CHALVEDON SECONDARY SCHOOL

CHALVEDON SECONDARY SCHOOL

At Chalvedon Secondary School I worked with 6th Form Students. I worked with them for two days, the first in the school and the second day in my Sculpture Studio in Laindon.

The first day was spent in the classroom showing my commercial work and talking about how design and sculpture has an important part to play in the every day world. I talked about production and running a business producing sculpture.

On the second day I invited the students down to my studio. The aim was to treat them like professional sculptors by taking them out of the school environment. I set them a challenge of creating a sculpture of a man and a woman that portrayed the stereotypical view of Basildon youth. The brief was to enjoy the construction using the materials provided. The work had to include humour and the ability to take the mickey out of Basildon youth. Their levels of concentration were very surprising and they threw themselves into the work with great gusto.

Before the end of the day they had to not only complete the work in the given time, but also to justify the work in a short critique and question and answer session. Their unflinching ability to laugh at themselves was to be commended.

The sculptures were fantastic and in all their enjoyment they said they actually learnt about timing, teamwork, materials and about themselves. Sometimes the sculpture is only the visual aspect of the work, but I feel the overall experience is the most important part of the artistic learning curve.

The newspapers were invited down to view the finished work, the school was proud of the 6th form students and the experience sparked some of the students into higher education studying art and design. The students and I thought the two days were well worth it.