Creativity and Culture are at the heart of a civilized and educated society. Creativity drives innovation and education. Students who are creative and make links between subjects are more likely to perform well in assessment and achieve success. Students immersed in different cultures have a better appreciation of the world. Caludon Castle actively engages students throughout their time with us to think on a cultural level and to be creative at all times.
We celebrate and showcase our students’ creativity whenever we can. We promote and enjoy the creative subjects throughout all Key Stages.
We work with the professional cultural and creative sectors, inside and outside of school, to expose students to the very best performers and artists.
Visiting artists and creatives
Our students have taken part in workshops within school led by visiting artists and creatives including: Motionhouse dance company, Highly Sprung physical theatre company, Trish Adudu from BBC-CWR, Brand and Forge graphic design company, Doherty photography, Inkymole Illustrations, MDA Illustration, and Channel 4.
Cultural visits
Students have the opportunity to visit a whole host of cultural venues, with regular visits including: the Belgrade Theatre, the Birmingham Hippodrome, Symphony Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, the Herbert Art Gallery, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the Paris Independent Film Festival.
They also visit a variety of locations to inspire their own creative work. Our annual calendar includes trips to: Falmouth University for a creative residential weekend, Plas Dol-y-Moch for on-location filming, Brandon Marsh, Burton Dassett and Stratford-upon-Avon for inspired photography.
Coventry City of Culture
Caludon Castle worked closely with the Coventry City of Culture in 2021-22. Every Yr7 and 8 student created their own Avatar to live in a webspace online celebrating Coventry City of Culture. One of our students won a signed Coventry City Football Club shirt for her entry to the Avatar world!
Our KS3 students made banners for the ‘Coventry Moves’ event in the city centre, including one of the large-scale banners displayed prominently in Broadgate.
We were one of three schools whose bid was accepted for the Rights to Life project. Our students devised an interactive art piece that allowed others to comment on what creativity means to them. You can see more about this creative and collaborative project here: https://www.creativerights.org.uk/teams
Christmas Show
Every Christmas, Caludon Castle students stage a large-scale musical. This is a huge commitment that only succeeds through hard work, determination and perseverance from all staff and students who undertake the mission!
Recent shows have included:
We Will Rock You – 2021
Matilda – 2022
Sensed Exhibition
Each summer the Visual Arts and Technology teams host an exhibition of student work that takes over the ground floor of the school. The exhibition showcases GCSE and A level work in particular, but also makes room for some of our KS3 students to shine.
The Gallery
The Art department houses a permanent gallery of student work, with all work professionally presented and shown off to best effect. It makes a fitting approach to the Art studios for those who are coming to create new work.
Music concerts
Each year we stage a number of Music concerts, with students from all key stages taking part. The styles vary from rock, through R&B, to classical, and include some pieces written by the students themselves. Concerts are always very well attended, and the partisan crowd make their appreciation known.
