school?
Art offered me a space where I could freely express myself and it still does to this day. I have always loved painting and drawing and making things. My Mum likes to tell me the story of how when I was 5 years of age, I went round to all our neighbours and sold all my paintings!
My Mum was my inspiration, she loved to draw, and I used to watch her, she taught me about shape, texture, form and shading, how to use pastels and colour and introduced me to famous artworks.
- What do you enjoy most about art?
What I love about the visual arts is that you can never get bored, it is so stimulating, so diverse. There are so many different materials, techniques, and processes, so much to see, so many different styles, cultural and individual approaches, and meanings. The possibilities are endless. This is reflected in the diversity of the Art curriculum at LEH and in my own use of varied media.
It has been wonderful for me discovering the rich visual history of China and I love to visit the incredible museums and galleries in Guangdong. I take inspiration from my visits and bring them into my teaching at LEH.
I love teaching Art; I have been very fortunate to have spent my whole life working with people in an art capacity.
I also really enjoy collaborating with other artists and had the opportunity to do this in three different two-person shows in the UK. The installation part of a show is a very exciting time as this is when the art comes alive, almost like a theatrical performance. Working with others means you can share ideas and give and receive feedback so your work is richer and can move in a direction it would not have done otherwise.
- Do you have any advice for students who want to study Art at university and pursue art-related careers in the future?
Universities want to see what interests you, they want your personal voice to come through in your art. Keeping your own sketchbook and/or a visual diary is a great way to show this in addition to your school-based projects. A visual diary is like your own personal journal, you mainly draw images, but you can include text. You can draw, sketch, paint, collage or use any art material to document something you might have seen that day, communicate how you feel, tell a story about that day, draw your dreams, draw a portrait of a friend, family member or yourself. Try to do something every day, even if it takes 5 minutes or 2 hours.
Most students do not have a clear idea about what art career they might do, this is totally normal. You can discuss your options at school and choose subjects at IGCSE and A Level that are going to give you a career pathway, that means you study the right things for the career areas you are interested in.