During the morning lecture, we were introduced to the work of the pupils in Room 13. Room 13 was described as a “social enterprise model of art education embedded in a number of primary’s and one or two secondary schools in Scotland” (Adams et al, 2008, p.11). Through this, pupils have the opportunity to work closely with artists through discussions of improvements to their own work. Artists are able to inspire children, which enhances their confidence in art. Room 13 is an ideal space for this, as there are few rules. Children are allowed to draw/paint on floors, they are not limited to A4 paper and they have support from specialists. This can reassure children that there are no mistakes in art, allowing them to express themselves more.

As a teacher, it is imperative that we do not criticise expressive arts harshly in school, as it can have a detrimental impact on children’s confidence and may impact on their future involvement in the arts. Through independent creations, we can better understand the stories that children are trying to tell through expressive art.

During this class, we were introduced to the work of Avril Paton. We were shown a piece of her artwork, entitled “Windows in the West”, which depicted a large building in a winter setting.

We were able to look at the history behind this painting through a small video detailing the processes the artist went through when creating this piece.

Picking a section of our choice from the painting, we were able to create our own individual prints. We did this by using the small polystyrene pieces that were provided and using a ball point pen, we created lines to depict what we seen in our section of the painting. While outlining our designs, we were told that we could not undo any marks that we made, therefore there were no mistakes. I feel that this is important to teach children, as many of them assume that if it is not an exact copy, then their work is “wrong”. However, their “mistakes” can create unique pieces of artwork, therefore mistakes should be embraced, not criticised. As a teacher, I feel that this is an important lesson to teach children, as it may impact negatively on their confidence in expressive arts if they are worrying that they are doing tasks wrong.

Once we had our outline, we moved on by using a board covered in ink to print the outlines onto coloured card. This card was folded in half to make Christmas cards.

Having a choice of materials was beneficial as a student, as it allowed for more creativity and uniqueness. This would be an easy, fun activity to implement into the classroom as it can be observed easily by the teacher, and allows pupils to use different materials and processes.