Art

Intent

At Leechpool 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, by providing a broad and balanced curriculum, which ensures the progressive development of knowledge and skills.

The Art and Design curriculum stimulates imagination and creativity. It promotes careful observation and an appreciation of the world around us. Children explore ideas and meanings through studying the work of artists and designers and the impact they have 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.
To use a variety of media and 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.

Teachers plan lessons for their class using our overview and progression of knowledge and skills documents. Teachers can use these documents to plan their art and design lessons. The progression document and overview ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group. An Art unit typically consists of looking at and critiquing famous art work and styles, experimenting with techniques, form and/or colour, and finally the creation of their own piece of Art. Individual class teachers meet the children’s needs through differentiation.

In Key Stage 1 and the Foundation Stage art is taught through a cross curricular approach by class teachers. Children in the Foundation Stage have access to art equipment at all times during self-initiated times.

In Key Stage 2 Art is taught during Enrichment time by a specialist teacher. If a class does not have art enrichment that half term, the class teacher follows the lesson plans created by the specialist art teacher. Class teachers also use art in conjunction with topic planning.

At Leechpool, we have variety of themed weeks, including International Fortnight and British Week, where classes study art and artists from a range of countries and of different styles.

There are Art and Craft clubs taking place, which are an ideal way to encourage and challenge those children who enjoy or have a gift for art.

We aim to make the work accessible to all children and they are always encouraged to do their best and share their achievements with the class and staff. Their work is shared regularly through displays both within school and in the community.

Impact

At Leechpool, our art and design curriculum is of high quality, is well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Children will have a clear enjoyment and confidence in Art and Design.
Will be inspired by the Art curriculum which stimulates further independent creative work.
Children are able to discuss and critique art work and artist styles.
They can make links to previous learning and apply this across the curriculum
Talking to the children about their learning (pupil voice).
Half termly assessments against the skills documents (KS2).

The subject leader monitors the impact of our provision through regular monitoring that includes book looks, photographic evidence and listening to the voice of our pupils. Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.