Bryn Celynnog - Year 10

My year 10 classes had the same scheme of work going on with 'Aborigianl'. I knew I wanted to run a clay project and thought these would be the best classes to run it with.

The lessons started out similar to the year 9 ones, learners would merge two of their cultural masks together to make one final one. With this new mask learners would create a clay slab design before we moved onto clay.

In the first lesson learners were taught how to correctly cut, roll and wedge clay. They spent the first lesson mark making with the clay, they brought in different materials that they thought would leave an interesting mark. If they found something they liked then they would make note of this and then perhaps use it on their final pieces.

With their final designs in hand, learners in the first making week cut their slabs to the size they wanted them and created the backgrounds only first.

Once the backgrounds were made on these slab reliefs, learners then began to build up their designs. They knew not to go too thick so their pieces would not explode in the kiln. To add on additional pieces to their clay, learners used the 'scratch and slip' method. Learners then spent the next six weeks perfected their slabs so they could then be fired and then painted on to.

Alongside their slabs, learners were producing a 'clay diary' in their skecthbooks that they would add to each week. This not only brought in literacy to each lesson but would act as an aid to the learners if they wished to use clay in the future, when I would not be there, they had made notes on all the relevant processes.

I was really happy with how the majority of these pieces turned out. These learners had never used clay before and I had not done too much of it in the past. Learners enjoyed this process and now they have tried it out can do it again the future.

My biggest issues came from some learners who had built their clay to thick, a few of the pieces did break off during the firing process. I think some learners had not 'scratched and slipped' some of their pieces as well which meant those pieces broke off too, even though it was drilled in every week that they must use this technique. The time element to this project was quite a struggle as well, these pieces needed so many weeks to dry out and be fired, and with things like snow days occurring it meant there was not a lot of time to paint their pieces.