One of the things the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) is doing through its related SBAs (School Based Assessments) in Anguilla and the various other member states in the Caribbean, is bringing out the practical and latent talent of students in a number of subject areas, among them being arts and crafts.

One of the art students with Mrs. Lloyd

Anybody in Anguilla who visited the exhibition of arts and crafts, in its many forms, at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School on Thursday and Friday of last week, must have been stunned by the high level of work. More so, they must have been delighted by the hard fact that there are many budding artists on the island who may one day, in their adult life, be proud contributors to Anguilla’s development in their own particular way.

“These two days we are having a display of artwork as part of the students’ SBAs. Each student must do nine SBAs for the exam which will be graded by me and other teachers,” said Louise Brooks, Head of the school’s Visual Arts Department. “The grading will amount to 40% of the marks and students can go in the exam with good grades and can get the rest of the examination and come out very successfully.

Some of the students of Mrs. Colette Jones class

“Not all students do the practical work. There is a research paper for students in the writing skills. They do research on maybe an artist, a technique or a skill used in arts and crafts.”

Mrs. Brooks explained that the SBAs comprised such arts and crafts as drawing including graphic design, painting or imaginative composition; screen-printing, batik, tie and dye, ceramics, fibre arts, weaving, crochet and so on. It is a two-year programme, starting from Fourth Form and finishing in Fifth Form, the students are required to do the SBAs in order to qualify for the final examination.

Mrs. Brooks with some of her students

The art teacher went on: “In the next two weeks the students will be getting a paper and will have three days during which they will be producing three different pieces: one in each area they have studied and they will have a practical exam. They will then have an invigilator who will preside over their work.

“The Visual Arts Department is planning to have a big exhibition later on when we will be inviting the public to see what we do in the school. We do lots of work which the students can sell and make lots of money from.”

Mrs. Brooks, who privately owns a well-established art gallery on the Shoal Bay Road, is one of three arts and crafts teachers at Campus A. The others are Yasmini Lloyd and Colette Jones.

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