Intent
Visual art is a universal language. Unlike text, visual symbols systems are accessible to all in the communication of ideas and feelings, connecting visual mark making with storytelling. Art, craft and Design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. High-quality art and design education engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. The pupils at Whitmore Park Primary will be given opportunities to not only explore and record their own ideas, but develop their knowledge of a range of artists, designers and craft makers from the great artists of the past to the contemporary, including local artists.
At Whitmore Park Primary School, we value art and design as an important part of the children’s entitlement toa broad a balanced curriculum. Our children will be taught art and design in a way that ensures progression of skills, following a sequence that builds on previous learning. Our children will gain experience and skills of a wide range of formal elements of art in a way that will enhance their learning opportunities, enabling them to use their art and design across a range of subjects to be creative and solve problems, ensuring they make progress.
Art and design provides children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas. Pupils will become proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, sculpture as well as other selected craft skills e.g., collage, printing, weaving and patterns. Art and design teaching at Whitmore Park will instil an appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts. Art and design stimulates imagination and creativity; involving children in a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences. This enables them to communicate what they see, think and feel through the use of colour, texture, form and pattern. Skills will be carefully scaffolded to ensure these skills are built on each year, to allow pupils to progress successfully. Art and design will be used as a way of helping pupils to develop their emotional expression to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development. Art and design promotes careful observation and an appreciation of the world around us. Children can explore the impact art has and continues to have on life and culture across the world.
Pupils interest and curiosity about art and design will be actively developed alongside their quesitoning skills. Pupils will be given many opportunities to demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. As they progress thinking more critically and a more rigorous understanding will become more important in the assessment of learning in art and design. Pupils will be taught how art and design has been shaped by, and reflects, global history and cultural diversity. How it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation and its communities.
This year we plan to enhance our art curriculum further by not only inviting local artists into school to lead workshops, but to arrange trips to see art and design first-hand at venues including art galleries., museums and sculpture parks at KS1 and 2. This will support the raising of pupil awareness about the possibilities Art and Design offers them in the future. At our school we intend that pupils should receive a well-rounded, rigorous and wide education in the Arts. Pupils will be supported to develop a love of Art and Design and equipped with the skills to participate in a way that enriches their everyday lives forever. Pupils will be given opportunities to develop a mastery and the aspiration to consider art and design as a viable career.
Our Art strands are:
- Working Creatively
- Skills Proficiency
- Language of Art
- History of Art
At Whitmore Park Primary School these strands are taught:
- Through the following formal elements: Line, Shape, Tone, Form, Colour, Pattern, Texture and Space.
- Using the disciplines of drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles and sculpture.
- By exploring the process of design and making alongside a study of artists, craft makers and designers.
Our Aims
The curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure all pupils:
- Produce creative work; explore their ideas and recording their experiences.
- Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers. Understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
End of Key Stage 1 Expectations
Pupils should be taught:
- To Work Creatively
To use a range of materials creatively to design and make products.
- Skills proficiency
To use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination.
To develop a wide range of art and design techniques in colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.
- The History of Art
About the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between practices and disciplines and making links to their own work.
- Language of Art
The appropriate language and vocabulary they will require to develop their ability to discuss, share and evaluate their own and others work in a meaningful way.
End of Key Stage 2 Expectations
Pupils should be taught:
- To Work Creatively
To further develop their techniques creatively using experimentation and an increasing awareness of different art, craft and design.
- Skills proficiency
To create a sketchbook to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas.
To develop their control and use of a range of materials and tools.
To improve their mastery of art and design techniques including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
- The History of Art
About the work of great artists, architects, craft makers and designers in history.
To describe what they see in a range of art and design works in detail and to provide evidence for their observations.
- Language of Art
To use language of art to evaluate and explain their reactions to great works of art and design.
To use with increased proficiency appropriate language when discussing art and design. Developing an individual and group pupil voice which contributes to their learning.
Implementation
We follow a broad and balanced Art and Design curriculum which has been designed by the Specialist Art Teacher and builds on previous learning and provides both support and challenge for learners.
At Whitmore Park Primary, KS1 and KS2 Art and Design/Design and Technology is taught by an art specialist teacher. Each class has a 1 hour session per week. To ensure coverage, Design and Technology in KS1 is taught over a half term period (6 week block) and in KS2 it is taught over 2 half term periods. Art projects will link where appropriate to topics being taught in class to enable pupils to see, discuss and make links between Art and other subjects. Other units of work will be more skills based to ensure that every pupil can develop their technical skills and understanding.
In Art and Design, the skills are developed and built upon each year so that progression can be clearly seen across the school. All children are exposed to a range of media each year giving them the opportunity to explore, develop and embed their skills and understanding of that media, from Year 1 to 6. Lessons will develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing of different kinds of art, craft and design. During each lesson progress will be assessed in a range of ways. Pupils will be aware of the skills they are developing and will be able to look back on what they achieved before. Through self and peer evaluation the children will discuss what they have done well and what they will need to continue to practice and develop in order to continue to improve their skills in that particular area. The teacher will also make suggestions and refer back to previous modelling to support the pupils.
