Art and Design

Art and Design

INTENT:

At Appletree Gardens, we value Art and Design as an important part of children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Art and Design provides the children with opportunities to develop and extend skills as well as express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas.

Our high quality Art and Design curriculum engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they are able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of Art and Design and understand how art and design has shaped our history, contributing to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

National Curriculum Aims:

• To produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.

• To become proficient in drawing, painting and 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.

The teaching and implementation of Art and Design at Appletree Gardens is based on the 2014 National Curriculum and supported by the revised Kapow Primary Art and Design plans, ensuring a well-structured approach to this creative subject.

Planning identifies 5 strands that run throughout the scheme of work: 

• Making Skills

• Generating ideas

• Formal Elements

• Knowledge of artists

• Evaluating

The scheme is designed as a spiral curriculum where pupils return to the same skills again and again and where each time a skill is revisited it is covered with greater complexity. Prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build upon previous foundations, rather than starting again.

Each year group studies a unit called ‘Formal Elements of Art’ which focuses upon the discrete skills of the formal elements of art: Line, Shape, Tone, Texture, Pattern, Colour. They also study a unit called ’Art and Design Skills’ which focuses specifically on developing pupil’s art, craft and design skills in a discrete way. The knowledge and skills from these two recurring units are then applied throughout the rest of the scheme within the other units.

Art vocabulary is progressively taught and pupils are encouraged to apply this to demonstrate their Art and Design knowledge and understanding.

Children’s skills are assessed and developed by the teacher during the lesson with end of unit summative assessments used to track progress against key objectives.

IMPACT

Our children enjoy and value Art and Design and know why they are doing things, not just how. The structure of the curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of times and cultures and apply this knowledge to their own work.

Progress in Art and Design is demonstrated through regular reviewing and scrutinising children’s work. Namely through: 

• Looking at pupil’s work, especially over time as they gain skills and knowledge.

• Observing how they perform in lessons.

• Talking to them about what they know.

The consistent use of sketchbooks means that children are able to review, modify and develop their initial ideas in order to achieve high quality outcomes.

Effective lesson sequencing and progression between year groups allows children to refine and develop their techniques and supports them in achieving age related expectations at the end of each year.

Classroom displays reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. The school environment celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in school.

Our Art and Design curriculum contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection. This is demonstrated in their ability to talk confidently about their work, and share their work with others.