This is a starter activity which encourages students to consider that they should not always believe what they see, particularly in a photograph. The activity gives opportunities for students to discuss the ethics of manipulating a photograph to mislead the viewer. This can be used as an intervention starter for any art or photography class, but maybe of particular use to GCSE and A level photography students - covering AO1 discussing and developing ideas.

A fun starter activity which encourages students to think outside the box in exploring connections between images as well as widening their appreciation of where names come from, and the enduring qualities involved in the nature of our culture. This is suitable for GCSE and A Level Art and Design groups, but could equally be used in an English lesson, or other subjects as a thinking skills exercise which could lead into independent research.

A collection of Matisse quotes to start the week with - will last a term. Great for a start of a discussion or just to have up on the board. There's also a set of quotes by Lucien Freud to do a Friday Freud

A useful little form for students to use to focus themselves on what they need to do while they complete their prep work for unit 2 A Level Art and Design

A useful little form to help year 1 A Level students focus their ideas as they begin to think about their Personal Investigation

A lesson starter and activity to explore Matisse's cut outs in a new approach. The starter will enable students to challenge their thinking on how an artist can work when faced with physical challenges. This is a great lesson for the promotion of equality and diversity and gives good coverage to AO1 AO2 and AO4 with them commenting on the ways of working and then taking new approaches with the cut outs of Matisse. Great for all age ranges in raising their awareness of equality and diversity. The power point slides give additional information on the artists condition and ways of working.

A fun starter activity where students can look for clues as to common themes in 3 of the images. This encourages guess work and thinking about what they are looking at, developing skills in responding to artworks in their project work. suitable for GCSE and A level groups where you want to engage students at the beginning of a session.

A starter activity to make students consider the different forms water can take and how they might define "interesting". This can be a good addition to a project on natural form structures or just as a thinking skills starter.

A set of images of extreme facial expression to use for drawing - images of sculptures featuring the work of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Bernini and Rodin. I've used these with year 9 and above - and find that getting students to draw from sculptures offers them a start in seeing where the essential forms are through tonal changes without being distracted by detail - the withdrawal away from the reality of a basic photograph of a face seems to help in achieving more expressive and stronger drawing. The powerpoint contains 22 images of facial expressions in sculptures and links to information. This can form the basis of a set of lessons that lead into their own explorations of facial expression through their own direct observations. The expressions can cause some smiles too.

A starter activity for students to look more closely at Art and question what the work is about. This is great for developing thinking skills and questioning, for students to go beyond the basic description of the work. It gives students good opportunity to respond to AO1 - developing ideas and commenting on the work of others.

A starter activity for students to explore connections between images and this leads into discussion on censorship in art, film, music and literature. The starter comes with notes to inform the students' discussion. This starter is great for students to consider wider issues in what is deemed acceptable in different cultures and through history for GCSE and A Level students and is a nice trigger for British Values of tolerance, free speech and rule of law. Although I use this a lot in Art and Design it can be a good discussion starter for English, Music, Film and Media as well as PSHE.

This is a set of 40 close up photographs taken by myself of large scale Hockney Ipad drawings. These form what is a real master class in mark making when working with brushes on the Ipad, and it is easily transferrable to Photoshop. A really useful set of slides for students to focus on the mark making to explore landscape forms in new ways over a set of lessons to stretch their landscape responses. Its super for GCSE and A Level students generating responses to AO1 and 2 - showing a deeper understanding of how Hockney works as well as giving them new approaches in mark making in IT based work. The 40 images are part of a 24 page power point which also has some complete work for students to see the mark making in context.

A starter activity to engage students in looking at a set of paintings on the same subject to get them to analyse how painters treat the subject in different ways and to make judgements as to their personal preferences, justified to show informed personal responses for AO4 to back up the nature of the task focussing on AO1, exploring what artists do.

15 inspirational posters that will challenge thinking and can also be used as lesson starters or as something to refer to should discussion points arise. I find them useful in having them around to subliminally challenge students' thinking and to get ideas from. Contains cultural aspects, big questions and ones that can be adapted to fit thematic project work. I started using discussion questions to break away from the traditional biographical writing students tend to do, and its really helpful in generating evidence of thinking and an informed, personal response for AO4

A starter activity that can bring discussion on the nature of British tastes and preferences - with opportunity to challenge ideas on stereotype. You could use it as part of a display also. Has been useful in addressing some of the requirements of Fundamental British Values and can lead into further exploration of martin Parr's photography

A fun starter to get students guessing as to reasons why one of these is the most popular. engages students immediately and generates thinking.

This might be useful starting the essay in lockdown - getting the students to think for themselves and construct a discussion around their theme, and exploring the work of artists

A set of 4 essays to show students good practice in approaching the essay.

A guided activity for art and photography - the power point has examples of artists exploring the subject of the bed as something of personal meaning. This has a set of tasks that builds into a mini set of work - photography, drawing and painting, contextual referencing