Recording through the use of a sketchbook is an excellent way of tracking progress over time. Sketchbooks will include planning and experimental work as the process is deemed to be just as important as the final outcome especially in tracking progress. Sketchbooks will start in Year 1 and follow pupils through their primary school life. Pupils will be able to look back and reflect on their own progress. It is explicitly taught that sketchbooks are a place for pupils to do their ‘art thinking’, not for perfect and final outcomes. Pupils are actively encouraged to present the information and record their learning in a way that they themselves feel is best. Allowing them to take ownership and fostering pride in their work. Pupils understand that their sketchbooks will not be formally marked and is a safe space for them to work to explore and refine their skills. It is also a place where mistakes are not only made but learnt from. It is incredibly important that our pupils feel empowered and open to making mistakes and understand in Art and Design, there is not right or wrong as it is all a matter of interpretation. Sketchbooks are kept in the specialist art room and are used in every lesson.
Drawing is a key skill which will run through all activities with an emphasis on understand about drawing for purpose. So, it is not just about skill in observation/perception, but includes being able to communicate ideas visually (a mind map, a plan, a diagram, an expression of thought). E.g. an idea maybe sketched out before creating a sculpture. While drawing may not be a strong area for one pupil, they may find sculpture easier to grasp. It is this openness and acceptance that will allow our children to take risks in art. It is when we take risks that our learning can truly flow and all our children become artists. The formal elements are summarised as line, shape, form, tone, texture, colour and composition. They are often used together and how they are organised in a piece of art determines what the finished piece will look like. Visual literacy is a key skill throughout.
The schools Art and Design schemes ensures the progression of skills and covers all aspects of the Art and Design curriculum. All classes have a scheduled Art and Design/Design and Technology lesson each week. This is supplemented occasionally by class teachers using art and design in other subjects. We want to ensure that Art and Design is embedded in our whole school curriculum and that opportunities for enhancing learning by using art and design are always taken.
The specialist teacher engages in regular CPD, which is subject specific, to keep up to date with current ideas, practice and share ideas helping to develop further ways to teach in a cross curricular way as effectively as possible. The Art specialist is in charge of their own art budget, so is able to ensure high quality media, tools and equipment are available for all lessons. Art and design is taught in a specialist art room, which also elevates the subject and gives it high status. Art produced in lessons is displayed in and around the school building to inspire and engage learners throughout the year groups. Monitoring of progress is easily standardised as it is completed by the specialist teacher across all of KS1 and 2.
‘Kapow Art, craft and design ‘resources are used to support the art and design curriculum.
Impact
Art and design learning is loved by pupils across the school. Having a specialist art teacher ensures subject knowledge and skill is high and working across all year groups in KS1 and 2 ensures all planning is cohesive and of a high standard. The specialist teacher monitors and assesses progress across both key stages ensuring continuity and reducing variation in assessments. Having an overview of every year group means sequencing of lessons is easier as the teacher has a clear understanding of what pupils have learnt or achieved in the previous year. The teacher also has a clear understanding of how to move learning forwards or how to consolidate learning of particularly ‘tricky’ skills.
All children are encouraged to use and discuss their work using technical vocabulary accurately and pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the techniques, skills and processes specified. Children have opportunities to consistently improve their enquiry skills and inquisitiveness about the world around them and their impact through art and design on the world. Children are familiar with routines and techniques and become more confident in analysing their work and giving their opinion on their own and other works of art. Children show competences in improving their resilience and perseverance by continually evaluating and improving their work. All children in school can speak confidently about their art and design work and their skills.
At the end of each year the children will have been exposed to a wide variety of different media, giving them the opportunity to use it in a different way or for a different purpose and develop a range of skills. This will build upon their prior knowledge of what they can do when using this media. Our lessons are accessible for all of our pupils and they are proud of what they have achieved. They will be able to look back at their earliest work in their sketch books and see the progress they have made.
As we move up through the school the children will begin to develop their own preferences of media and styles as they will have been exposed to them frequently throughout their time in school.
Our approach of being open and accepting of mistakes will not only help to develop our children’s creativity within Art but will extend to other areas of their lives. There are many key life skills that will be developed through our attitude and teaching of Art and Design which will support our children as they move on after Whitmore Park Primary. Respecting others and their work even if we don’t like it personally, or carrying on after something goes wrong or when things do not turn out how we planned are desired outcomes. This resilience is a key skill which our children will need throughout their lives.
Our children enjoy and value Art and Design and know ‘why’ they are doing things, not just ‘how’. Pupils will understand and appreciate the value of Art and Design in the context of their personal wellbeing and the creative and cultural industries and their many career opportunities. Progress in Art and Design is demonstrated through regularly reviewing and scrutinising children’s work, in accordance with our Art and Design assessment policy to ensure that progression of skills is taking place. Namely through:
- Looking at pupils’ work, especially over time as they gain skills and knowledge
- Observing how they perform in lessons
- Talking to them about what they know.
The Art and Design curriculum will contribute to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection. This would be seen in them being able to talk confidently about their work, and sharing their work with others. Progress will be shown through outcomes and through the important record of the process leading to them.
Please click here to see a full copy of our Art intent statement.
