Art Department

Art Department at Haileybury Astana

At Haileybury Astana, we offer a very broad range of educational experiences in Art. As well as the study of Art Theory and Art History, students develop skills in; canvas painting (oil and acrylic), watercolour, 3D model making (plaster, ceramics, glass, metal, and card construction), textiles (hand-rendered skills such as crochet and weave, illustration and design, as well as machine sewing), photography, digital art, installation and mixed media.

In Junior School, pupils develop confidence and skills to develop their creative skills. This is in line with the British Curriculum, and also very well planned to complement the learning in other curriculum areas. They have an hour each week with a specialist teacher, and extra CCA art provision in a range of skills such as painting, digital art, and ceramics.

In Senior School, the well-planned curriculum continues to track and build upon student art skills. They learn to analyse a range of artists and designers across time and place. This includes revisiting artists introduced in Junior school and a wide range of new artists. As well as being taught to use a full range of materials and processes they are supported in their individual creative journey to develop their own ideas and specialist skills.

In Years 10 and 11, students can opt to continue studying Art, following the Pearson Edexcel Art IGCSE. This allows students to specialize in either Fine Art, Textiles, Graphic Communication, 3D studies or Photography.

In Years 12 and 13, the Art Department offers IBDP Visual Art. In our spacious rooms, the students are allocated their own studio space, and outside of their art lessons many students enjoy using this bespoke space in time after school or in weekend workshops. The work is outstanding, as seen in the exhibitions of the students' works. Over recent years on an annual basis, some students select to carry on their studies in Art related fields at top universities around the world.

Art Activities and Projects for pupils in 2023

Pupils have well-planned projects and schemes of work, which are regularly updated to stretch, challenge and inspire our students. For instance, in Junior School Art lessons, classes will respond to initiatives such as pastoral anti-bullying lessons for cultural celebrations of Nauryz celebrations.

This extends to Senior school, with extension projects such as preparing stage set designs for school productions or collaborative projects with Music or STEAM.

Underpinning this is a strong emphasis on developing creative thinking skills, specialist art skills, and transferable skills, such as partnering with the English department on themes explored in Art and poetry.

International painting competitions

Within school, there are regular motivational competitions. These are promoted through Google Classroom, and the school's Art Instagram page @haileyburyastana_art. Examples this year have been poster competitions promoting sustainability, photography and drawing/painting competitions.

We also enter international competitions; as COBIS school students enter this annually, we also link with other organisations such as a recent international exhibition of Art at Astana Opera House where several students received winning certificates for their work and a collaborative exhibition with the Egyptian Embassy with work being displayed in Giza.

In the Spring term, we will enter students in the Royal Academy online exhibition, having successfully had students work accepted at our KZ Haileybury Schools in previous years. We also collaborate with City Arts in New York which has an online exhibition of work permanently exhibiting our pupils' work, alongside students' work from around the world.

IB Art

We are very proud of our Alumni who are already studying Arts Majors around the world, in diverse art-related specialisms such as Media, Architecture, Fashion, Art Management, Fine Art, Digital Art/Animation, Fine Art and so on. We are fortunate that they keep in touch to inspire new Art students at the school.

Any student studying IB Art who also wants to also pursue Art long-term at University is given additional support and guidance in portfolio preparation by the Art Teacher alongside their studies and in strong collaboration with the excellent school university counsellors.