Peter Richards teacher
This is aimed at Heads of both Primary and Secondary schools and their Heads of Art and Teachers with Special Responsibility for Art.
Secondary Art Departments with more than one art trained member may be able to cover most of the areas they want to have available to their pupils but there may be gaps in their specialisms. Many may wish to add Ceramics to add a 3-D element but if they have no kiln this may not be financially viable. It may be Print-making, but without a press or the special and space consuming room this too may seem out of reach. In this case there are ways around the problems that may seem to rule out this valuable area of work. I could visit your school, spend some time with Teachers and or Pupils and show you some methods of print-making which I have developed over the years in departments I have run. Contact me for more information on Print-making, Drawing, Painting, Ceramics and other areas where you feel you need help.
The need for expert advice for Teachers in Primary Schools in Art will be admitted by even the most dedicated Teacher who has a dozen other subject areas calling for attention. Every Head is demanding better marks from all the children in most areas of the curriculum, so the things the pupils love like Drama, Music, Art and P.E. may get marginalised. I could visit your school, take an hour during Assembly and demonstrate painting to the whole school and staff. The rest of the day could be spent in several classes working with children and staff on whatever art projects or creative needs they want. My time as an Art Advisor and as a Governor to two Primary Schools gave me an insight into what really works for Primary Staff. Contact me for more discussion to agree a programme for your school.
Report after Primary School visit by Peter Richards.
''Peter Richards offered to do a session with the whole school, 250 primary pupils and all the staff and their TAs. He told us he would need about an hour. We were sceptical that the hard floor of the hall and their limited concentration span would result in chaos after half that time, but we agreed.
Peter had asked for the biggest sheet of pin-board we could find to be painted white, he supplied all the rest. He began with the sky, using a huge decorator's brush and within seconds the blue had covered the top two thirds of the six foot wide board leaving white patches for the clouds. He talked as he worked, explaining how the light fell on the clouds as he added pink and grey shadow to their undersides. Minutes later the pale distant hills with their shadows appeared and the lake, with reflections, then trees, the foreground - grassy fields appeared. The children were entranced. He explained how the structure of the trees could be done, how the leaves could be added, their volume became solid as light and shadow were added. He kept the explanations understandable by all, and questions from the children answered with care and humour, details added to the landscape as the children requested them. What was missing? The birds and animals. Peter told the children it was their job to add these. He produced a large, flying bird cut-out and stuck it in the sky.
Suddenly an hour was gone. The pupils were delighted to know that Peter would spend the rest of the day working with them on their landscape paintings and suggested that the missing element to his painting was the birds and animals - which he suggested they could do on paper, cut them out and glue them onto his painting later. The children all left the hall for their classrooms buzzing happily, the staff gathered round the landscape with their camera-phones out. What a treat for ALL who saw his performance !!!'“
Teacher in charge of Art.