Art

To enrich our art curriculum, all pupils are invited to attend a lunchtime art club during the year, where they can practise their skills and experiment with new techniques. We also offer an after-school art club, run by local artist Sally Wetherall, which pupils can choose to join. Each year, we celebrate Art Week — a dedicated time for pupils to explore art in greater depth and broaden their cultural horizons. During the week, we welcome local artists into school to work with the children and organise visits to nearby art galleries. The week concludes with our very own art exhibition, planned and curated by the pupils, where they proudly showcase their work to families.

Arts Week - 19th January 2026

Our Arts Enrichment Week created an excitable buzz across the whole school. With a strong focus on developing skills and techniques, pupils worked predominantly in their sketchbooks before progressing to create final mixed-media pieces. The week began by learning about and responding to well-known artists, helping us explore our theme: “Every Picture Tells a Story.”

Robin and Owl classes focused on the work and distinctive drawing style of Quentin Blake, while Woodpecker and Buzzard classes explored the storytelling illustrations of Norman Rockwell.

This extended week of art allowed pupils to develop their skills in much greater depth than our usual weekly lessons, and gave them the opportunity to experiment with new techniques and materials inspired by each artist’s work.

As part of the week, the whole school visited Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, where pupils took part in workshops linked to our theme. They spent time sketching sculptures, paintings, and exhibits from across the galleries, using these experiences to inform their own artwork.

The week concluded with our very own school exhibition in the hall, showcasing both the finished artwork and the creative journey pupils had taken throughout the week. Parents were invited in, and the children proudly acted as guides, explaining their inspiration and processes.

The feedback from both pupils and parents has been overwhelmingly positive. We look forward to doing it all again next year!

Robin and Owl class:

Woodpecker and Buzzard class:

Our trip to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery:

January 2026

During the Autumn term 2024, local artist Sally Wetherall ran a workshop with Owl, Woodpecker and Buzzard classes that focused on interacting with nature to trace and record our landscape.

This contributed towards Sally’s PhD in Ceramic and Print Practice, concluding in and Exhibition, Every Contact Leaves a Trace, at Bath Spa university.

During the workshop, the children focused on a recently felled Ash tree in the field alongside our school. They spend the day exploring the trees textures and colours and created pigment from found material such as rotten bark, or earth, grass and leaves. They then began to move further afield, finding charred sticks to draw with, squashing nettles and beech leaves onto the paper and making ink from blackberries.

The tree project encouraged free range, active exploration of materials, whilst also asking the children to be creative and thoughtful.

"I liked using the charcoal. I put it in my cup and Sally added water to make a brownish yellow. When I painted it on it reminded me of the tree."

"I liked getting bits from inside the log, mixing it with water and making brown paint.”

“That's called pigment.”

“It was fun when we were using different things from nature.”

“We made a tree picture of our own.”

“I liked the different textures.”

“We used bits of bark that the animals might have smooshed up.”

“I liked making our own dye and being outdoors.”

“Peaceful.”

“It made me feel calm being outside and hearing birds."

Individual responses when the children were asked about the project the next day.

Sally curated the individual interactions with the tree into a series of book forms. These were kept in the classrooms for a while and now form part of Sally’s final exhibition alongside work she had created in response to the project brief.

January 2026

Art club began back after Christmas with a puppet making session. Sally demonstrated the skills needed, and then supported the children as they created their own stick puppets.

December 2025

Our Year 1 and Reception pupils have been exploring texture and printmaking, using a range of objects to create different patterns and effects. Through this work, they are developing their ability to use a variety of materials and techniques creatively, as well as expressing their ideas through creative play.

November 2025

Sally's art club on a Thursday afternoon made beautiful porcelain clay Christmas decorations which will be fired and ready to decorate during advent.

November 2025

Bishop's Palace, in Wells, invited us to take part in their Eco Art Christmas competition this year. The theme was 'Christmas Carols'. After much discussion, and many ideas, we decided to create a scene that was made up of 3D structures. Each sculpture would be a character from a well-known Christmas Carol, and each character would be singing their own carol... but together!

Buzzard class designed and made shepherds and sheep from 'While shepherds watched their flocks'. Woodpecker class created three kings, from 'We Three Kings'. Owl class produced angels from 'Hark the herald angels sing'. Robin class made a donkey, from 'Little donkey', and we invited Red Room pre-school to join us, and they created a Christmas tree, from 'Oh Christmas Tree'.

All the materials needed to be recycled or eco and be strong enough to stand for one month in the Bishop's Palace Conference Room. After lots of experimenting, structural tweaks and plenty of embellishments, our entry was ready, and we were all feeling rather proud!

Whilst the pleasure was in taking part and collaborating between the classes, we were excited to find out we won the 'Creative Interpretation of the Theme' category and will receive £50 as a prize! Well done to our whole school for all their efforts!

Here is the video made by Bishop's Palace of this year's entries, including ours: https://youtu.be/SnSDV_KV9UQ

Here is how we made them...

September 2025

We challenged our pupils to create portraits of the school staff to use as our website profile pictures and they didn't disappoint! The winning portraits can be seen on our staff page: https://www.chewtonmendipschool.org.uk/whos-who

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Robin class practised their sewing techniques each morning for 15 minutes as they arrived at school. They refined their stitches and created patterns before turning them into bookmarks for their Mother's Day gifts.

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Sally Wetherall runs our art club after school on a Thursday. Pupils worked together in pairs to map, artistically, a journey on large paper using mixed-media. The children presented their creations to the rest of the classes the following day.