A starter to engage discussion and thinking - the criteria for "best" can be left for the students to decide on and justify through the reasoning - can be design, versatility, price etc

A starter activity - engages students in looking for connections and questioning what they see in what the differences and similarities are in the city views, which are real and which are false - leading into discussions on what the artists are attempting to do. Ideal for KS3, 4 and 5 as a starter for any lesson where you want them thinking as soon as they come in.

Written as an artist's statement about their work this provides year 1 A Level Art and Design with a really good example of how to write the essay that accompanies the Personal Investigation.

A fun starter to engage them as soon as they arrive and a good one to tick the equality and diversity box with opportunities to discuss gender and the way men and women tackle subject matter, challenging stereotypical view points. Really good for generating discussion with A Level and GCSE classes, and I've also used it in PSHE lessons to good effect.

7 starter activities to engage and inspire students in thinking outside of the box. Great for developing thinking skills to get lessons going on a positive note

6 thinking skills starters to engage and inspire as well as inform on different approaches and aspects of Art. Great for KS 3 4 & 5 - useful for starting lesson observations, or just as a way of giving them something different

A starter to focus students on questioning why people vandalise works of art, thinking outside the box to lead into discussion whether graffiti is art or vandalism, and how can you tell the difference.

Always an enjoyable lesson with good opportunities for discussion and the promotion of equality and diversity. It has an engaging starter requiring students to question what is actually shocking about the images they are looking at, and how opinions and values change over time. The extended tasks allows for further personal responses to develop again promoting E&D in the students exploring and sharing what they find in term of a top 10 they create. Ideal for an intervention lesson at KS3, 4 and 5, or as a lesson to widen appreciation and knowledge of Art History

A fun quiz to test knowledge and engage students in some research in finding the answers. I've used it as longer starter to a lesson and as a homework. Multiple choice format to encourage an educated guess from the students it works well with KS4 and post 16 classes.

This scheme of work takes students through stages in making a successful composition Key areas covered are observation drawing skills, key terminology, rules of composition, critical referencing – contextual studies, development of ideas in range of media and approach and realisation of outcomes. I've used this with classes from year 8 to post 16, the idea of the secret formula for how to make a composition goes down really well and gives the students a tangible set of rues that they can continue to apply in painting in as they tackle other projects. The set of lessons can be delivered to fill a half term, and this version always worked best in the Autumn through using natural forms and colours in Autumn.

A starter activity for students to explore possible connections between the paintings and question what is going on in them. These starters really engage students and when done regularly they begin to catch on that they have to think outside the box and look for clues in the subject matter. Its always useful to make them think!

In 1565 Pieter Bruegel painted a series of paintings dedicated to the months of the year. He broke the cycle of the year into six stages in six paintings, two months per painting. This starter asks students to make connections between the images to spot that they about the seasons and months and this gets them looking more closely at the activity going on in the painting. Suitable for any year group as its really about looking and asking questions.

This lesson has been really useful for students to consider how to show the processes of their work so that it is clear they have made decisions with their media in the development of their work. There is a starter activity which focusses them into the notion that an unfinished piece of work can be really useful in how we understand how an artist works, and how this is useful to them - show the journey of a piece of work and the moderators will understand how they think, use their media and refine their work. Really good for AO1 2 and 3, and useful for KS3 4 and 5.

A lesson to focus on best ways to develop responses for AO4. Ideal for KS3 GCSE and A Level in taking students from initial basic responses to how they can use sources and information to develop their thinking and extend their written responses. The power point contains reference to 2 artists, prompts for thinking, an extended task with suggestions to get going with ways of sentence starters, along with aims and objectives. I have always found this lesson really useful in developing the skills needed for AO1 in a way that is based on Blooms, but less overwhelming in terms of it being so much to look at for students.

A starter to engage on entry and stimulate curiosity and questioning on the part of the students. I find these starters great for getting students going as soon as they arrive and good for them to consider looking at images in a different way to the way expect to in art work and so challenge their ideas on wider culture

A starter activity to engage on entry and help get students looking for connections between images. Stimulates curiosity and thinking especially if working in pairs and creates a climate where they are happy to suggest possible answers - working on 2 levels - if they can identify the correct image, they can then puzzle further on what the answer might be. Great for learning about how to question what they are looking at.

A starter or a form time activity - get the students talking and discussing what the connecting word is, and what the relevant images are. Great for wider thinking skills and getting the students to question what they are looking at.

A set of images to engage for a lively start to the lesson - engages and gets students to ask questions about what they are looking at. Will lead into a lesson on designing a time machine nicely as a fun end of term or cover lesson

Engages students on entry and gets them looking and asking questions - good for getting them to think outside of the box

A fun starter activity - gets any lesson off to a positive start with engagement on entry and questions being asked.