Our intention has been to celebrate the values of the Academy- Aspiration, Inspiration, Respect, Resilience and Innovation. We offered the students involved the chance to show the importance of these values through the development of the project.

Students from three year groups have worked in collaboration to design, and create our felted sculpture. Key Stage 3 ‘Art Club’ students produced drawings and designs inspired by what they thought ‘Lincolnshire’ was famous for and what they felt was important to them within our Lincolnshire culture, both currently and historically.  Their skills were combined with the Year 10 students using their interpretation, whilst acting with respect to transfer the younger students’ designs into felted art work.

We chose felt as a technique to do this for a variety of reasons. Our Year 10 students have recently experimented with the technique of felting whilst exploring pattern, emotion and colour. They particularly enjoyed the needle felting technique and the ability to draw with fibres. Traditionally felt was used in Mongolia where tents, yurts, clothing and furnishings were created by hand to aid survival in their environment, exhibiting resilience and innovation. This is something we wanted to reflect with our heart.  Students worked on individual sections of the design which were then brought together onto the sculpture.

  The physical technique of felting really gave the students an opportunity to continually build on their existing skills whist engaging in team building. They developed self- confidence and resilience, where they were relying on their own and each other’s judgements to succeed in over-coming artistic challenges, being respectful to each other in doing so.

Successfully completing the project filled them with a sense of pride and achievement which can be celebrated together.