Art
"Children are naturally creative. It is our job to give them the freedom, materials and space to let their creativity blossom to its full potential." Jean Van't Hul
Intent
At Ashton Vale Primary School art should be fully inclusive to every child. 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 from 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, and 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.
Art and design teaching at Ashton Vale Primary School instils 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, 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.
The aims of teaching art and design in our school are:
- To engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.
- As pupils progress through school, they should begin to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
- To produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
- To become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
- To evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
- To know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in art and design, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Art and design is taught as part of a half-termly or termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Ashton Vale, we ensure that art and design is given the same importance as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.
The art and design curriculum at Ashton Vale is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills and taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using Curriculum Maestro and our progression of knowledge and skills documents. Teachers can use these documents to plan their art and design lessons suitable to their class’s interests and what they want to learn. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
When teaching art and design, teachers should follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement.
Art and design provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of more able pupils through the investigations, analysing sources and writing extending pieces. Children showing extensive aptitude in art and design will be placed on our schools gifted and talented register. These children will be selected for appropriate enrichment opportunities throughout the year.
Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional art learning outside the classroom. At Ashton Vale, the children have had many opportunities to experience art and design on educational visits. The children have explored local museums/art galleries and had visitors into school to share art and design learning and have hands on experiences.
Impact
Within art and design, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry 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.
Our art and design curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
- Marking of written work in books.
