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'Tuesday is the one weekday I really look forward to,' said Julie Leeming, 15. Julie is a GCSE pupil at Astor School, Dover and she likes Tuesdays because that's when she is timetabled for an hour and a half at her favourite subject: Art Textiles. When I caught up with her she was working on an exquisite silk mirror frame, based on a William Morris design painted and sewn in soft browns and blues.

There are twelve students, boys as well as girls, in Julie's group and eleven in the parallel group down the corridor. Vicki Wilson, 14, has chosen Art Nouveau for her silk mirror. David Readman,15, was sorting out the backing for his. The whole room was a hive of creative activity. Sharon Sall, 14, was working on a mathematical design after M. C. Escher. Two others were leafing through art books in search of inspiration for a garment they have to design for a forthcoming school fashion show. Claire Black, 15, was colouring an exquisite silk-screen Roman Mosaic, having spent about ten hours working with gutta first. The finished work and evidence of all the preparatory work will eventually form part of these students' GCSE coursework portfolios.

Click the image to see in more detail.

Work in progress on Claire Black's silk-screen painting inspired by a Roman mosaic.
image credit - Susan Elkin

Astor is a 1300-pupil, non-selective, 'Kent Partnership' school. Since Kent retains grammar schools in every town, Astor is the sort of school which would once have been dubbed 'secondary modern'.

Textiles is enthusiastically taught there by the vibrant and charismatic Elaine Whalen. Elaine was 'head-hunted' from another school for the Astor post two years ago - such is the commitment of headmaster Chris Russell to the value of the arts in general and Textiles in particular.

In recent years, because of perceived National Curriculum requirements, Textiles has lost ground in many schools. The old domestic needlework concept is outmoded. Shuttlecocked between Art and Technology departments, with former Textiles specialists being required to work in the generalism of a technology curriculum in multipurpose rooms, Textiles in many schools has virtually disappeared as a discipline in its own right.

At Astor, however, it remains a rigorously creative subject. In the first three years each pupil spends half a term per year working on Textiles. This grounding is attractive enough to have persuaded 23 students to opt this year for the subject at GCSE. 'It's growing too. We shall have even more choosing it next year,' Elaine Whalen said.

The GCSE Art Textiles course is set by the SEG (Southern Examination Group) and is assessed by a combination of coursework and a final 'controlled test'. The latter requires the student to design and make a textile unaided with about ten ideas to choose from. To do well in this subject students need detailed and eclectic knowledge of artists, both contemporary and past, of other cultures and historical periods. 'I like it because it's so creative,' Jessica McHugh,16, said. She and her friend Jennifer Kendell, 16, both passed GCSE with a grade A last year and are now working for OCEAC (Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council) A-level Textiles.

Because independent schools are not required to follow the National Curriculum it is easier for them to keep Textiles healthily alive if they wish to. For example, at Benenden, a Kent girls' boarding school for 440 pupils, all the pupils aged from 11 to 14 have a weekly double lesson. That way we can really cover the ground thoroughly,' says Elaine Tyler, in charge of Benenden's Textiles. 'What you can get done is very limited if you only see them for a few weeks.

When I spoke to 11- and 12-year-olds at Benenden they were making fashion garments, having sketched, learned how to use the machines, and been out to buy their own fabric. Charlotte Guthrie showed me her 'flip-folder' containing her work on fabric structure, measuring, and evaluation of her work, among other things. It also contained a lovely sample of her weaving with wool and beads. 'I've learned a lot as well as having fun,' she said. 'Textiles teaches concentration and accuracy too.'

These girls spend half their Textiles year with Elaine Tyler and the rest with Jade Taylor who teaches dyeing, bonding, stitching, layering textures and other techniques. 'This year,' she said, 'we've used the work of Van Gogh, which they've studied in Art lessons, as our starting point. We do something different each year to avoid staleness'. As they progress up the school girls do wallhangings, fabric books, hats, quilting and so on. They study the work of O'Keefe, Matisse and Duffy, among others. Benenden always has a good-sized group taking the SEG Art Textiles GCSE exam.

Click the image to see in more detail.

Embroidered sunflower wallhanging after Van Gogh - Benenden.
image credit - Susan Elkin

At Astor, nine sixth-form students are embarked on A-level Textiles. Timetabled for three double lessons per week, they also come and work in the Textiles rooms when other classes are in session in order to get their work finished, as well as taking advantage - as do some of the GCSE students - of Elaine Whalen's willingness to come into school to give them access to facilities during half-terms and on Sundays. Benenden girls, at school for 24 hours a day during term time, have in-built extended access to resources.

Schools with a strong Textiles tradition have much to offer to the next generation. Two of Astor's upper-sixth girls, Catherine Rigg, 18, and Melody Gregory, 17, have places to begin the Art foundation course at KIAD (Kent Institute of Art and Design) this autumn.

And what superb cross-curricular potential Textiles brings in its wake. Because Astor has a fine new purpose-built on-site theatre in which the Perfoming Arts department mounts at least three productions per year, Elaine Whalen is encouraging costume design among her students - with exciting results. Benenden's magnificent costume collection is occasionally used to inform the work of nearly every department in the school.

Let's hope a few more schools soon follow suit so that more young people share Julie Leeming's pleasure and satisfaction in Textiles work

Susan Elkin - Phone and Fax: +44 (0)1795 423708

This article first appeared in The World of Embroidery, Volume 48 No.4, July 1997; © Susan Elkin 1997. Used by permission.

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