Welcome to Creative Arts at Frederick Bremer School. Creative Arts is at the heart of Frederick Bremer’s ethos, providing an exciting curriculum and an extensive program of clubs, trips and workshops for pupils to engage with in and out of lesson time.
The subjects of Art, Drama and Music work collectively to provide an enriching and diverse learning experience for the pupils. Creative Arts encourages pupils to think creatively, independently, work as a team and develop transferable skills to support their progression into adulthood. We also strongly believe that Creative Arts supports student’s confidence and wellbeing.
Syllabus
The creative arts curriculum is wide and inclusive to ensure we provide a curriculum that is diverse to all cultures, ages, abilities and experiences. The Creative Arts curriculum has strong cross curricular links to a number of other topics and subjects which develops the whole child, our lessons have strong links to the past and current giving students a learning experience that explores universal themes as well as having contemporary relevance .
All Creative Arts subjects have a practical element to each lesson where pupils can creatively explore and reflect on theirs and others work.
How can you help your child?
Take your child/ward to see any live artistic events, from plays to musicals, gigs to concerts, street theatre to fringe shows, all live experiences contribute to their cultural capital and fuel a love of learning. You could also visit galleries and museums and encourage students to read a variety of plays, books and theatre reviews, this develops their literacy and widens their subject specific vocabulary.
Listening to the radio and music over different genres and time periods can develop your child’s creative curiosity. Watching, listening and then discussing their responses is key in helping students understand how to analyse and evaluate. Discussion also allows children to develop their role as an audience member. It is vital that Creative Arts students learn how to articulate their opinions. These small and enjoyable efforts can make a huge difference.
What careers can the Creative Arts lead to?
The fundamental skills learned through the Creative Arts can lead to exciting work in a number of fields such as; education, theatre (performance and production), marketing, acting, fashion, interiors, graphic design, digital media, advertising, computer science, architecture, publishing, film & TV, gaming, textile design, visual communications, illustrator, photography, animation, therapy to name but a few.
Creative Arts allows students to develop a number of transferable skills such as leadership, public speaking, oracy and team work, it also develops student’s self confidence, wellbeing and helps break down boundaries and unify our young people.
Enrichment
In Creative Arts we firmly believe that the learning which takes place outside of the classroom is of equal value to what happens in lessons. The skills we encompass in Creative Arts are developed through a wide array of opportunities which we offer to our children.
Production
Every year we put on a whole school production, this is typically a musical performance for example, Annie (2021) and Mary Poppins (2022). Students meet weekly to rehearse and prepare for the performance, learning their lines and songs ready for the final show which is usually in June.
The whole faculty take part in this – performers sing and act, artists build and make our set and the musicians provide the accompaniment. This year’s performance will be (drum roll!)…… School Of Rock!
MiSST
Frederick Bremer is delighted to be a MiSST school, which means we are part of the ‘Music In Secondary Schools Trust’. This is a prestigious trust of only 29 Schools across the country which seeks to transform the lives of young people through classical music education. Years 7 and 8 undertake the MiSST program which means that every single child learns an instrument, this could be flute or violin in addition to the 1:1 opportunities to learn another solo instrument. We take part in MiSST orchestra events and MiSST Voices which involves our young people performing in orchestras and choirs with students from across the country. In May last year our performers performed on stage with Andre Lloyd Webber who pioneers this program at the MiSST Music Academy in London, we also take the students to a MiSST residential every year.
Enrichment experiences – Creativity outside the classroom.
Within the Creative Arts Department we believe in exposing students to as many forms of Live Theatre, Music and Art as possible to build on their cultural capital. Living in London means that our students are fortunate enough to have access to a multitude of creative opportunities and experiences.
The Drama Department has relationships with theatres, universities and companies to allow for a wealth of opportunities for your young people. For example;
- Links with the Barbican Theatre, Old Vic, Rudolph Walker Foundation
- Advise workshops for Industry auditions and skills development.
- UEL workshops and visits to develop skills.
- Big Creative Theatre workshops to develop skills.
- Links with READ performing Arts college and visit
- Barbican Box Competition
Additionally we offer a number of theatre trips. For example, some of the inspiring performances which we have attended in recent years are Hamilton(2018,2022), The Lion King (2022,2023), Wicked(2018), Macbeth(2021), The Ocean at the End of The Lane (2023).
The Art Department has excellent partnerships with many community l organisations and offers a number of trips to enrich our students with new and varied experiences. Some partnerships offer one off opportunities and others are ongoing. These include:
- Links with Simmons & Simmons art collection and the opportunity for Y11 students to exhibit their work in the City of London
- Clay and conceptual thinking workshops run by Central St Martins UAL
- Portraiture workshops run by the National Portrait Gallery
- William Morris Gallery workshops and tours
- Diaspora Dialogue and We are the Leaders exhibitions
- Partnership with the Waltham Forest Twinning Association – workshops and exhibition opportunities
- Art competitions including with the Royal Academy YASS
- Exhibition in a Box – for the whole school to see rare 19th Century photographs portraying people of African, Caribbean and South Asian descent.
- Trips include Epping Forest, The William Morris Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, The Natural History Museum and Kew Gardens
- Mosaic workshops with local artists
- Street art workshops and tours with Wood Street Walls and street artists
Staff List
Ms McLoughlin– Head of Creative Arts
Ms Ross – Art Teacher
Ms Paine – Art Teacher
Ms Reader – Art Coordinator and technician
Ms Blackwin– Drama Teacher and Head of Year 8
Mr Trott – Music Teacher
Mr English – Music Teacher
Ms Hewitt– Drama teacher
Mr. Dolan-Jones – Lead Peripatetic Music Teacher
Exam Boards:
Art – AQA
Drama – Eduqas until 2024, Edexcel from September 2024
Music – OCR