The Christmas Journey!

On Friday 23rd October a selection of Art and Design, Gifted and Talented students worked together to create a backdrop and a series of puppets for The Christmas Journey being presented at St Mary’s Church, Bromley. The students were selected by the ability that they had previously shown in Art and Design lessons and clubs. Their work will be displayed in the church to inspire younger students to get creative over the festive season. Also on display is the banner created by our Art and Designs student which was produced last year for St Mary’s Bibleathon.
Miss Scruton, Teacher of Art

“I thought the day was a great success. It was really good to get the opportunity to work with all the other year groups and make the puppets. It was really fun because this was a very different activity from the usual lessons in the day. I think this was a great success and I would like to be part of something like this again”

Sam Slattery Year 10

“In my opinion the day was very successful. It was good to have the opportunity to be part of this day as in the end we made some fantastic puppets. It was good to see everyone in the groups using teamwork to create the puppets and background. We had to co-operate with each other and take on different roles to make the objects. I was proud to be part of it and hope that St Mary’s Church will enjoy them”

Aidan Spinks Year 10

Film Festival

It’s been Film Festival season recently and in between teaching I’ve been busy cramming in films at the London Film Festival and even travelled to Romania to a documentary film festival during half term. Yes, teachers have fun too!
The London Film Festival runs every year in October and is open to the public; from the star studded opening and closing night galas with red carpet and stars a plenty, to little known films from around the world. Every year I try to see a variety of films from around the world, this year was particularly fantastic!
During the half term I travelled to a town called Sibiu in Romania (Transylvania to be exact!), to attend the Astra Documentary Film Festival. The festival featured documentaries made by filmmakers and anthropologists with an emphasis on people and their cultures. The festival had a fantastic buzz around it and many filmmakers were on-hand to answer questions from the audience and meet with them in the cafe afterwards.
As a film teacher and film enthusiast I enjoy attending these festivals and watching a variety of films, I would recommend it to everyone!

Our Artists Get Inspired!

2009 saw the inaugural 'Get Inspired' event. Post-16 students were off timetable to attend a range of workshops and presentations by professional practitioners from Creative Industries.

'We had numerous artists and designers come into our school and talk to us about: their work, who they were inspired by, how to get into their field and give us some ideas about where we can develop our own work. I attended sessions with Sarah Lippett and Duncan Barrett from the illustration company 'Crayon Legs' and also Mark Lippett's presentation on his photography and sketches. The first session I attended was Gary Parsons who is a freelance illustrator who has work in newspapers, magazines and children's books. Personally, I really enjoyed hearing about where their ideas came from as it helped inspire me with some of my own. I enjoyed talking to different artists about their range of work and the different processes they go through in order to create an outcome. It was interesting learning about different techniques and to talk to designers who have created professional pieces of work that have been used commercially by the Media'.

Stuart Dyson, Year 13

SUMMER SHOW 2009

The 2009 Summer Show Private View was held on a warm and sunny June evening and was a well attended event. Our talented artists, their friends, families, teachers and governors all turned out to appreciate the work on show and the exhibition rooms were buzzing with enthusiastic commentary.

This summer was the first time that the MediaArts Faculty had exhibited work with Design Technology. This collaboration proved to be a huge success, not only in terms of the range of disciplines on show: Fine Art, Photography, Printmaking, Ceramics, Film, Textiles, Fashion, Resistant Materials and Graphics, but also presented a number of cross-curricular project outcomes such as the show-stopping ‘Ravensbourne’s Next Top Model’.

The event was filmed by our Year 12 Media Production students for our video magazine, ‘The River’ and the comments made by the attendees who were interviewed were highly complementary. Well done to everyone involved!

Ms Ashman

BTEC Students Make a Mess for Huggies!

As part of our commitment to Work Related Learning, a collaborative project was organised between the events styling company, 'Creative Styling' and our Year 12 BTEC National Diploma students. The project culminated in a publicity event at an Oxford Street venue which coincided with the launch of a new line of Huggies baby wipes. Mothers from across the capital were invited to enjoy a day of messy activities. Our students were given a brief to design a range of Huggies-branded products and artwork used to furnish the event. The styling company were very pleased with the results and commended the students on their hard work, professionalism and the high standard of their outcomes.

Ms Ashman

Primary School Teacher’s INSET take off in The MediaArts Faculty

This Summer sees the launch of our MediaArts INSET courses for Primary school teacher’s from The Ravensbourne School’s feeder schools. Ms Ashman has set up a variety of Art and Media skills-based activities to ensure that primary staff have the opportunity to develop their ability to teach more creative activities to students in Year 6 and below. The Faculty is keen to build relationships with these Primary schools so that the student’s who will attend The Ravensbourne School in the future will have a more valuable transition period.

The first session to kick off this initiative was a Ceramics Workshop lead by Miss Scruton. This was well attended and the staff involved were taught a range of ceramic techniques including tile-making and coil pot construction. To assist the primary teacher’s delivery of clay workshops to their students, an information pack, including a glossary which aims to increase student’s artistic vocabulary and literacy skills, was provided.

This program of INSET will be delivered throughout the Summer and Autumn Terms by a range of Art and Media subject specialist staff.

Royal Academy success for Zabby Allen

The MediaArts Faculty would like to congratulate Zabby Allen on being shortlisted and exhibited at the on-line Royal Academy A-Level exhibition.

Over 1,000 submissions from schools and colleges across the country were entered. Those exhibited were chosen by three curators including Turner Prize winner, Gillian Wearing. The curators were very impressed by the calibre and range of work submitted. This is a highly competitive competition and we are very proud to have Zabby’s outstanding work to represent the Faculty at this level.

Zabby is graduating from TRS this summer to go onto study Art at Camberwell. We know she will be very successful in the future.