Intent
At Wouldham All Saints we value art as an important part of our children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Our vision is to engage, inspire and challenge by introducing our children to a broad range of techniques, materials and artists, craftspeople and designers. We want our children to learn, think and intervene creatively and to solve problems as both individuals and members of a team. We encourage our children to take creative risks, learning from the process, rather than heading towards a pre-defined outcome.
We want to equip every child with the knowledge and skills needed to experiment, explore, take risks, invent and create their own unique works of art and design. Basic skills are introduced from Reception and then built upon; drawing, painting, printing and making skills are revisited and the use of ongoing sketchbook work from Year 1 underpins this process. As each children progresses, they will have embedded the key art and design skills needed to allow them to produce inventive pieces of work.
Whilst art is a practical subject, opportunities are given for the children to reflect and develop their ability to make critical responses, with increasing sensitivity, to their own work and that of others. As they experience their school journey, our children will have an understanding of how art contributes to their history, their everyday lives and their wider community, building on an appreciation and enjoyment of visual art from around the world.
We aim wherever possible to link work to other subject areas including English, Maths, Science, Computing and History. Creativity across the whole curriculum allows all children, regardless of ability, to apply what they have learnt and solidify key ideas. Art can bring key concepts to life and provide valuable, alternative ways for children to record and demonstrate their understanding regardless of curriculum area.
Aims
The national curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:
- produce creative work, exploring 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, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
Implementation
At Wouldham All Saints Primary school, we aim to provide an Art and Design Curriculum which develops learning and results in pupils knowing more, remembering more and understanding how the knowledge and skills can be applied in their own art work. At Wouldham, we follow the AccessArt art curriculum which helps us to deliver a rich, broad, balanced, diverse and engaging art curriculum across our school.
At Wouldham All Saints Primary School we achieve this through:
- Covering an AccessArt pathway every term with additional opportunities to engage with art and design activities throughout the school year.
- Teaching a predominantly skills-based curriculum, which covers drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.
- Re-teaching skills throughout the children’s time at school. Skills are revisited in a curriculum which progresses in terms of depth and challenge, to build on the children’s previous learning.
- Ensuring that each child develops their skills and techniques in a way appropriate to them, through clear differentiation and support, active and purposeful experiences, and using a variety of art materials and teaching strategies.
- Fostering an enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts and a knowledge of artists, craftspeople and designers; introducing pupils to a wide range of contemporary and historical artists and craftspeople.
- Introducing children to artists and art movements directly linked to the skills or themes they are covering.
- Use of sketchbooks from Year 1, a safe space where our children can record their ideas and practise and refine their skills. By annotating sketches, children will begin to use sketchbooks to map out their responses.
- Encouraging each child to evaluate their art and design work and that of others, both with peers and adults.
- Celebrating effort, progress and achievement in art through displays, exhibitions and enrichment activities, such as trips out and competitions.
Impact
Ongoing assessments take place throughout the year, one to one and group discussions between the class teacher and children, sketchbook, development work and ‘final pieces’ all inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately. This data is analysed on a termly basis to inform and address any trends or gaps in attainment.
Children in the Reception year are assessed within the area of ‘Expressive Arts and Design’, age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of the Reception year.
Displays within the classrooms and other spaces around the school will reflect the range of work produced across key stages, to celebrate and exhibit the work of children of all abilities. Each class teacher will contribute termly to a portfolio to demonstrate evidence of the range of skills and progression across phases throughout the current theme.
Pupils with a flair for art should also be encouraged to record more independently and freely in their sketchbooks as well as to experiment with and use materials and media of their own choice. Their increasingly critical thinking and in depth evaluation of their own and others’ art work should be reflected in their sketch books and the works of art they create with increasing confidence and independence of thought.
By the time our children leave Wouldham All Saints Primary School, we want them to have developed a passion for art and creativity, working both independently and collaboratively. They will have grown in confidence when using a range of tools and techniques, becoming artists that can apply the skills and knowledge that they have developed throughout their years with us and respond critically to their own and other’s work.
