London - Pierre Mignard’s painting The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Sons is the inspiration for the Take One Picture Exhibition 2006.  Now in its 11th year, Take One Picture is the National Gallery’s countrywide scheme for primary schools.

Each year a different painting from the collection is chosen to provide a starting point for cross-curricular work.  Eight schools from across the UK, plus a hospital school, are exhibiting their work at the National Gallery.  The exhibit closes 2 July, 2006.

Over 32,000 children and adults from 180 schools across the UK learnt about Mignard’s painting.  They used it as a stimulus to explore a broad range of National Curriculum subjects and key skills, such as literacy, numeracy, ICT, science, geography, history, music, as well as art. The resulting work includes painting, photography, jewellery, digital murals, poetry and even erupting volcanoes! 

Take One Picture encourages community learning with most schools putting on their own Take One Picture exhibitions and involving the children’s families in special events and homework activities.  The group portrait subject of The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Sons has particularly inspired work around the themes of ‘My family’ and ‘Relationships’.

Teachers learn about the scheme at the National Gallery Continuing Professional Development courses, which are attended by over 3500 teachers per year – and also from a designated website containing teaching resources and details of past Take One Picture exhibitions (www.takeonepicture.org.uk).

The Gallery is also currently leading a project – funded by the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Skills – that offers placement opportunities to primary school Initial Teacher Training students during which they learn about the Take One Picture approach.

An independent evaluation of Take One Picture, conducted by the University of Greenwich, analyzed the impact of the scheme from 200-2006. 92% of teachers who have used the approach believed it improved their pupils’ learning and performance, 90% said that using one image in this way enhanced children’s ability to work together in groups, and 87% said that it increased communication skills.

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