This is a starter activity that encourages curiosity in looking at photography and to stimulate ideas in possible approaches.

A really useful prompt sheet for students at GCSE and A Level to use as a guide for what to consider when starting to wrote about a piece of Art rather than just write biographical detail

A useful little form to help year 1 A Level students focus their ideas as they begin to think about their Personal Investigation

A collection of Matisse quotes to start the week with - will last a term. Great for a start of a discussion or just to have up on the board. There's also a set of quotes by Lucien Freud to do a Friday Freud

Instagram is great as a way of using something students are happy with as a method of working. I find it great as students are already familiar with it, but not necessarily as a way of working creatively. Obviously ideal for photography students but also for any of the art specifications as they can record what they do and build evidence of development of ideas. Its handy if you can get your senior management to unblock it, and this is easier obviously post 16, but it can still be used as homework if not, and you know instantly who is doing their homework and who isn't. The best thing about it is that students buy into this - they are really happy doing it, they can get likes from each other and you can comment instantly on what they have doe. Get them to set up a second account from their personal one and they're off - and it gives you a load of stuff to promote your department and school or college.

A starter activity which develops thinking skills by asking students to consider categorization different to normally expected connections. It will also tick an Equality and Diversity box and allow students to consider issues relevant to them. This can be used with any age group but is particularly good for GCSE and A level and is a great activity to stimulate discussion

A fun starter - spot the connections, work out the link to find the difference - ideal for use as students arrive to get them engaged.

A fun starter activity to encourage students to think outside the box in making links between works and learning. A 5 -10 minute starter good for GCSE and A level students which develops thinking for AO1.

A starter activity to engage in looking for the subject matter. Useful for students to see that artists paint their mums and for them to consider why they might do this. The works for any age KS2, 3 4 and 5 Art and Design

A fun starter activity which encourages students to think outside the box in exploring connections between images as well as widening their appreciation of where names come from, and the enduring qualities involved in the nature of our culture. This is suitable for GCSE and A Level Art and Design groups, but could equally be used in an English lesson, or other subjects as a thinking skills exercise which could lead into independent research.

A quick starter to get them thinking on entry, I find these always get lesson off on the right foot - students re keen to guess and it sets a good positive atmosphere to get going with.

A fun starter activity where students can look for clues as to common themes in 3 of the images. This encourages guess work and thinking about what they are looking at, developing skills in responding to artworks in their project work. suitable for GCSE and A level groups where you want to engage students at the beginning of a session.

A starter activity to make students consider the different forms water can take and how they might define "interesting". This can be a good addition to a project on natural form structures or just as a thinking skills starter.

A fun starter to spot how the images are linked. Gets your class interested in looking with a set of images they have to link, with the fun bit being they have to work out what the link might be - throws up some interesting ideas for them.

A fun starter activity testing knowledge developing thinking skills - will broaden students' understanding of art as well as encouraging them to think that all artists started as students.

A set of images of extreme facial expression to use for drawing - images of sculptures featuring the work of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Bernini and Rodin. I've used these with year 9 and above - and find that getting students to draw from sculptures offers them a start in seeing where the essential forms are through tonal changes without being distracted by detail - the withdrawal away from the reality of a basic photograph of a face seems to help in achieving more expressive and stronger drawing. The powerpoint contains 22 images of facial expressions in sculptures and links to information. This can form the basis of a set of lessons that lead into their own explorations of facial expression through their own direct observations. The expressions can cause some smiles too.

A feedback sheet for internal assessment and feedback, including comment box and tick boxes for AFL.

This is a lesson to stimulate thinking skills whilst developing skills in drawing from observation. It requires students to consider what the different elements are in painting and drawing, useful in developing responses for AO1 and 2 at GCSE and A Level

A set of 10 images across different cultures and a lesson plan to work as an intervention lesson or lessons in the development of coursework projects. It requires the careful selection of a set of media into party bags with one of the images - and works on the premise that the more constricting the rules you place on students the more creative they get and the harder they look. This is ideal for GCSE and A Level and allows for creative links with other culture's approaches and stylisations. It also hits AO2 in requiring students to explore the boundaries of working with limited random media. The lesson plan includes references to differentiation and equality and diversity as well as highlighting the opportunities through the lesson to hit the learning objectives

A starter activity for students to think outside the box. The nature of the starter means that they may not guess the right answer, it is more important that they ask questions and think of possible answers - a really important life skill. Handy to focus students on as they arrive to any lesson or tutor time. Useful to lead into discussions on trees as symbols, how we mark events such as 9/11