ART & DESIGN

Quinton Primary School Art Blog

Intent

At Quinton Primary School, we believe that Art and Design contributes to the development of the whole child: emotionally, intellectually, socially, spiritually and aesthetically. The art curriculum will develop children’s critical abilities and understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages through studying a diverse range of male and female artists from a range of time periods. Art is an on-going process through which all children are given opportunities to develop specific skills, knowledge and understanding to enable them to work in different media, style and form. The curriculum will ensure that children become visually literate and are able to identify and apply the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape, 3D form). Art is considered as a vehicle for learning in all areas of the curriculum and to help children reach their full potential.

Implementation

The skills and knowledge that children will develop throughout each art topic are mapped across each year group and throughout the school to ensure progression. Each unit of art will be carefully planned out considering the skills, knowledge, vocabulary, artists, skills and media to be taught to challenge and broaden the pupils’ understanding and ability.

The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists that they are learning about and being inspired by. This enables links to other curriculum areas, including humanities, with children developing a considerable knowledge of individual artists as well as individual works and art movements.

A similar focus on skills means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practise the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.

Coordinated whole-school project work will ensure that art is given high status in the curriculum and the school takes part in the annual ‘Book week’ which enables further focus on children’s artistic skills and knowledge focused around a particular text. An extra-curricular Art Club provides KS1 and KS2 pupils with opportunities to explore and experiment with a range of art processes.

Through our exciting Art & Design curriculum, the children use sketchbooks to show a visual journey through a project to an individual finished piece of artwork. The children have opportunities to:

• Connect with a range of artists
• Observe objects, people and landscapes in detail
• Explore a wide range of art processes and visual elements
• Design and Create individual artwork
• Evaluate their designs and masterpieces

Our aim is to ensure that children feel confident in approaching a range of artwork, understand that art is a process and not just the finished outcome, feel a strong sense of achievement and value the impact of art within their own lives.

Impact

Sketchbooks will show a diverse range of knowledge and skills that have been taught. They will show evidence of a visual journey through an art unit: connect, explore, design, create and evaluate. Classroom displays will reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. The school environment also celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in the school, with outcomes, including large displays, enhancing the school environment. The Art curriculum at Quinton Primary School contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection.