Our lively studio is the perfect creative environment for St Mary’s artists to refine their ideas and use a range of media to create artworks that are intelligent and considered. We encourage good practice, responsibility, independent learning, imaginative ideas and a personal response to set topics and themes.
Students cover work with formal elements, such as colour, tone, composition, design, proportion, perspective, form and media. An historical and contextual element is also introduced through the work of different genres and we look at how different artists have worked in a whole variety of media.
Music is very important to life at St Mary’s. Girls in Years 7 to 9 have specialist class lessons and Music is a popular choice for GCSE, with an excellent success rate (the vast majority of students achieve top grades).
We aim to stimulate an appreciation and enjoyment of music through an active and practical involvement in the main musical activities of listening, performing, composing and appraising. We encourage involvement in various forms of music making, both as an individual and as a member of a group, helping to develop a sense of shared experience. Topics include Working with Chords, Studying a Baroque Concerto and Music for Dance.
St Mary’s has a strong tradition of performing arts and drama, with a superb whole-school production every two years. As well as fostering a love of the performing arts, students’ confidence is developed through drama lessons and productions.
Students start by studying the basic skills in Drama that will equip them for further study at GCSE, or give them the confidence they need to go out into the world and deal with the people and situations they will meet. The course is practical and evaluative, providing girls with a mature understanding of what makes great performance.
In Textiles, practical skills are taught from the beginning of Year 7 and all girls develop a level of basic competency on the sewing machine during their first year at St Mary’s.
Students go on to learn to use a commercial sewing pattern and explore a wide variety of decorative techniques from crazy patchwork and tie dye to machine and hand embroidery, quilting and beadwork.
In Food and Nutrition lessons, students in Years 8 and 9 gain an understanding of nutrition, diet, healthy lifestyle choices and the technology of food and its production, through theoretical and practical lessons.
To see some of the amazing work produced and photos of the productions put on by students, come along to an Open Day or book a private tour. We would love to show you the fantastic talents exhibited by the girls at St Mary’s Senior School.