Little Art School

At the Little Art School we put nurturing and confidence building at the heart of our classes. The course has been designed to build self-esteem in children and the environment our classes are held in have an ambience of calm and gentleness which helps the children to relax and encourages their creativity. As children get older they begin to be more self-critical and much more self-conscious. At the Little Art School we have only one rule: we don’t allow children to be highly critical of their work, there are no “Mine’s Rubbish!!” uttered in the class. At the end of each class every child is encouraged to point out which part of their painting or drawing they are particularly pleased with. At the start of their time with us some of the older children find this quite difficult, preferring to avoid ridicule by denigrating their work. However, as the weeks go by, they understand that this is an environment where the ability to look for the positive is actively encouraged. They become much more able to search for what they like in their work and they begin to see the painting in a different, infinitely more positive, way. By searching for the positive aspects of their art their perception of the work transforms. We also encourage the children to praise the work of their classmates. For older children this can be difficult at first, the need to look ‘cool’ at the latter end of the time a primary school only intensifies in secondary school.