Art & Design

Intent

At Walton-on-Trent Primary School, Art and Design is fully inclusive to every child. Art and Design teaching at Walton-on-Trent Primary School instils an appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts. This stimulates imagination and creativity; involving children in a range of visual, tactile, and sensory experiences, which enable them to communicate what they see, think and feel through the use of the elements of colour, texture, form and pattern. Art and Design promotes careful observation and an appreciation of the world around us. Children explore ideas and meanings through studying the work of artists and designers. Through learning about the roles and functions of art, they can explore the impact it has had on contemporary life and on different periods and cultures.

Our aims are to:

• Fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Art and Design, provide a broad and balanced curriculum.
• Ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills.
• Enable children to observe and record from first-hand experience and imagination.
• Develop the children’s competence in controlling materials and tools.
• Acquire knowledge and become proficient in various art and design techniques and processes.
• Begin to develop an awareness of the visual and tactile elements including; colour, pattern and texture, line and tone, shape, form and space, foster enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts and develop a knowledge of significant artists, craftspeople and designers.
• Increase critical awareness of the roles and purposes of art and design in different times and cultures.
• Analyse works using the language of art and design and develop a cross-curricular approach to the use of art and design in all subjects.
• Sketchbooks are used in Key Stage 1 and 2 to develop ideas, and experiment. They should be individual and creative. Children should be encouraged to look back through their sketchbooks and develop their ideas as well as technical skills.
• Children using art to express themselves and gain an interest outside of school.
• All children no matter their needs will have access to the Art and Design curriculum, including SEND, and EYFS.

Implementation

In order to achieve the aims outlined above, Art and design is organised into topics across the school following the National Curriculum. These topics are set out for each class from our school led scheme and are used as a basis to help and support teacher planning, however teacher lesson design is not limited to. The teachers use creative and cross-curricular approaches as well as teaching the subjects independently. As we have mixed classes, we provide suitable learning for each year group this can be seen in our progression maps. Staff ensue they teach lessons engaging with indoor and outdoor learning this enable children to see different contexts and experience a broader choice of activities. Supporting their curiosity, critical thinking and enhancing their cultural capital. Through the year we aim to invite outside agencies in to support children’s learning in new ways and consolidate previous learning, e.g., a theatre company visit. Children will complete work in a range of ways to suit all learning needs, this will include working individually and in mixed ability groupings. Pupils study Art for one hour per week for three terms across the school year.

Within Art and Design, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and skills-based learning opportunities. Emphasis is placed on investigative learning opportunities to help children gain a coherent knowledge of understanding of each unit of work covered throughout the school.

We give children the opportunity to work by themselves and in collaboration with others, on projects in two and three dimensions, and at different scales. We ensure that children are given the opportunities to investigate, explore and develop ideas as well as evaluate, revisit and improve their work. Children also have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including computer technology.

Impact

Pupils’ attainment and progress in art and design is measured against the objectives set in the national curriculum. Pupil progress is evident in sketchbooks which shows a build-up of skills and knowledge throughout a unit of work and across year groups as the book follows them throughout school.

Our art curriculum is designed in such a way that children are involved in evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make. By taking part in our regular discussions and decision-making processes, children will not only know facts and key information about art, but they will be able to talk confidently about their own learning journey, have higher metacognitive skills and have a growing understanding of how to improve. We look at the practices taking place to determine whether they are appropriate, related to our goals and likely to produce results.

We use lesson observations and learning walks to check learning and expectations.

Pupils’ attainment and progress is measured against the objectives set in the national curriculum and recorded by teachers using Sonar, this informs teachers, future activities, and parents.

The expected impact of our art curriculum is that children will:

Broad, balanced curriculum where skills and knowledge is embedded and create a shift in long term memory.

Provision is adapted so that it is suitable for all groups of learners, including SEND

• Produce creative work, exploring and recording their ideas and experiences.

• Be proficient in the art, craft and design techniques.

• Evaluate and analyse creative works using subject-specific vocabulary, resulting in increased cultural capital.  

• Know about great artists and the historical and cultural development of their art.