Art

Intent

As Picasso once said ‘Every child is an artist’ and at Belton Primary we aim to promote and inspire creativity in order for our pupils to recognise their skills as artists and designers. We aim to achieve this by providing the children with an engaging art and design curriculum, that allows them to explore, experiment and create.

Our school follows the Kapow Primary Art’s high-quality scheme of work, which has been created by experts in the field and enables children to meet all of the National Curriculum targets as well as covering the progression competencies as set out by The National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD).

Our Art and Design curriculum aims to inspire pupils as well as challenge their creativity and equip them with the skills needed to experiment and invent their own unique pieces of art and design. Within our curriculum children will have the opportunity to learn and become proficient in a variety of skills and techniques such as drawing, painting, sculpture and craft. Through the mastery of these skills, the children will gain confidence and resilience in experimenting with ideas and materials.

Alongside the progression of skills, the children will also develop a greater awareness of the work of famous artists, designers and craftspeople and how art and design reflects on history, culture and society. As pupils progress we will nurture their artistic voice, helping them to observe, analyse and evaluate creative works using the language of art and design, as well as making connections to their own work and that of their peers.

Implementation

The Kapow scheme of work is designed with five key strands that run throughout each unit. These are:

- Generating Ideas

-Using Sketchbooks

-Making Skills (Including Formal Elements)

-Knowledge of Artists

-Analysing and Evaluating

The spiral curriculum model allows children to build on their skills and knowledge, applying them to a range of different outcomes. Key skills can be revisited with increasing complexity as the children progress through the school.

Each year children will complete a unit of work in each of the following areas:

Drawing

-      Exploring mark making in all of its forms, experimenting with line, tone and texture and using a wide range of materials to express their ideas as drawings.

-      Using sketchbooks to record observations and plans as drawings.

-      Learning about how artists develop their ideas using drawings.

Painting and Mixed Media

-      Developing painting skills including colour mixing, painting on a range of surfaces and with different tools.

-      Exploring the interplay between different media within an artwork.

Sculpture and 3D

-Investigating how to express ideas in three- dimensions.

-Constructing and modelling

Craft and Design

-Designing and making art for different purposes, considering how this works in creative industries.

-Learning new making techniques, comparing these and making decisions about which to use to achieve a particular outcome.

- Developing personal, imaginative responses to a design brief.

Each knowledge rich unit is designed to scaffold and support the development of skills, a robust understanding of the formal elements, as well as enable children to make their own unique creative choices.

Art and Design is taught using a mixed age two year rolling programme, alternating each half term with Design and Technology.

EYFS

Within the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design forms part of the holistic curriculum. Children have access to a range of media and materials both indoors and outdoors, as part of their daily continuous provision. Through this provision, child-initiated learning can occur whereby pupils can begin to experiment with materials, tools and techniques independently, fostering their creativity and enjoyment in the subject. During play children are appropriately scaffolded in their learning to ensure they can progress and develop their ideas further. Adults also encourage the children to work collaboratively, sharing their ideas and talking about their creations. Adults actively encourage children to communicate their ideas and observations, initiating discussions and reflecting on what they have achieved and how they can improve.

Alongside this, weekly challenges are set up within provision to focus on specific skills and techniques such as colour mixing, printing. These activities enable the children to return and revisit learning, building on their knowledge and experience.

There are also weekly art lessons following the Kapow curriculum, focusing on each of the key skills – drawing, painting and mixed media, sculpture and 3D and Craft and Design.

Key Stage 1:

Within Key Stage 1 the children receive one hour of taught Art and Design each week. They also have access to a selection of media and materials with which to experiment and create during their ‘COOL’ (Choose our own learning) time.

Sketchbooks are introduced in Art and Design lessons in Year 1 for the children to record their experimentation with media, materials and techniques, explore artists work as well as create their own artwork. The children are also encouraged to begin annotating their work, writing simple evaluative comments.

Key Stage 2:

Within Key Stage 2, the children receive a 2 hour lesson each fortnight. We adapted this to suit the needs of the children as we felt it allowed them more time each lesson for exploration, development of ideas and class discussions.

Sketchbooks are used each lesson to record ideas, experiments and create artwork. Within each unit the children also explore a range of artists, creating artists studies in their sketchbooks recording information about the artists, adding annotations about the artists style and how they have used the formal elements within their work. We also encourage the children to record their own opinions about the artists work.

Extra-Curricular Activities:

Alongside their work in lessons, there are also opportunities for the children to enhance their art and design skills and experiences in extra-curricular activities.

Each year the school participates in the local Rotary Club ‘Young Artist of the Year’ competition, with pupils from all age groups creating works of art relating to a chosen theme. Winning entries from each age group also get the opportunity to have their work displayed in a local exhibition. A piece of artwork created by one of our KS2 pupils was actually purchased after being viewed at the winners exhibition, with the child donating the money to a local charity!

Impact

Our curriculum is designed in such a way as to ensure children are involved in the evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make. Each lesson we share in class discussions about artists work, relating our dialogue to the formal elements in terms of how they have used line, shape, colour etc and encourage the children to offer their opinion about what they like and dislike about each piece. We feel this opportunity for regular discussion helps to build children’s confidence in having their own opinion and recognising that it is often different to others.

We also encourage children to self-evaluate their own work through annotations in their sketchbooks, adding comments as they work about what has worked well, what could they do to improve. In Key Stage 2 we also begin to encourage peer evaluation, encouraging the children to share their work with peers and offer positive constructive feedback, enhancing those evaluative skills further.
 

As we progress through each unit, teachers can assess children against the learning outcomes using the assessment grid provided by Kapow. This allows teachers to see clearly what children need to achieve in order to show a secure understanding and how they can demonstrate greater depth.

It also enables teachers to develop a clear and concise record of development for each child and in turn a comprehensive overview of each year group, which can be used to identify areas of strength and weakness.

The impact of our curriculum means that the children at Belton Primary will be able to…

o   -produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.

o   -become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design.

o   -evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.

o   -know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

After the implementation of our art and design curriculum, children should leave Belton Primary School equipped with the skills, confidence and creativity to begin the next chapter of their learning journey in Key Stage 3.