At Northern Primary School, our Art and Design program inspires creativity, self-expression, and a love for the arts. Through exploring various mediums and techniques, students develop their artistic skills while gaining confidence in their ideas and imagination. Our curriculum celebrates individual creativity, encouraging students to express themselves and appreciate the beauty of visual storytelling.
Statement of intent for Art and Design.
Here at Northern it is our intent for the Art element of our school curriculum 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 our pupils progress, we intend for our pupils to be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. We want them to know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. Wherever possible we try and link to all subject areas to practise the skills taught. We ensure children’s work is displayed in a cross curricular way.
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.
Art in EYFS
Expressive arts and design is one of the seven areas of the early years foundation stage and is used to develop a child’s imagination, creativity and their ability to use media and materials. Children do this in range of ways including singing songs and making music, dancing, playing with colours, textures and design. All these approaches to expressive arts help children to represent and understand their own feelings and ideas. Here at Northern, Reception has a creative area which is enhanced weekly with materials that support the topic. There is a challenge given weekly for the children to complete. The work children have created is given meaning and is used whenever possible in other areas such as the roleplay. Their own creativity is encouraged and they are given time to practise skills taught, in their own context, in their own time. Art skills such as observational drawing are modelled by the teacher and the children then complete work in small groups. They are given plenty of opportunities to look at artists work and create work that is similar in style. Children’s work is celebrated and a selection is placed on the topic wall. This shows the activities they have completed through the half term.
Art in KS1
At the heart of the KS1 Art Curriculum is expression. Well-taught art lessons in KS1 will help children become more confident sharing their unique ideas. They’ll become more resilient as they experiment. KS1 children will have fun learning about artists through history. Art is beneficial for social and cultural reasons, too – art helps us to understand ourselves, others, and the world around us.
There are 2 key learning objectives that are the foundational pillars of the KS1 Art Curriculum. Keeping these at the core of KS1 Art teaching will ensure children learn to express themselves in meaningful, creative ways.
- KS1 children should learn to safely use and explore a variety of media and materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
- KS1 children should be able to use their imaginations. Children should be able to use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories
In Year 1 and Year 2 Art Lessons, 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.
Here at Northern, we have created a unique scheme of work to link with our topics. In each of these topics the children look at a range of different artists. In every one there is some element of drawing, painting and then another skill such as modelling.
Art in KS2
The 2014 National Curriculum guidelines outline everything that should be covered in art lessons at KS2. This is with the aim 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.
To meet these aims, art lessons at KS2 should encourage children to do the following things:
- 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; and - to learn about great artists, architects and designers in history.
- Here at Northern we have created sketch books for the children to complete their work. The children complete work for Art and Design based on their class topic. This is taught weekly. The children enjoy learning new skills and finding out about artists.
