Robert Piggott Subject Overview: Art and Design

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on” Albert Einstein

“Art is a line around your thoughts.” Gustav Klimt

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

Pablo Picasso

Curriculum Intent:

Art

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.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Pupils explore and use a variety of media and materials through a combination of child initiated and adult directed activities. They have opportunities to learn to:

• Explore the textures, movement, feel and look of different media and materials
• Respond to a range of media and materials, develop their understanding of them in order to manipulate and create different effects.
• Use different media and materials to express their own ideas
• Explore colour and use for a particular purpose
• Develop skills to use simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately
• Select appropriate media and techniques and adapt their work where necessary

Key Stage 1

Pupils should be taught:

• to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
• to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
• to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
• about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.

Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

Pupils should be taught:

• to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
• to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
• about great artists, architects and designers in history.

Implementation:

Our pedological approach to teaching Art and Design in the Robert Piggott CE Schools:

Robert Piggott Primary Schools understand that high quality Art and Design lessons will inspire children to develop individual creativity. These lessons should engage, challenge and broaden children’s knowledge and skills and enable them to experiment with their own ideas to develop creative understanding.

We believe that Art is a practical and personal exploration of ideas, which allows pupils to develop confidence in expressing their individual interests. Art in our school is about developing children’s ability to explore, reflect on ideas and experiment with their skills.

Our school uses the following to ensure excellent teaching and learning of Art and Design:

• In EYFS, Art and Design is developed through purposeful play based experiences. Children are provided with open-ended opportunities to extend their Expressive Arts and Design experiences through role-play and learning zone opportunities within the learning environments. Pupils have continuous access to the creation station where they can draw, paint, make pictures and models. Observations and photos of children’s experiences support learning within the EYFS Framework.
• Our curriculum, for years 1 to 6, is designed with these strands running throughout: Making skills, Formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour), Knowledge of artists and Evaluating. Through our curriculum these strands are revisited in every unit. Art and Design is taught once a week for an hour and is taught explicitly for three out of the six terms of the year.
• Giving pupils the opportunity to learn and practise skills discretely during the Art and design skills and Formal elements of art units. The knowledge and skills from these units are then applied throughout the other units in the scheme. Key skills are revisited with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning.
• Use of the curriculum overview ensures each year group knows which units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands. Additionally, the progression of skills document shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage. Year groups work with their key stage team to ensure coverage of the strands.
• Key artists and art movements are introduced to pupils throughout units of work to develop their knowledge and understanding.
• Cross-curricular and topic links are made when appropriate to support pupils in their understanding.
• Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded, supporting students in learning how to make their own creative choices and decisions, so that their art outcomes, whilst still being knowledge-rich, are unique to the pupil and personal.
• Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning with pupils using sketchbooks to document their ideas.
• Lessons are differentiated to support all pupils to achieve and succeed.

Impact:

Through following a clear and comprehensive scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum, it expected that teaching and learning will show progression across all key stages within the strands of Art and Design. Subsequently, more children will achieve age related expectations in Art at the end of their cohort year and Key Stage.

It is our aim that children will retain knowledge and skills taught within each unit of work, remember these and understand how to use and apply these in their own art work, whilst beginning to understand what being in ‘artist’ means.

At Robert Piggott CofE Schools, we measure the impact that Art and Design has had for all children by:

• Determining the extent to which objectives are met within each lesson and overall, at the end of each unit.

• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.

• Images of the children’s practical learning.

• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).

• Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.

• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.

By the time children leave Robert Piggott CofE Schools, we want them to have developed a passion for art and creativity, working both independently and collaboratively. They will have grown in confidence when using a range of tools and techniques, becoming artists that can apply the skills and knowledge that they have developed throughout the years and respond critically to their own and other’s work.