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Posted on July 17th 2024
Year 9 Explores The National Gallery
On Wednesday, 17th July, a group of Year 9 students visited The National Gallery, seizing the chance to explore world-famous artworks and expand their use of ambitious vocabulary.
Armed with maps and navigation skills, the students made their way around the gallery, stopping at various points to explore key paintings. During their discussions, students delved into the composition, atmosphere, and emotions conveyed by the artists.
Armed with a bank of sophisticated vocabulary, students were able to apply terms such as stoic, sagacious, forlorn and erudite.
Whilst discussing The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, they described how they were moved by the mournful and ethereal figures. In contrast, they found the stoic expressions in The Ambassadors to be authoritative but lacking in humanity.
Hogarth's Marriage A La Mode sparked a lot of speculation and laughter as the students worked out the narrative of the jaded tale. The drama was so powerful that Jayda suggested it should be turned into a film!
After exploring the gallery, some students started thinking about which galleries or museums they might visit during the summer holidays.
Back at school, they worked in teams to write character descriptions inspired by the people they know or the figures they saw in the artworks. It was great to see them using the sophisticated vocabulary they had learnt to create the emotional effects they observed in the paintings.
The trip to The National Gallery was a valuable experience, helping students gain a deeper understanding of art and expand their vocabulary. We're looking forward to seeing this vocabulary in their future writing projects.
