Mrs Mcgonigle and Miss Coton

“Every child is an artist….” Pablo Picasso

At Knowle CE Primary Academy, our Art and Design provision engages, inspires and challenges our pupils, providing them with rich opportunities to develop and extend their skills, encouraging them to express their individual creativity, thoughts and ideas. There is a focus on becoming proficient, through experimentation and invention, in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques and pupils develop the ability to critically evaluate and analyse creative works using appropriate vocabulary. Pupils work on projects of different size, using a range of media sometimes individually and often collaboratively. They learn to appreciate and understand the importance of cultural richness and diversity, through studying a range of male and female artists and how some of these artists have shaped our history and also played a part in representing spiritual and religious beliefs throughout the world. Our curriculum is designed and sequenced to enable our pupils’ levels of competency to develop in the key matters, skills, techniques and processes related to Art and Design.

Our curriculum intent – the knowledge and skills we expect our pupils to learn – can be found in our Long Term Plans and Medium Term Plans (see side below)

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Art, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Art is taught as part of a year group’s termly topic with a thematic link to other subjects and focuses on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists, architects and designers that they are learning about and being inspired by.

Our curriculum is underpinned by key skills (line, texture, pattern, colour, shape, form and shape, and artist appreciation). Each unit will not include every key skill, but over the course of the academic year children will have visited each key skill on at least one occasion. For example, in Year 4, when exploring the topic of Chocolate Creations, children will encounter the concept of ‘line’, where they use different tones to create a 3-D effect and study how the artist Cezanne used colour using angular brushstrokes to create his compositions. Then, in Year 5, when exploring the topic of Space Inventions, children explore ‘line’ again where they are using tonal shading with a greater control of gradient. When revisiting colour, the children look at how Peter Thorpe uses contrasting bright colours with short and sweeping brushstrokes to create movement and energy in an abstract composition.

As children progress through our art curriculum, they are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, collage and sculpture.

Children record their work in sketch books. Knowledge and skills are built upon over a sequence of lessons and sketch books clearly record the learning journey, leading to a final composition and evaluation of learning. Children’s work is celebrated across school and is framed and showcased in communal areas of the building.

Children’s learning is further enhanced with whole school ‘Big Art’ days. For example, all children across school have designed and created their own clay tile to represent one of the Fruits of the Spirit (our school’s values). The collaborative project allowed children to showcase their skills and creativity and the progression of our children’s clay modelling skills was evident from EYFS to Year 6. These tiles are displayed in prominent areas of school, to celebrate the children’s work and the vibrant ethos of our school.