An Introductory Course in Art at Eiarias High School

Abstract

The Introductory Course is an important concept applicable to a range of curriculum areas and various stages in the educational process. In this case I am concerned with' Art' at the commencement of the secondary school and am assuming that Art is accorded a separate subject status.

Children come together as the new intake year in a secondary school. The policy of the school is administered and the pupils are grouped, time tabled and organised into their new complex of classes, rooms, subjects and teachers. Mixed-ability grouping is a widespread practice here and results in a number of parallel first-year classes all nominally similar in composition and potential.

An Introductory Course at this stage is desirable because one is dealing for the first time with children from the assortment of primary schools in the catchment area. These children's experiences and abilities in Art and Craft work are inevitably various in type and quality. One of the purposes of the foundation course is to summarise and consolidate the su bject experiences gained in the primary school.

A second aim must be to prepare pupils for entry

into the examination courses that dominate thefourth and fifth

years, and to diagnose their

potential in order to give guidance.