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Art Technician – Fixed Term
Main Responsibilities
This appointment is a technical position supporting the Director of Art with the smooth running of the department. The candidate is required to work closely with each member of the teaching staff.
Textiles
A confident ability to cut patterns and fabric for garment construction & preparing fabric swatches for workshops
To ensure sewing machines and embellishers are prepared for lessons and are appropriate for each year group to enable lessons to start promptly. Replacing needles in sewing machines and embellishers and additional parts, both before and during workshops
Basic maintenance of Husqvarna and Janome sewing machines and embellishers
Photographing work and designing publicity posters
Helping with the preparation of work for national exhibitions, including packing and loading work and help with manning the stand
Maintaining Art materials including paint/ink/palettes and paintbrushes
Photography
To be prepared to learn how to do the following: –
prepare chemicals for the darkroom and film development
Maintenance of the photography lighting studio
Photographing students’ work for university applications
Have good ICT skills, including a working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud
Maintenance of camera equipment and darkroom enlargers
Provide technical support to students in enabling them to reach their full potential
Support lessons and extra-curricular activities
Fine Art
To be prepared to learn how to do the following: –
Maintaining the equipment and materials (consumable items) daily e.g. ensuring all brushes and palettes are clean and ready for use ensuring that the acrylic paints are fully stocked, and all nozzles are unblocked!
Ensuring all equipment trays are fully stocked
Stocktaking the equipment/materials store and alerting in advance of replacements
Preparing materials/equipment for lessons including 3D/sculpture work
Giving individual attention to students who require specific technical help and support
Contract – This role is a term time only role, working Monday to Friday from 08:15-16:15, with one hour unpaid break. The position is on a maternity cover basis and will be up to one year in duration.
Information for applicants
About the School
King’s Ely can trace its origins from at least 970AD, making it one of the oldest schools in Europe. Originally a monastic foundation and then a grammar school by Royal Charter, today it is a thriving independent day and boarding school for around 1000 boys and girls aged from 2-18, offering a broad range of GCSEs and A-levels and from which almost all pupils go on to good universities in the UK and abroad. Most students are day pupils from Ely, Cambridge and the surrounding area, and there are also about 200 boarders with over 40 nationalities represented overall.
The School is subdivided into three sections: King’s Ely Senior (age 13-18) and King’s Ely Junior (age 7-13), which occupy adjacent campuses and shared facilities, and King’s Ely Acremont and Nursery (ages 2-6) which has its own self-contained campus about 400m from the main site.
The main campus extends to around 70 acres in total and comprises several historic buildings adjacent to Ely Cathedral as well as more recent, purpose-built facilities spanning the thirteenth to the twenty-first centuries, and almost 40 acres of playing fields.
King’s prides itself on being an academic school but not an academic hothouse. There is a great emphasis on personal development through an extensive co-curriculum of sporting, creative and performing arts and service opportunities as well as through building positive relationships with others in a tight-knit but outward-facing community. The safety, wellbeing and pastoral care of the whole community is central in what is a happy and purposeful school where our diversity and breadth of talent and ability is valued and nurtured.
King’s Ely also plays a key role in the local community. The School is one of Ely’s largest employers and also educates the boy and girl choristers of Ely Cathedral. King’s is also a proud founder member of the Cambridgeshire Educational Partnership, which numbers twelve local schools working together to improve educational attainment, especially for disadvantaged children. The School also offers a number of bursaries to enable pupils from all walks of life to benefit from the education it offers.
King’s Ely is a registered charity administered by a Board of Governors. The Principal is a member of HMC and the School is also affiliated to the Society of Heads, IAPS, the Boarding Schools’ Association and the Choir Schools’ Association.
Art at King’s Ely
The Art Department is part of the Arts Complex which was opened at the beginning of 2010 by Lord Browne of Madingley. The department consists of a large gallery space, photography studio for digital work, studio for still-life work, dark room, prep room, textile and fashion studios, fine art studio, workshop area and general art & design studio. There are also two mezzanine floors and large areas for storage. All studios are networked to the school ICT facilities and include high quality printers and scanners.
The Textiles studios include Husqvarna and Janome computerised sewing machines, embellishers, heat transfer press, extensive range of dress forms for fashion design, screen printing and an area for drawing, painting and mixed media effects.
Atmosphere and Ethos
The atmosphere at this site is distinctive. It is a lively, stimulating environment where students have the opportunity to take ownership of their workspace. We offer an open door policy so that students can extend coursework and additional ideas after formal teaching hours. We expect a professional attitude to study from our students and, in return, the students enjoy the reward of success in learning.
Programmes of study
Our courses provide breadth, depth and flexibility to ensure that there are opportunities to accommodate a wide range of abilities. Our aim is to offer the facility to build knowledge, skill and understanding throughout the Senior School experience.
Studio based work is complemented with regular local and national excursions. External exhibitions have taken place at venues such as the Apex Gallery, Babylon Gallery and Ely Cathedral. For Textiles these include most recently working with the fashion designer Juliana Sissons at the V&A and also Jose Hendo and exhibiting fashion design annually at Alexandra Palace and the Business Design Centre. We currently hold the National Fashion and Textiles award held at the Business Design Centre. Students won the A level UK Fashion Design Awards, the Year 9 UK Fashion Design awards and were also selected for the Norwich University of the Arts virtual exhibition and the UK Knitting and Stitching virtual exhibition and competition. Our Art department has also been awarded first prize in the national Education Business Awards for Art and Craft held in London.
In Year 9, students have the opportunity to build on skills learned in the King’s Ely Junior School by working on more sustained activities. They develop their creativity and imagination, improve practical and critical skills, whilst extending their knowledge and experience of materials, processes and techniques.
In Years 10 and 11, students pursue the following programmes of study:
AQA GCSE Art and Design (Textile Design)
OCR GCSE Art and Design (Fine Art)
AQA GCSE Art and Design (Photography)
In Years 12 and 13, students pursue the following programmes of study:
AQA A Level Art and Design (Textile Design)
AQA A Level Art and Design (Fine Art)
AQA A level Art and Design (Photography)
AQA Results Summer 2022
100% of GCSE Textiles students achieved grade 9-7
100% of A level Textiles students achieved grade A*-B and 86% achieved A*-A
80% of GCSE Fine Art students achieved grade 9-7
100% of A level Fine Art students achieved grade A*-C and 73% achieved A*-A
67% of GCSE Photography students achieved grade 9-7
100% of A level Photography students achieved grade A*-B and 50% achieved A*-A
A large number of students have progressed onto Art Foundation courses and degree courses and centres include Chelsea, Edinburgh, Central Saint Martins, Leeds, Falmouth, London College of Fashion and Manchester Metropolitan.
