Art & Design
Welcome to the Art & Design area of our school website.
The subject leader for this curriculum area is Mrs O'Regan.
Art & Design Curriculum Overview & Skills Progression 21-22
Art & Design Curriculum Statement
Intent
At Grange, we believe that teaching and learning in art and design is important for a wide range of reasons. Because of this, the ongoing development of the curriculum area is a whole-school focus for 2021-2022, being developed collaboratively through a project team approach, which includes a named governor. This follows on from involvement in a 3 year Arts project with HDMT and the University of Nottingham, which supported teacher subject knowledge across the creative arts.
Engagement in art has proven benefits for children in many ways. It encourages children to be creative and express themselves, for example, studying a work of art involves children describing what they see, expressing how it makes them feel, and discussing what the artist’s motivation might have been.
An engaging Art & Design curriculum can also provide a way into learning for children who may struggle with core subjects and can give opportunities to explore the world around them, to be collaborative, and to express themselves in ways that many other subjects can’t.
Arts education is also an important tool in improving mental wellbeing. According to Dame Benita Refson, President and Founder of Place2Be, the children’s mental health charity, the creative processes involved in art help children work through their problems and find ways of coping.
It is also directly linked to raising attainment in mathematics and literacy.
We also recognise the importance of developing the cultural heritage and experiences of our pupils, so we embed planned visits to art galleries within our curriculum offer.
‘The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create.’
Barack Obama
Implementation
In EYFS, our Educational Programme for Arts & Design is planned so that the development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.
In KS1 and KS2, our curriculum is informed by the National Curriculum for Art & Design. We plan for children to develop their understanding of art with effective teaching and connected sequences of lessons and experiences. Where it is prudent to do so, we ‘connect’ our learning in art with other areas of the curriculum for example, in History, when making Egyptian Death Masks or in the study of the Stone Age, exploring cave art and pottery; in Science, linking to work around weather and seasons.
Understanding of the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape, 3D form) is through the provision of a curriculum which incorporates a range of media and materials to develop a range of skills which include: drawing, digital media, painting, printing, textiles, 3D modelling and collage.
Each year group has a focus artist and other suggested artists so that children are introduced to a range of works and develop knowledge of the styles and vocabulary used by a range of artists and designers who represent different cultures, contexts and periods of art. This enables the children to communicate what they see, feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form, pattern and different materials and processes.
Children are encouraged to imitate, innovate and adapt their own work using the work of different artists as a stimulus. Through this process, the children learn to make informed judgements and aesthetic and practical decisions.
We also promote art through whole school assemblies – through Artist of the Month, where a different Artist is introduced at the beginning of each half term in assemblies. Children learn about their life and work and so examples of work are shown on displays in communal areas. Part of our curriculum offer also includes taking children to different art galleries such as the Liverpool Art Gallery in Year 6 and the Walker Art Gallery in Year 3.
The full range of skills and content is detailed on the Art & Design Curriculum Overview and Skills Progression document. Planning is further detailed on medium term plans – which clearly show the sequence of learning, links to prior learning and opportunities for connections across the curriculum along with links to the EYFS Framework 2021.
Impact
Children enjoy art lessons and use their skills in different ways throughout school by creating individual pieces and whole school displays.
We assess the impact of our curriculum in a range of ways which includes:
- Summative assessment of learning
- Images of the children’s practical learning
- Children’s work saved onto their individual accounts or in teacher evidence files
- Reflective evaluation of lessons, (AfL) leading to review and adjustment where needed
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice) through formal and informal monitoring and through our RRSA committees
- Annual reporting to parents of standards across the curriculum
- Termly reports to governors and representation at Governor Curriculum meetings
Follow the link below for the full programme of study for art and design for KS1 & KS2:
Art Around School
Elm Class have been learning about Pontellism and how to create Art work using dots.
Willow Class created their own digital images about NASA.
