George Abbot is a Secondary School which in recent years has hosted a summer holiday transition project for Y6 pupils from feeder Primary Schools.
The theme for the transition project in 2014 was ‘Endangered Species’ in relation to the Brazilian Rain Forest. Social Fabric were commissioned to create a fabric book with the group to explore the theme, provide a learning resource for future students as well as creating an art piece to be exhibited in the school gallery.
George Abbot staff and some current Y8 students worked alongside the group of Y6 pupils about to begin Y7 in the Autumn Term.
“Our work with Sarah Pimenta has provided our school, George Abbot School in Guildford, and its students with some amazing experiences and extraordinary artworks to display around our school. We discovered her by chance about ten years ago when we had Visual Arts Specialist status and continue to keep our relationship going despite the changes in the Arts.
We have produced many printed lengths of fabric together, providing a stimulating and visually exciting workshop for approximately 75 students in a week. This was during our Year 9 Arts Weeks which we held for over 10 years and Sarah was often one of our external artists whom we invited in for the week. During which time she would confidently manage the changes of students each day, create a wonderful theme each time for the printing which inspired the students to express themselves in a completely different way from ‘normal’ lessons.
In more recent years, Sarah has worked with us during the Summer holiday, when we have organised a Summer School for our new Year 7 Pupil Premium students. These projects have been not only been exciting and invigorating for these children, but have encouraged them to work in a collaborative manner, which provided a great learning experience for them. As with many activities during Summer School, the more relaxed environment enabled our younger students to work with adults and each other, as well as gaining an insight into the printing process, which they would not normally undertake until at least Year 9.”
