Real Art classroom lessons grouped by PICRAT cell, from Passive Replace to Creative Transform.
By Andy Perryer, Global Head of Digital Learning18 lessons
Creative Amplify (CA)
Mixed-media digital collage with embedded media
Year 8
· 80 min
· 1 device per student
Each student creates a digital collage on a chosen theme (e.g. memory, identity, place) combining at least three found images, two student-drawn elements and one piece of embedded text or audio. Submitted individually.
Year 9
· 90 min
· 1 device per student plus stylus
Each student produces a painting using at least four layers, three brush types and one effect (e.g. blur, distortion, lighting). They also record a 60-second voice-over explaining their compositional and colour choices, attached to the final piece.
Each student takes 8-10 photographs on a single chosen theme around their school or home environment. They sequence the photographs into a digital photo essay with embedded captions and a chosen music bed. Submitted as a digital artefact.
Each child keeps a digital sketchbook adding one observation sketch per week (e.g. a pet, a leaf, their breakfast, a family member's hand). They submit at half-term.
Each child takes 6-8 photographs around their home or school on a chosen theme (colours, textures, faces, light). They arrange the photos into a digital collage with title and submit.
Year 7
· 30 min
· 1 device per student plus stylus
Each student keeps a digital sketchbook in Procreate, adding one observation sketch per week over a half-term (e.g. a leaf, a hand, a chair, a face). They submit the sketchbook at half-term.
Each student collects 12 reference images for a chosen art topic (e.g. portraits across cultures, landscape composition styles, colour use in advertising) into a digital folio. They write a one-line caption for each image explaining its relevance. They submit the folio.
Process-photo journal of a single artwork
Year 9
· 30 min
· 1 device per student
Each student photographs their work-in-progress on a single artwork at six stages, from initial sketch to finished piece. They submit the six photographs in sequence with a one-line caption per stage explaining the decision they made.
Creative Transform (CT)
Generative art piece responding to live data
Year 10
· 240 min
· 1 device per student
Each student builds a small generative art piece in p5.js that responds to live data (mouse movement, audio input, current weather data, time of day). The piece must be defensibly generative (not just decorative) and must change visibly when the input changes. Students publish to a class gallery and write a 150-word artist's statement.
Year 11
· 300 min
· 1 device per student plus AR-capable phones
Each student designs a virtual sculpture or installation that exists at a specific real-world location (e.g. the school's main entrance, a local park, a town square). The installation must be viewable through an AR app when a viewer points their phone camera at the location. Students present by walking the class to the site and demonstrating.
Each student builds a digital portfolio of their term's artwork. The portfolio includes images of each piece, an embedded time-lapse video of the work in progress (filmed during studio sessions), a 200-word voice-over for each piece explaining intent and choices, and links to the source images and influences they researched.
Collaborative virtual gallery curating student work
Year 12
· 200 min
· 1 device per student
The class collaboratively builds a virtual 3D gallery space curating their A-Level portfolio work. Each student designs one room of the gallery, selecting their own works plus two pieces from classmates' portfolios with curatorial rationale. The class navigates the gallery during a launch event and writes critical responses to other rooms.
A-Level portfolio with AR walkthrough of physical exhibition
Year 13
· 320 min
· 1 device per student plus AR phone
Each student builds an A-Level portfolio that includes an AR walkthrough of their physical exhibition. The AR layer adds a virtual layer to each physical artwork: process video, voice-over commentary, alternative compositional choices the artist considered. Visitors view the physical work and the AR enhancements simultaneously through their phone camera.
Generative art responsive to spectator biometric data
Year 13
· 320 min
· 1 device per student plus optional biometric sensors
Each student builds a generative artwork that responds to spectator biometric data (heart rate via wrist sensor, facial expression via webcam, breath rhythm via microphone). The artwork changes visibly when different spectators engage. Each piece is presented to the class with a 200-word artist statement.
The teacher posts three versions of the same composition (different focal point placement, different colour balance, different cropping). Students vote on Mentimeter for the strongest version, defend in pairs, debate, re-vote.
Each student photographs their sketch from the previous lesson and posts to a class Padlet. Three named peers comment on each sketch, identifying one strong technique and one area to develop. Students revise their sketch the following lesson based on three pieces of feedback.
The teacher posts a single painting (e.g. Picasso's Guernica, Hokusai's Great Wave, Kahlo's The Two Fridas). Each student posts a one-line interpretation of what the painting is doing emotionally and one detail that supports their reading. The class scrolls and the teacher draws out the variety of readings.