Aims & principles

The scheme encourages the use of paintings as a resource to inspire creative teaching across the primary school curriculum.

Summary

The DfES Primary National Strategy, ’Speaking, listening and learning’ encourages teachers to use paintings with students in group discussions and for writing stories, poetry and reports. Many teachers taking part in ’Take One Picture’ have been using paintings in this way and have designed schemes of work involving script writing, poetry and stories.

Examples are available on the website. Schools may enter work, for an annual exhibition which takes place in the summer at the National Gallery and also on the website.

Browsing through previous exhibitions of work produced by children aged three to 11 in response to specific pictures, provides access to inventive and exciting projects.

The National Gallery, London has teamed up with art galleries in Bristol and Newcastle to provide information and online resources for teachers on how art can be used as a stimulus to support the National Curriculum.

An excellent website contains easy- to- access information about the scheme, teachers’ resources and online exhibitions of students’ work.

Primary school teachers can receive free Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training which will enable children to take part in cross-curricular projects and participate in a nationwide project.

In Practice

Since 1995, through the Take One Picture scheme, the National Gallery has been promoting the use of a single image as a resource for cross curricular work in primary schools.

For each year of the project a different painting from the National Gallery’s collection has been the focus for CPD and school based projects. He outcomes are diverse as each participating school responds in its own way (not all outcomes are written). The work is displayed in the National Gallery. Teachers wanting to integrate works of art into their literacy teaching might visit the exhibition for inspiration.

Paintings that have been the focus are:

2001 Hogarth The Graham Children
2002 Titian Bacchus and Ariadne
2003 Uccello Saint George and the Dragon
2004 Canaletto The Stonemason’s Yard
2005 Degas Beach Scene
2006 Mignard The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Sons
In 2006/7 the CPD course will focus on ‘An Autumn Landscape with a View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’ by Peter Paul Rubens.

CPD sessions follow the following stages:

• Thinking
• Planning
• Creating
• Sharing
• Impact

Teachers are shown how to read pictures by attending to details:

• To look for clues to the time of year by looking at the colours of the foliage
• To look for clues to the time of day for instance the position of the sun
• To identify the range of activities that people in the painting are engaged in and reflect on these as indicators of the time of day
• Ideas for generating creative outcomes from close looking at paintings are explored.

• These might include predicting stories
• Thinking about character
• Retelling stories

Teachers are given a print of the painting to take back to school.

Partnerships

At present, three art galleries are involved in this project.

Over 150 Newcastle primary school teachers have received free Continuing Professional Development training and more than 3000 children have taken part in cross- curricular projects.

90 Bristol primary school teachers have received training and 1200 pupils have taken part in projects.

Outcomes

"Taking the children to the National Gallery to see their work - it was out of this world for them. They were in a gallery and saw a Leonardo and then they saw their work next to it!" Teacher

’It gave the children a chance to shine. They could think "I’m valued and good" and they knew they were looked at differently. Teacher

There are many inspiring examples of children’s work, including children’s writing: poetry, songwriting, and scriptwriting in response to a particular picture. Each year different schools take part in an exhibition of work inspired by the ’one picture’

In 2004 pupils from schools in Swansea used Canaletto’s The Stonemason’s Yard as an inspiration for writing poems that contrasted Venice with their home town

Recipe for Venice
Take some golden sunshine
some expensive gondolas
and narrow canals.
Add some busy piazzas
some funny shaped chimneys
and some domed roofs.
Mix with days of Italian sunshine…

Recipe for Swansea
Take some storm winds
some grey drizzle
snd some thick fog.
Add some yachts from
The Mumbles sailing club
and a calm bay.
Mix with terraced houses
some old work places
and a busy market.
Decorate with golden sands
some blue seas
and lovely beaches.
Leave in the fridge
for three long months
and you have made Swansea

In 2005 in response to Degas’ Beach Scene pupils in Year 3 from Wisborough Green Primary School in Billingshurst used the painting to develop develop descriptive writing with a focus on metaphor. This work was used as basis for poetry writing about the seaside:

On the Beach
Smelling sea water like salt on chips
Crashing waves along the beach
Breezy wind being pushed away
Seagulls talking like mad
Dribbly babies on the sand
Seaweed pink and green
Sand like sprinkled sugar
Sea tossing and turning,
Like dancers swirling
Waves splashing and roaring.
- Richard Yr3

While in Year 5, they imagined conversation between the characters in the painting. The tried to make their writing rhythmic and made audio recordings with sea noises to add to the atmosphere:

A Captured Conversation
As I lay there, the wind blowing on my face, I wondered.
“Nana”, I said in a curious tone.
“Yes darling”, she replied, her comb stuck in a knot.
“You see those people in the sea”, I said.
“Yes”, she said once again. “These knots are a disgrace you know”, she added.
“Why can’t I join them, splash around and paddle for a bit? I’d be back and dry in a flash”.
Silence followed my question. The wind blew irritatingly over both of our faces as I expectantly awaited the answer.
“I don’t think so darling, you’ll get all wet and I’ve only just started brushing”.
“Oh, come on. I only want to paddle for a few minutes”.
The argument was beginning to fire up.
“I don’t think you should”.
“My mum would let me go in the sea”, I said before giving up.
- (Ollie Yr 5)

In 2006 in response to Mignard The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Sons Burrington C E VA Primary School pupils were set the task of making and filling a box entitled ’ How the Picture Began’ The finished boxes contained a collection of objects that the artist would have needed to study, painted sketches, historical information and creative writing.

One pupil wrote:
‘He took the wings from the snow-white owl and he placed it on the young child’s back.
He took the seaweed from the deepest part of the ocean and attached it to the beautiful woman’s hair.
He stole the dark blue from the depths of the ocean and made the woman’s amazing dress.

He took the whiteness from the angels to make the pearls in her hands.
By snatching the greyness from the smoke of a forest fire he spread the colour all over the sky.

He finally made the picture and he was proud of it.’

Burrington is a small rural school with 40 children aged between 8 and 11 years taught in the same class. The Take One Picture approach was considered to be particularly effective as it enabled the teacher to differentiate learning across the age groups as all could access the painting but with different levels of sophistication according to ability and experience.
Schools participating in the National Gallery exhibition in 2006 were:

Burrington C. E. V. A. Primary School, Devon
Childs Hill School, London
Egerton C. E. Primary School, Kent
Flore C. E. Primary School, Northampton
Ormesby Primary School, Middlesbrough
Southam Primary School, Warwickshire
Stratford Primary School, Stratford-upon-Avon
St Saviour’s Junior School, Bath
The Oxfordshire Hospital School

This is a small selection of the work which in 2006 alone involved 32,000 children, teachers, teaching assistants and parents.

Resources

Information about the scheme can be found on the Take One Picture website (htpp://www.takeonepicture.org.uk)

Take One Picture DVD (http://www.nationalgallery.co.uk) is available from National Gallery shops. The DVD also contains 10 exhibition films and short talks by Gallery experts on past featured paintings.

Additional resources
Teachers wanting to set up a similar project will find the following resources useful:

Quentin Blake Tell Me a Picture
Grace Nicholls Paint me a Poem
DfES Excellence and Enjoyment
Local art galleries can be visited and used in similar ways.

Contacts

National Gallery Education
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
telephone: 020 7747 2424
e-mail:

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