Staffing
The department consists of two full time and two part time members of staff who work with all year groups. The department does have technician support.
In addition to working at Southmoor, Mr J. C. Milne (Curriculum leader for Art) teaches further education students as a part of the Bede sixth form academy and Mr A. Ball is an Advanced skills teacher (AST) who works with junior schools and other Secondary schools within the Sunderland LEA promoting good practice and expertise.

Facilities
The department consists of specialist 3 art rooms – T11, T12 and T13 which are housed in the Design block. The department offers a wide range of 2D and 3D experiences with materials such as acrylic paint, canvas, canvas board, watercolour, ceramics, mod-roc, wire, coloured pencil, ink, charcoal, and lino cutting etc.
Each Art room is equipped PC’s with digital projectors and screens which are used regularly as a part of lessons and pupils do have access to the internet and CD-ROM’s within each classroom. In addition to this the department makes regular use of one of Sunderland’s City Learning Centres which is situated on the school site and the Sir Tom Cowie ICT suite within the school.

Key Stage 3 Curriculum
All pupils are taught in mixed ability groups for one hour per week in KS3. All work tackled in KS3 relates to the National Curriculum, our own departmental philosophy, the school aims and the LEA curriculum policy statement.
The year 7 course is seen as a foundation, a link between primary school work and an opportunity for us to make a lasting first impression. The year 7 Course introduces the staff, specialist rooms, and common methods of working, homework and assessment practices to the pupils. All pupils receive a sketch book which is used as a research/resource journal which is fundamental to the projects they experience over the 3 years in KS3. Pupils are responsible for the organisation and development of this book, which should reinforce the majority, if not all of the projects the pupils experience in KS3. It may contain a variety of teacher handouts, worksheets, references to artists/other cultures, own ideas, planning, sketches or mock-ups for projects, experimental pieces and notation.

The pupils will experience a wide range of themes, starting points, skills, materials and methods of working. We have themes such as Natural forms, other cultures and civilizations, man-made world, perspective and depth etc. Each project introduces different techniques and media.
Art homework is set regularly throughout years 7, 8 and 9 which will include drawing and research tasks which will be relevant to the work undertaken in the lesson. Pupils will be able to access a lot of information about Art homework and projects via the VLE over the next year.

Key Stage 4 Curriculum
Pupils who wish to continue Art and Design must choose it as part of the KS4 pathways process which all pupils undertake in year 9.
All pupils who proceed with Art and Design in years 10 and 11 follow a GCSE unendorsed course. All teachers deliver a general Art course over the two years with some bias towards their specialist area.
Pupils work from a wide range of interesting and challenging design/project briefs and they must be able to develop individual personal responses to these. Students must keep a research journal which shows how their artwork has developed throughout a project. It will hold evidence of references to artists, designers and other cultures along with personal notation, drawings, plans and any other relevant preparation work they have used during the projects.
Projects will vary across the department, but we all encourage an individual response to the work, the use of back-up/research books and high quality homework which is set regularly and consists of different drawing and research tasks.
All pupils will have the opportunity to exhibit their own GCSE coursework in an exhibition held at Southmoor School during May annually.

Extra-Curricular Activities
The Art department is open most lunch times and after school at 3.15pm. All members of staff give opportunities for pupils to catch up on projects they are currently working on in class or pupils may come for extra help and advice on homework. Some pupils may use this time to develop their own, personal ideas.
Pupils who do not have the facilities or time to produce art homework or research at home can use the art clubs. The clubs are very popular with Year 10 and 11 pupils who are completing coursework assignments, especially as the GCSE final exhibition approaches.

Artist in Residence
We aim to have an artist working with a group of pupils outside of lessons when funding is available. We are running our fifth artist’s project within 4 years.

Examples of work produced:
• 12 KS4 pupils produced individual pieces of artwork to be permanently displayed within the City Learning Centre.
• KS3 and KS4 pupils worked on large-scale figures to be situated in the small quad at Southmoor.
• KS3 pupils worked on 2 large-scale heads for the school foyer.
• A recent project involved 15 KS4 pupils working on the theme of the ‘locality’ and surrounding environment.
• We aim to have the next artist working with pupils to create artwork for the new dining facility at Southmoor.

Annual London Galleries Visit
The Art department organises a very successful annual voluntary visit to the London Tate Modern Gallery and either the National Gallery or Tate Britain. This is for students in Year 11 who take GCSE Art and Design. Art staff, other school staff and non- teaching adults are invited to attend and support the visit. Non teaching staff has included artists and an Art College lecturer.

GCSE Annual Art Exhibition
A GCSE art exhibition takes place during May each year in the Art department rooms and corridor. All of the students work is exhibited on walls, screens and tables. Art staff and pupils invest a lot of time in and out of school hours in the organisation and presentation of the artwork.
The evening is recorded in the school calendar of events. Parents, staff and special guests are invited. It has always been a well attended event and has been highly praised by a wide variety of parents and visitors over the past 15 years.