Arts Festival 2025 - Community

This year our arts theme has been Community! The children have had opportunities to explore the meaning of ‘community’ through art, music, dance and drama producing some exciting unique work. 

Please enjoy looking at the amazing children's work. 

Reception – Portraits of important people in our community 

Our lovely reception children have been discussing who is important in our local community. They have used drawing and painting skills to produce painted portraits of local policeman, nurses, doctors, neighbours and shop keepers. The children had great fun learning how to mix skin colours and add facial details to their portraits. 

Year 1 – James Rizzi – Pop art of local buildings 

Our year 1 children have been looking at the pop artist James Rizzi and have been inspired to create artworks in his style. James Rizzi creates artworks of buildings in vibrant colours and bold outlines which creates a cartoonish outcome. Year 1 children have loved looking at Victorian buildings in Southborough and drawing them in this bold and colourful way. Can you recognise any of the buildings?  

Year 2 – Portraits of people we love in our community 

Our year 2 children have spent the summer term studying portraiture. They began by looking at portraits of Tudor kings and Queens, creating copies in oil and chalk pastels as well using the ipads to make digital images. Year 2 were then tasked to bring in a photograph of someone important to them in their community to create a portrait of. These included family members, neighbours and people in the local community. 

Year 3 – L.S Lowry, Our school and local buildings  

Year 3 children have been looking at the artist L.S Lowry and have been inspired to create artworks in his style. L.S Lowry created artworks of industrials towns, cities, buildings and people using tonal colours. Our year 3 children have enjoyed exploring our arts theme 'community' recreating local buildings and our school in L.S Lowry’s style, drawing on their knowledge of drawing, painting and colour theory. 

Year 4 – Prints of High Street 

Our year 4 children have been developing their printing techniques. They created their own Styrofoam printing blocks from their own drawings before mastering how to make a ‘clean’ print. The children all drew and printed local shops and business in Southborough. These prints were then embellished with further line work to add finer details. Each print has culminated in a long artwork that represents our local community and high street. 

Year 5 – Collaborative Map of Southborough 

Our year 5 children have been exploring mixed media and collage this summer term. 

The children began by learning about paper collage, fabric collage and mixed media. 

The children were then challenged to make a collaborative map of our local area using collage techniques. 

The children started by creating their own ‘painted’ collage papers that were then cut up and used to make local landmarks, public buildings, and houses. 

Year 6 – You Deserve a Medal 

Our year 6 children have been using their sewing skills to up-cycle old scraps of fabric to produce stunning badges. The children were challenge to design and make a badge for a respected, loved or admired member of their community.  

The children made badges for their football coaches, dance teachers, family members, swimming teachers amongst others. 

Y3 Creative Club – Our School and the Southborough Coat of arms. 

Year 3 creative club members have been busy creating stunning mixed media artworks exploring our school and the school grounds as part of our community. The children came up with own artistic 'key' that explains how they feel in each location in and around the school! Looks like they love school and the outside spaces! 

Year 3 creative club members have also been looking closely at the Southborough coat of arms. We have looked at the meanings and stories behind each symbol and created a fabric collaborative collage to represent it. 

The red rectangles represent the local brick-making industry that made many of our Victorian red brick houses. 

The red circle represents the cricket ball industry, important to Southborough for over 100 years. 

The Oak tree and leaves represent our connection to our vast local woods and common. 

The helmet represents our link to a Huguenot community that settled in Southborough once upon a time. 

The black rams head represents Southborough’s connection to the weaving industry. 

The two sprigs of Broom, flanking the Oak, are a reference to High Brooms, once an open grassy area, known for the Broom bushes which grew there.  

Y6 Creative Club – ‘Home is Where the Heart is’ 

Year 6 creative club members have created beautiful artworks based on the phrase ‘Home is where the heart is’. We began by drawing local street signs using carbon paper and mark making techniques to make these graphic black and white images. Next, we used maps of Southborough and our hand drawn street signs to collage images of anatomical hearts. The children then sewed into their artworks to create veins and main roads. The children enjoyed combining mixed media to create these striking images. 

New – Art Explorers Club 

Our newly formed club has produced some stunning collaborative work based on our theme community. We began by individually creating abstract artworks inspired by the textile artist Anni Albers. The children used colour theory to pick their paint colours and choice of wool. We combined the woven mixed media artworks to create this amazing textural final piece. 

The art explorers went on to create ‘story quilts’ inspired by the artist Hugette Caland. They created watercolour fields and used mark making techniques to add small sewn-like details and patterns. These beautifully painted artworks were combined to create a collaborative painted quilt design. 

Recently our art explorers have started looking at traditional quilts, understanding that each symbol represents part of a story. We have used paper collage to explore these designs. 

*Quilting and weaving are crafts that traditionally bind communities and tell stories about the people that live there. 

Y6 Drama club 

Y6 Drama club were challenged to plan, act and film short videos based on our arts theme ‘Community’. They devised four scenes which showcase all the actors. The themes were: friendship, bullying, school, sports club, relationships, volunteering for a duke of Edinburgh award, a children’s hospital, gratitude and making the right choices. The children spent several weeks with Miss Garrioch learning about drama and acting. 

“We did a film about being kind and about a girl who was a bully but then turned kinder with the help of the twins” Vikotria (N6)  

“What I liked about drama club was that I felt that I could be myself and not be shy. All the scenes were really fun and I liked being one of the people to get chosen to do drama club”. Jess (N6) 

“I liked the rugby scene and the scene where the family had the meeting”. Mohammad (N6) 

“I really enjoyed drama because it was fun making and doing practice. I also liked all the activities and warming up games”. Evie K (N6)