Saint Mary's Catholic Primary School

Art Curriculum Statement

Intent

Art at Saint Mary’s provides children with the opportunity to experiment and investigate with different materials safely, in an environment where all contributions are highly respected and valued.  We utilise Kapow Primary’s revised Art and Design Scheme of Work, which aims to inspire pupils and develop their confidence to experiment and invent their own works of art. It is designed to give pupils every opportunity to develop their ability, nurture their talent and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learning about art and artists across cultures and through history.

Saint Mary’s Art curriculum supports pupils to meet the National curriculum end of key stage attainment targets, and the Early Learning Goals at the end of EYFS, and has been written to fully cover the National Society for Education in Art and Design’s progression competencies.

Implementation

The Art & Design curriculum at Saint Mary’s is designed with strands that run throughout and are revisited in every unit. These are:

• Generating ideas
• Using sketchbooks
• Making skills, including formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)
• Knowledge of artists
• Evaluating and analysing

Units of lessons are sequential, allowing children to build their skills and knowledge, applying them to a range of outcomes. The formal elements, a key part of the National Curriculum, are also woven throughout units. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Units in each year group are organised into core areas:

• Drawing
• Painting and Mixed-Media
• Sculpture and 3D

Children have the opportunity to learn and practise skills discreetly. The knowledge and skills from these units are then applied throughout the other units in the scheme. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows children to revise and build on their previous learning. Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning, with children using sketchbooks to document their ideas. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support teachers who may lack confidence in their own artistic abilities.

Art is taught on a termly basis, alternating each half-term with Design and Technology. This is to ensure pupils receive suitable coverage in both areas, whilst enabling them to learn and develop key skills and knowledge that will support future learning and progress. Each taught unit fully scaffolds and supports essential and age appropriate, sequenced learning, and are flexible enough to be adapted to form cross-curricular links with your own school’s curriculum. Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded into our units, 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.

Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging

recall of key facts and vocabulary.

Each taught unit covers each of the National Curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the key strands listed above. Our Progression of Knowledge and Skills document shows the skills that are taught within each year group from EYFS to Year 6, and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

Impact

Children are fully involved in the evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make. By taking part in regular discussions and decision-making processes, children will not only know key facts and information about Art & Design, but they will be able to talk confidently about their own learning journey, have higher metacognitive skills and have a growing understanding of how to improve. The impact of the scheme is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment. Each lesson has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher which can be used at the start and/or end of the unit. A floor book is used by the subject lead to collate evidence across year groups and capture each classes learning and progression.

Children should leave primary school equipped with a range of techniques and the confidence and creativity to form a strong foundation for their Art & Design learning at Key Stage 3 and beyond.

Children should be able to:

• Produce creative work, exploring and recording their ideas and experiences
• Be proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• Evaluate and analyse creative works using subject-specific language
• Know about great artists and the historical and cultural development of their art
• Meet the end of Key Stage expectations outlined in the National Curriculum for Art & Design.