Art and Design

Art and design stimulates creativity and imagination.

It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences, and a special way of understanding and responding to the world. It enables children to communicate what they see, feel and think, through the use of colour, texture, form, pattern and different materials and processes.

Children become involved in shaping their environments through art and design activities. They learn to make informed judgements, and aesthetic and practical decisions. They explore ideas and meanings through the work of artists and designers. Through learning about the roles and functions of art, they can explore the impact it has had on contemporary life and on different periods and cultures. The appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts enriches all our lives.

Intent

We aim to enable children to:

  • record from first-hand experience and from imagination, and to select their own ideas to use in their work;
  • develop creativity and imagination through a range of simple and more complex activities;
  • control materials, tools and techniques;
  • increase their critical awareness of the roles and purposes of art and design in different times and cultures;
  • develop increasing confidence in the use of visual and tactile elements and materials;
  • foster an enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts, and a knowledge of artists, craftspeople and designers.

Implementation

Art and Design is a foundation subject in the National Curriculum. At Percy Main Primary School we use a creative approach towards our curriculum planning in art and design linking our class projects with the current topic, whilst ensuring progression of skills.

We carry out the curriculum planning in art and design in three phases: long- term, medium-term and short-term. Our long-term plan maps out the skills taught in each term in each year group.

Our medium-term plans give details of the content covered each term. These plans define what is taught, and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of curriculum coverage across each term

Class teachers complete a plan for each art and design lesson. These list the specific learning objectives and success criteria for the lesson.

Activities in art and design are planned so that they build on the children’s prior learning. While we give children of all abilities the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding, we also plan for progression, so that there is an increasing challenge for the children as they move up through the school.

Delivery

At Percy Main Primary School we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in art and design lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s enjoyment and appreciation of art whilst developing their knowledge, skills and understanding. We ensure that the act of investigating and making something includes exploring and developing ideas, and evaluating and developing work. We do this best through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual or group activities. Teachers draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other children. They encourage children to evaluate their own ideas and methods, and the work of others, and to say what they think and feel about them. We give children the opportunity to work, by themselves and in collaboration with others, on projects in two and three dimensions, and at different scales. Children also have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including ICT.

Impact

Our children enjoy the self-expression that they experience in Art and Design .

They are always keen to learn new skills and work hard to perfect those shown to them. The children’s art is often cross-curricular, and helps them to express feelings and emotions in art, as well as show their knowledge and understanding in history, geography and science.

Art and design enables our children to become creative learners, who have a web of knowledge about the great artists of the world. Creativity and uniqueness is celebrated and children become astute at editing and improving the pieces they have created. We place an emphasis on individuality and children are given the freedom to explore art using their imaginations. Children embed the key art and design skills needed to allow them to produce inventive pieces of art.

Inclusion

We recognise the fact that we have children of differing ability in all our classes, and we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:

  • setting tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of responses;
  • setting tasks of increasing difficulty, where not all children complete all tasks;
  • grouping children by ability, and setting different tasks for each group;
  • providing a range of challenges with different resources;
  • having more adults support the work of individual children or small groups. Assessment and Recording

Children are assessed throughout every lesson. Support is given and misconceptions addressed as part of whole class and smaller group teaching. The teacher uses formative assessment during the lesson and summative assessment at the end of the lesson to inform planning of the next session or series of sessions.

Formal assessment is carried out every term and is added to the O-track tracker for each year group by the class teacher.

Monitoring and Review

The Art and Design subject leader:

  • Monitors assessment and standards across school
  • Coaches newer teachers and members of staff with subject knowledge and teaching of Art and Design
  • Monitors and manages curriculum coverage and enhancements
  • Is responsible for reporting to the governors about the quality of the implementation of Art and Design and the impact on standards.