Our Year 10 Art students recently enjoyed an inspiring trip to Manchester Museum as part of their ‘Flora and Fauna’ coursework project. The students spent the day exploring the museum’s fascinating collections, drawing and photographing a wide variety of specimens and exhibits to develop ideas for their coursework. The trip provided them with a wealth of new visual inspiration and plenty of observational drawings and photographs to take back to their sketchbooks.

As one of the UK’s leading university museums, Manchester Museum houses over 4.5 million objects, bringing world-class natural history, archaeology, and global cultures directly to the heart of the city. It serves as a vital cultural hub for Manchester, celebrating natural diversity, art, and heritage while promoting environmental awareness and connection to the living world. For young artists, the museum is an extraordinary resource: galleries such as Living Worlds and Nature’s Library offer an intricate array of botanical forms, taxidermy, rare insects, fossils, and vibrant organic patterns. These collections give students a unique opportunity to study complex textures, fine structural details, and rich colour palettes up close, sparking new creative approaches to their coursework.

It was fantastic to see the students so engaged throughout the day. They worked incredibly hard, showed real enthusiasm for their artwork and made excellent use of the opportunity to gather first-hand research and inspiration for their projects.

We were particularly proud of their behaviour. They were polite, respectful and exceptionally well behaved throughout the visit, and were a real credit to themselves and the school.

Well done, Year 10 — we look forward to seeing how you use all of your new ideas, drawings and inspiration to develop your ‘Flora and Fauna’ projects!