Inside Spotswood’s creative thinking department
Stuffed pukeko, vintage cameras, and random junk hot glued together are just a few of the eclectic items you’ll find in Spotswood College’s art department.
If head of art Leighton Upson had his way though it would be called the ‘‘creative thinking department’’.
That is what Upson encourages his students to do and it seems to be working after the school’s art department won nine National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) scholarships in 2017.
‘‘This is a creative thinking class for you to start thinking for yourself. We promote that from year nine. Talking to them about philosophy, curiosity, wondering and how to get ideas and try to broaden that as quick as we can.’’
Upson has taught many scholarship winning students during his 16 years at Spotswood College.
His personable nature and mentoring mentality saw many of these students return years later to visit.
‘‘We have students coming back five years later that say ‘I’m just here to see Mr Upson’,’’ Spotswood College deputy principal Martyn Knapman said.
Upson said it was about breaking down the preconceptions students had of art and working alongside them.
‘‘They come with their cliches all built up of ‘art is a commodity that you see on a wall’ and it doesn’t have to be.’’
Upson said the teachers push students to find out what they want to do.
‘‘I say to them ‘do you want to be a person that’s on a bus trip bored out of their brains or someone that relies on their phone all the time or do you want to be someone that can have a great time in your mind?’.’’
And it is effective as Spotswood College’s number of students in arts subjects is strong. It also helps the school offers a range of art areas such as painting, photography, sculpture and design, rather than just art in general.
‘‘National standards used to focus on English, science, and maths, and arts and P.E fell by the wayside,’’ Upson said.
But now, because of the element of play, Upson had no problem getting students interested in arts, he said.
‘‘Maybe they did it at kindy and then bypassed it.
‘‘But to play again and be experimental, kids love that.’’
Art teacher Aly Scott said she put their good numbers down to people’s views changing.
‘‘People’s perception of what art can offer is changing. They are starting to see the worth in creative industries and creative thinking.’’
She sees creative thinking not just as an area of study but as a skill.
‘‘Creativity to me is an interchangeable skill. You might be good at biology but if you’ve got a problem and you can’t think creatively about that problem then you’re never really going to get to that next level.’’
Taranaki schools received a total of 51 NCEA scholarships in 2017.