Intent
At Mereside CE Primary Academy, we aim to provide a high-quality art curriculum that fosters pupils’ autonomy, creativity, imagination and resilience. Art lessons will provide pupils’ opportunities to learn about the history of art, its evolution and those involved with these changes. Additionally, it will provide segues into learning about other cultures. Opportunities to appreciate and reflect will support our children in viewing themselves as global citizens who celebrate and value diversity. Lessons will be linked to other curriculum areas when suitable to help reinforce and enhance learning, whilst acquiring techniques and skills to apply to their final pieces and reflections. Art should enable the children to communicate what they see, feel and think. Our art education will promote discussion, sense of expression and questioning with the aim to motivate our children to continue to thrive in our fast-changing world as artists beyond primary education.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso
Implementation
At Mereside CE Primary Academy, we have used Access Art to support our decision-making and inspiration.
We aim to cover the seven main elements of Art: line, colour, texture, form, shape, value and space. This will be achieved through, drawing, painting, printing, sculpting, textiles and collage. From EYFS to year 6 the children will look at complex skills isolated to build technical control, automaticity and proficiency. The units will develop, build and challenge pupils by re-encountering knowledge.
We will guide and help children feel confident to take creative risks and express their identity through art. The children will have the option to choose the medium they use in their work, especially for their final piece. There might be specific tasks or technical work, which requires one medium to be used but this would be during the beginning of the session. As the pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. Collaborative learning strategies are used to promote high levels of pupil engagement. Regular flashbacks are used at the start of each lesson to strengthen recall.
Elements of lessons and units:
Artist study is a very important part of our art curriculum. The children will study a range of artists that show progression through history, different genders, celebrate local achievements and most importantly from different cultures. When studying artists (KS2), two or more will be looked at in each unit, one for KS1. The artists will be compared (similarities and differences) and the children will discuss the connections, meanings and interpretations of their work.
With the exception of Early Years, our children all use sketchbooks to document their learning and creative journeys; where they have the opportunity to record, review and revisit their ideas. We feel these are a vital part of developing our children to work as artists, craft makers and designers.
Impact
Assessment in the art curriculum is a holistic process and should teach pupils: how to become independent artists, craft makers and designers, to know and understand the creative process, to ask themselves the right questions and to be able to accept praise and take advice in equal measures. The NSEAD assessment framework is used to assess children’s ability to work within the four key concept areas: generating ideas, making, knowledge and understanding and evaluating. Our own progression of skills is used alongside the NSEAD assessment framework to support assessment.
Art whole school overview
Art in EYFS
