2025 – 2026 Highlights: Junior School Art & DT

It has been another vibrant and imaginative year in the Junior School’s Art and Design Technology department, where pupils have embraced new challenges, explored diverse artistic influences and developed an impressive range of creative and technical skills. From the first week of term, the classroom has been alive with colour, invention and enthusiasm.

Throughout the year, pupils have continued to study the work of influential artists from across history. In Art, the girls immersed themselves in the mesmerising dots of Yayoi Kusama, the kaleidoscopic mosaics of Antoni Gaudí and the joyful shapes and colours of Henri Matisse. These artists sparked lively discussion and inspired pupils to create their own interpretations using paint, collage, printmaking and digital media. Each project encouraged the children not only to understand artistic styles but to develop confidence in expressing their own ideas.

A new highlight this year was a Year 2 printmaking project inspired by the Finnish design brand Marimekko. Pupils explored the company’s iconic florals and geometric patterns before designing their own repeating motifs. Using foam sheets, they created personalised printing plates, applied ink with rollers, and produced prints that echoed Marimekko’s playful yet sophisticated aesthetic. The project introduced pupils to the principles of pattern and composition while giving them the joy of seeing their designs come to life through the printing process.

In Design Technology, innovation and problem-solving were at the heart of every lesson. Year 5 pupils combined engineering with aesthetics as they designed and built their own programmable night lights, using coding software to create personalised colour sequences. Year 3 pupils explored forces and motion through the construction of their own Marble Runs, discovering the importance of precision, testing and analysis.

Sewing skills were developed across several year groups through a series of creative textile projects. Year 2 pupils designed and stitched travel-themed felt souvenirs, learning simple joining techniques and decorative details. Year 4 created sleep masks, beginning with paper prototypes before sewing their final fabric versions, giving them valuable experience in planning and refining a design. Year 6 pupils visited the Little Hands Design studio, where they used sewing machines – many for the first time – to transform old school uniform into charming plush toys, an exciting and confidence-boosting introduction to machine sewing.

Cross-curricular creativity flourished during the Year 5 visit to the Senior School’s Ceramics Department, where pupils created beautiful 3D feather-themed tiles. The feather motif linked directly to their English work on Skellig, a novel rich with imagery of owls and flight. Pupils sculpted raised feather forms onto their tiles before glazing them in carefully chosen colours, resulting in striking ceramic pieces that blended literature and art in a meaningful and memorable way.

Food Technology offered a delicious variety of hands-on learning across the year groups. Pupils created fruity cheesecakes, baked scones, assembled colourful Hawaiian poke bowls, prepared vegetable couscous salads and made refreshing fruit jellies, developing essential kitchen skills while exploring flavour, nutrition and presentation.

We were thrilled to celebrate the achievements of our artists in this year’s Young Art competition. Five pupils from the Junior School had their work selected by a panel of judges to be exhibited at the prestigious Christie’s Auction House in Central London. We are equally proud of all 80 pupils who submitted artwork to the competition this year.

From Aztec masks to wire sculptures, from cheesecakes to moving fairground rides, this year has been a rich tapestry of creativity and discovery. We are immensely proud of every pupil’s achievements and look forward to another year filled with imagination, innovation and artistic adventure.