Creative Arts
The Bede's Art School has a national reputation as a centre of excellence.
View some of our pupils' work here:
Bede's Creative Arts Online Exhibition
The Art Department is a school within a school and boasts a variety of facilities including Fine Art Studios, a Mac Graphics suite, a Victorian Printing Press, Life drawing classes, two Ceramics studios and two Darkrooms.
We believe art, when done well, is one of the most challenging and rewarding disciplines and also offers opportunities for progression into arts-related careers.
A third of all our pupils go on to study art-related subjects at degree level – including Fine Art, Graphic Design, Architecture, Photography, Animation, Product Design, Fashion, Photography and Foundation courses – at some of the top art universities including Central Saint Martins, UCL, Goldsmiths, Leeds and Falmouth.
Year 9 pupils experience four exciting courses – Fine Art, Ceramics, Photography and Graphics. This gives the pupils a true sense of the subjects they can study at GCSE, A Level and beyond. Pupils are inspired by one another: First Years see the work of the GCSE pupils; GCSE pupils are inspired by our A Level pupils and Bede’s alumni often return to give talks to current pupils about their success in the creative industries. At GCSE, pupils can choose between three separate courses including Art, Photography and Ceramics. In addition to learning a variety of skills and contextual knowledge, we place emphasis on each pupil creating individual work and developing their own creative ideas.
Each year approximately 200 pupils take these subjects and Bede's pupils have consistently achieved the highest grades and produced top quality work, often going way beyond GCSE level. Last year at GCSE 94% of candidates achieved an A*-A and over the past 10 years Bede's pupils have been consistently successful with 98% achieving A*-B.
Throughout the department, pupils work in a variety of media and seamlessly blend traditional skills, experimentation and digital manipulation.
In a world dominated by the visual, the ability to understand and create engaging images is a skill that can lead to exciting careers in a variety of areas, while also allowing our pupils to appreciate the world in new ways.