Year 5 and 6 study Ancient Greek and Japanese design
Year 5 and 6 received a lesson in international culture and philosophy from the comfort of the Prep's Art Studio as they completed studies in Ancient Greek architecture and Japanese wabi-sabi.
Rydal Penrhos has a proud international heritage that continues to flourish to this day. Whether in the form of the school's boarding past, its tradition of modern foreign language provision, or its diverse body of pupils, which includes over 25 different nationalities, foreign culture and language has always played an important part in day-to-day life at school.
Wherever possible, Rydal Penrhos provides avenues for pupils to celebrate and learn more about different nations, their customs, and their history. Numerous opportunities arise in every part of school life; whether that is an international cuisine day in the Dining Hall, a morning assembly on International Mother Language Day, or a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Poland to learn about its customs and past.
Of course, while expanding awareness about the world and its diversity can take place anywhere in school and at any time, the most important work takes place in the classroom. This is not just limited to the subjects primarily concerned with this topic, like History, Geography or Spanish; any subject can play an important role in opening pupils’ eyes to their citizenship of a vast global community.
Two prime examples of this were seen in Year 5 and 6 recently as pupils were given a deep dive into design ideas deeply rooted in the traditions of Greece and Japan.
Chalk was the medium of choice as Mrs Chamberlain’s Year 5 class turned their newly acquired knowledge about Corinthian columns into intricate depictions of the elaborate structures. On large black paper, pupils precisely rendered the decorative shapes, strong lines and areas of light and shadow that characterise the columns and the Corinthian order at large.
Ancient architectural orders are the styles of classical architecture, each identifiable by the proportions and characteristic details that can be observed in the columns used in major buildings. The Corinthian order was the last of the three major architectural orders of the ancient world, following the Greek and Roman orders; of the three, it was also the most ornate.
As pupils practiced in their workbooks and eventually set chalk to paper, they were equipped with almost unlimited inspiration and reference resources at their fingertips using their trusty iPads. All pupils aged five and above are issued an iPad and accessories as standard at Rydal Penrhos, with pupils in Year 3 and above keeping the gadgets year-round to enhance their learning in their own time.
Year 6 opted for clay over chalk as they undertook a Japanese-inspired pottery lesson. Fashioning a full tea set using only clay, water and a small craft tool, Mrs Pyves’ class not only had a fun time getting their hands dirty, but also learnt about the central importance of the tea ceremony in the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which has had a driving influence on Japanese art.
Wabi-sabi is a wide-ranging concept that can be applied to all sorts of different phenomena in the world around us, but its core idea is an appreciation of imperfection and transience at an almost emotional level. Whether it is in the light of an evening sunset, the creaking of an old building or the water-beaten rock of a cliff face, to embrace wabi-sabi is to embrace the inevitability of change and the beauty that comes with age and decay.
Tea not only evokes wabi-sabi in the sense that drinking it is a transient experience, but also in the fact that traditional Japanese tea-sets are designed so that they are not perfectly symmetrical, but instead embrace the concept of imperfection. In a world of increasing pressure towards perfectionism and mass produced, identical goods, the lessons derived from wabi-sabi and its design ideals should prove useful for our Year 6 class as they navigate their lives at large.
