Art and Design

“Art is something that makes you breath with a different kind of happiness”

- Anni Albers

Purpose

Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should 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, they should be able 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.

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

The National Curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure that by the end of year 6, all pupils will:

• ·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.

Intent

Making Learning Memorable

• Knowledge, skills and understanding that are necessary to make appropriate progress in the subject need to be planned and developed systematically to build schemata. Pupils require sufficient time to develop mastery of skills and opportunities to create learning outcomes.

• Art and Design lends itself readily to enriching, extending and consolidating learning in a variety of curriculum contexts. The subject often contributes to cross-curricular programmes and to various events and activities in the school calendar.

Exceeding Expectations

• Art and design express some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should 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.

• Ownership of Sketchbooks should begin to take place so pupils can evidence their learning journey.  

Cultural Capital

• Pupils will gain an understanding that Art and Design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

• Art and Design is subject to influence and personal viewpoint. Therefore, pupils are encouraged to be reflective, evaluative in their work, thinking about how they can make changes, and keep improving.

• Teachers often talk of Reading for Pleasure and we want the pupils to View Art for Pleasure.

Learning Beyond the Classroom

• We will provide a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences both in the classroom and outdoors for pupils to develop their artistic skills. Art and Design can be taken outdoors so areas of the subject can be explored in different ways. This gives the children the opportunity to develop their personal skills and wellbeing, which contributes significantly to their academic achievements.

Learning Culture

• Teaching and learning takes place most effectively in an environment that celebrates innovation and is sensitive to personal feelings, values and attitudes. Our aim is to allow children to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas alongside building resilience, confidence and critical-thinking skills.

• In order for our pupils to shine, they will be encouraged to take risks.
  ‘Creativity takes courage’ – Henri Matisse.

Learning Community

• We endeavour to create a curriculum that is rich, diverse and will ignite passion for learning. Our Art and Design lessons will engage, inspire and challenge all pupils to think innovatively and develop creative understanding.  

Implementation

The Art and Design curriculum has been carefully mapped out so that knowledge, skills and vocabulary are progressively built upon through the three units of coverage across the years.  Our aim is to deliver richly connected knowledge and skills which are revisited and built upon, leading to high levels of long-term retention.

We empower our staff to organise their own year group Art and Design curriculum under the guidance of the subject leader. Teachers are best placed to make these judgements for their classes.

When planning Art and Design lessons, staff will:

• Take the objectives from the skills progression map.

• Ensure progression of skills and techniques are used throughout lessons and maximise topic-based activities (if appropriate) to spark interest and to stimulate creativity and imagination.

• Use a range of activities and tasks to enable pupils to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understanding.

• Allow pupils the opportunity to appreciate and discuss the work of iconic artists throughout history over time, and use these as inspiration for their own creative development.

• Continually assess pupil’s knowledge and skills through a range of techniques allowing them to direct and build pupils’ understanding at the pace they need.

• Give pupil’s the opportunity to plan, research and present their own understanding and learning in their own sketchbook.

• Consider how the creative learning can be evidenced in sketchbooks to show progression of skills as well as celebrate the learning journey. (Where practical activities such as sculpturing is implemented, photographs will be used to evidence this learning and be included in the sketchbooks.)

Impact

At St Michaels, we believe that through the Art and Design curriculum, the pupils will recognise that art comes from all walks of life and from every corner of our planet. Our pupils will know that creativity comes in many different forms and that though we do not always agree on what is the best form, we will agree that everyone has a voice and an opinion about the art that they are either creating or looking at, but will critique the art with respect. We want our pupils to see Art and Design as a passage for creativity as well as positive well-being and wellness, in our ever changing world. We aim to nurture the natural talents of our pupils and celebrate those talents and successes where pupils are ‘Shining brightly, standing out.’

Pupils will demonstrate their progression of being Artists through the work they create and ideas they explore in their sketchbooks. This will enable the leader to assess and monitor the progression of skills covered across the school. The skills and techniques will be evidenced in a variety of ways such as exploration straight into the sketchbooks and photographs to show physical models, activities and final pieces that may not fit. At St Michaels, we encourage verbal and written reflections from the pupils so they can understand how to improve their work. In Key Stage Two, we would inspire them to take ownership by making annotations and trialling ways to be more successful.

We will also use pupils’ voices to provide a key focus when reviewing past learning, assessing and developing future activities. Annual pupil conferencing allows us to monitor the impact of Art and Design teaching and enables us to improve based on the direction of the pupils’ constructive ideas.

All staff work closely together when moderating Art and Design work. Photocopies of specific areas of the Art and Design units are creating the start of a whole school Art portfolio to promote the quality of learning experiences and breadth of skills and techniques explored throughout the year groups in school.

What careers can I inspire to do with the skills from Art and Design? 

Animator, Artist Illustrator, Sculptor, Technical illustrator, Blacksmith, Florist, Glass designer, Jewellery designer/maker, Leather craft worker, Picture framer, Sign writer, Stonemason, Graphic designer, Upholsterer, Visual merchandiser, Curator, Museum director, Art journalist, Auctioneer.