Art and Design
Intent
At Our Lady and St. Joseph’s we believe that art is a broad and engaging subject. Art encourages children to learn to think creatively, imaginatively and with confidence. Children will learn to take risks, vocalising opinions about art using subject-specific vocabulary and building social skills through an understanding of how art and design reflect and shape our shared history. Forest School helps to foster a love for creativity within the natural environment, helping to embed disciplinary knowledge practised in the classroom and developing an appreciation for nature and all that it inspires within us creatively.
Topics are informed by the national curriculum. The art curriculum is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy.
Nature weaving in Forest School, to support our weaving topic in KS1.
Implementation
Art projects are taught in topic blocks throughout each year group so that children have opportunity to work creatively and practically. The key substantive and disciplinary knowledge that children acquire and develop throughout each block have been mapped out to ensure progression throughout the school. Key knowledge is transferred onto knowledge organisers which are rigorously used and consolidated through a carefully chosen sequence of lessons. Each lesson has an agenda and low stakes quizzing is used throughout each block of work to help the retention of key knowledge.
Artists, craft-makers and designers
Children are taught 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. Every topic (of which there are 6 each year) begins with children being introduced to a significant piece of artwork. Some of these pieces are well-known pieces of work, whereas others are celebrated due to the way in which they help to raise the profile of local or lesser-known artists. Sometimes, class teachers will engage children in a close reading of the artwork (under guidance of the art lead) and other times they act to inspire children to think of the wider context of the topic being studied. Children learn to recognise these pieces of work and to associate them with the topic, thus helping them to recall substantive and disciplinary knowledge through this visual representation.
Children being shown, by an artist, how to sculpt with clay at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Click here to view the school’s Art Intent Document.
Art Mastery through Progression of skills
At Our Lady & St. Joseph’s, we aim to improve children’s mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]. We achieve this by building on substantive and disciplinary knowledge year on year, allowing children to revisit taught skills and confidently apply them to different activities planned carefully within each topic. Cross curricular links are also planned for, with art being a sub focus for some topics. These are specifically planned for and are indicated on the school’s curriculum map. The reading curriculum and reading for pleasure initiative is also used to enhance the curriculum across school.
In EYFS, the skills learned feed into the national curriculum subjects at KS1 and KS2. Statements from the 2020 Development Matters are prerequisite skills for art within the national curriculum. These statements come from ‘Physical Development’ and ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ areas of learning.
Click here to view the school’s Art Curriculum Map.
Impact
Outcomes in sketchbooks and topic books evidence a broad and balanced art curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge and skills. This is supported with an assessment tool that indicates key milestones for children to achieve.
Click here to view the school’s Art Assessment Grid.