Twenty Year 10 GCSE Art students seized the opportunity to study at first-hand the work of leading British artist Dame Phyllida Barlow – a key figure in their current lessons.
The boys, who have spent the term using her Bad Copies series as a starting point to develop their painting and drawing skills, headed straight to the rooms in Tate Modern’s Materials and Objects collection dedicated to her work.
Head of Art Craig Wheatley explained why her paintings and drawings are so influential: “Barlow’s drawings are often derived from her environment, but never drawn from life; they range from swift biro and pencil sketches in notebooks and diaries to more heavily worked acrylic drawings and oil paintings, which experiment with surface textures as well as colours, forms and arrangements.”
The boys also enjoyed finding out about aspects of her oeuvre that were less familiar to them: “After responding to Barlow’s paintings and drawings, the natural progression was to explore and respond to her three-dimensional work.”
During the visit, the boys took time to analyse and record their observations in the form of written annotation and observational drawing. Guided by teaching staff, they were challenged to contemplate the meaning of the works on display and the artist’s intention, giving both objective analysis and subjective opinion.
There was also time for them to explore the gallery space independently, so that they could make comparisons between different genres.
“It was a productive day: starting at St Paul’s Cathedral, we walked across the Millennium Bridge photographing the ever-evolving landscape, before enjoying a great time at Tate Modern – the first visit for a majority of the boys,” said Mr Wheatley.
“They enjoyed the opportunity to see artwork first-hand and to be inspired. Having their appreciation and understanding challenged is significant in ensuring that pupils’ own work continues to develop and become more sophisticated.
“Furthermore, the visit developed their ability in out-of-classroom research and in generating independent ideas. Those are transferrable skills that the boys will be able to apply across their current and future curriculum.”
Born in 1944, Barlow taught for 40 years and in 2004 was appointed Professor of Fine Art and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Slade School of Art before retiring from teaching in 2009.
Her break as an artist came late: it was in 2010 when she was shown at the Serpentine Galleries. Solo exhibitions around the world followed, and in 2017 she represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale.
She has had an important influence on younger artists, including Rachel Whiteread and Angela de la Cruz, who were among her students at the Slade.
Zhuoer Chen, of Year 9, and Sarang Nair, of Year 7, were among just ten finalists nationwide.
The competition, which is part of Christ Church’s outreach work, was open to all UK state school pupils in Years 7–10. Entrants had to submit a video 2–5 minutes long on a geographical issue or phenomenon that was local to them.
The video compared average yearly temperatures at Greenwich weather station with those at Calgary and found they were 11.35C higher.
After being selected to represent the School in the event, the four emerged with a perfect score of 121 out of 121.
Hadi Al-Esia, Kovid Gothi, Saim Khan and Shreyaas Sandeep travelled to St Dominic’s Sixth Form College in Harrow on the Hill for the competition run by Advanced Mathematics Support Programme – a Government-funded national initiative.
Card Sort: Competitors had to reimagine every 3D shape (such as cubes) to try to unravel the shortest way to pass through or over them. “This was by far the most challenging round for the team to tackle as it involved a new dimension of geometry for them – a combination of Pythagoras and 3D visualisation,” Mr Shah added. “They finished the round with less than 20 seconds to spare.” The team’s favourite problem came from this round (see picture right): competitors were asked to calculate the distance from A to B if the net [what a 3D shape looks like if opened out flat] were open for the cone.Saim said: I particularly enjoyed the card sort round – trying to reimagine and visualise the shapes in a new way was challenging but immensely rewarding too!”
The three-day extravaganza marked the official opening of The Friends’ Recital Hall and Music Rooms by showcasing both the talents of the School’s young musicians and the new multi-million-pound facilities themselves.
“My congratulations go to our Director of Music, Ruth Partington, her Assistant Director, James McEvoy-Stevenson, Music teacher Caroline Grint and the small army of peripatetic teachers who have all helped the boys reach such high levels of performance.”
In addition to the Music facilities, the complex features a covered atrium for boys to use at lunchtimes and breaktimes which incorporates the new Mayes Atrium Café.
Day two saw the Junior Strings perform at break, with Junior Winds and Senior Winds both in action at lunchtime. The afternoon was taken up with masterclasses for the Pianoathon winners and for members of Junior Jazz and the Jazz Band led by pianist and improvisor extraordinaire, Harry the Piano.
On Friday, the 160-strong School Choir gave the breaktime performances, enjoying the experience of all being together – something that was not possible in the old Music department. Lunchtime appearances were by the Orchestra and Senior Strings. Afternoon masterclasses for élite musicians were given by award-winning international pianist Béla Hartmann.
The concert’s main line-up featured a piano duet and piano, viola, cello and saxophone solos by the boys, as well as a first-half appearance by pianist Tadashi Imai, resident accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music and a piano teacher at QE. There were also appearances by the Jazz Band, Chamber Choir, Junior Violin Trio and Year 13 Flute Trio, before Mr Hartmann brought the concert programme and the festival to a conclusion. The repertoire ranged from Beethoven Chopin, Mendelssohn and Ravel to lesser-known composers such as Jules Demersseman and Carl Bohm, with one soloist, Jao-Yong Tsai, of Year 12, playing a sonata that he had composed himself.
The six junior teams also won a slew of the top awards, following in the footsteps of the senior VRC teams who had similarly taken awards in their competition over the previous two days.
Four teams – two from Year 10, one from Year 12 and one with a mix of boys from the two year groups – competed in the senior VRC bracket at Telford International Center. HYBRID, Vortex Invicta, HEX Green and Hyperion pitted their wits against the very finest robotic talent in the UK. The VRC championships drew 58 teams from all over the UK to battle it out in the competition’s Brunel and Lovelace divisions.
“Hyperion reached the Brunel divisional finals, while an all-QE alliance of HEX Green and HYBRID made it to the Lovelace division semi-final, only to be cruelly denied a finals place by a loose battery connection. The day was not over for QE teams, however: when the medal winners were announced, Hyperion won the coveted Design Award (considered the second-most prestigious in the whole competition), HEX Green achieved double success, winning both the Skills and Think awards, and Vortex Invicta received a Judges Award. “Vortex Invicta’s first award of the season thus arrived at the highest level of competition they had so far faced!” Mr Noonan said.
The achievements began with Gearsquad posting an early National Record Skills score. After strong QE performances in the Qualification and Skills elements of the competition, all eyes turned to the finals. The alliances (15 pairs from the 30 teams taken part) faced off in reverse order, from lowest to highest ranked, and the ‘Chair of Champions’ was unveiled – a seat reserved for the (current) highest-ranked teams.
They also gained the following awards: