Imagine the feel of slippery clay on your hands as you try to keep the ‘lump’ – your potential artwork -under control as it spins around quickly. The tension is high as your mates look on to see if you can handle the slippery mess at you finger tips. Will you gain control and watch a pot grow beneath your hands or will it wobble off-centre and collapse? Well that’s exactly what the Year 6 and 8 boys have been experiencing in their art classes this term – initially a lot of collapses!

At the Arts Festival last year, specific fundraising was initiated to allow the purchase of four pottery wheels for the art room. It’s now 10 years since the kiln was installed by former Head of Art, Mrs Robyn Spooner, and in the ensuing years, our boys have been given ample opportunity to work with clay, building by hand. Current Head of Art, Mr Tom Barton saw the opportunity to take this skill to the next level. He said, ‘Using a pottery wheel is truly an awesome experience and makes the boys appreciate how pottery is made.’

Each boy has had a chance to try the wheel to see if they could achieve the basics of shaping - or as potters say, ‘throwing a pot down.’ It is not an easy task and can bamboozle adults let alone children! At the first pass, most of the boys struggled, but even the failed result was enjoyable and a heap of fun, leaving the boys wanting another turn.  There was a definite determination to achieve the skill!

The purchase of the wheels gives the arts programme the flexibility to teach the boys throwing techniques as well as to use the wheels for other projects. The first full production project was the making of a functional teapot.

In this project, two bowls were made on the wheels using a mold to create the body for a teapot. These bowls were then joined together with slip and then added to with other bits of clay to make the spout, handle, lid and other details of their teapot. Whilst most boys chose to make an animal teapot, others got creative with abstract ideas and had some fantastic, decorative results. These were then fired and glazed in bright colors. Most teapots were made to function and can now brew and pour a cup of tea.

We were all excited by the outcome of this project and already have some great ideas in the pipeline for the use of the pottery wheels by our boys.    

Visual Arts at the Boys’ School
The Boys’ School is fortunate to have a light and airy, specialist art studio where the Visual Arts, balanced with an appreciation of Art History, is taught by a specialist art teacher. The programme is challenging and stimulating offering a wide range of media, including the use of technology, and the scope for many new techniques to be mastered.

As the specialist art programme at the Boy’s School divides the students into smaller groups, this allows our Head of Art to focus the students on producing artworks of an exceptionally high standard.

The studio is large enough to hold a large library of art books for reference and is well resourced with posters of major art works to help our boys understand the history and techniques of many different mediums.

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