Intent
Art is a way for us all to express ourselves and a chance for our children to explore how creative they can be. We want our children to love and enjoy art, craft and design at St Catherine’s. Children should realise in art that there are no limits to what their ambitions are and that their aspirations for life can include a side of them which is both creative and artistic.
We want art in our school to engage, inspire and challenge our children. Learning will equip them with the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed in art and design whilst giving them plenty of opportunities to experiment, invent and create their own fabulous works of art. Children should make links to how art can and has shaped our history and how it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our school and our world.
Effective learning in Art is both complex and multi-dimensional and allows for multiple outcomes. There are no right or wrong answers and all learners can create a unique final piece of work. Pupils become managers of risk who can make decisions rather than feel at risk. The ability to generate ideas, be innovative and creative and bring ideas to life and to communicate leads to success in Art. Pupils will learn to be their own critics and are motivated to learn not just for test results but for the learning experience itself. Art can act as an outlet for releasing pressures and help to develop critical thinking and the ability to interpret the world around us.
Implementation
Our art curriculum is taught through a mixture of discrete and cross-curricular sessions to ensure that children have a meaningful learning experience whilst ensuring that they cover all of the skills which are necessary to make them successful young artists. Art lessons are used to complement our ‘Big Question’ curriculum and allow children to learn about art through a focus which can link to history, geography, science or any of the other subjects within school.
Children learn and develop their skills in the following areas:
Children explore these forms of art and evidence these explorations through the production of their own art sketchbooks. Sketchbooks do not follow the school’s presentation or marking policies. Instead, they are a place where children can freely express, create and develop their own masterpieces with as much or as little guidance as is needed from the teacher.
Artwork is also gathered and presented throughout school. Display walls are used to celebrate the artwork which our children create, work is rewarded and shared within celebration assemblies and the process or art is evidenced through our Seesaw app using photographs and videos.
Impact
The structure of our art curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their own skills as well as their knowledge and understanding of the work of different artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of times and cultures. They can then apply this knowledge to their own work. The consistent use of children’s sketchbooks means that children are able to review, modify and develop their initial ideas in order to achieve high quality outcomes. Progression is evident for each child as these sketchbooks follow them up through the year groups.
Children learn to understand and apply the key principles of art: line, tone, texture, shape, form, space, pattern, colour, contrast, composition, proportion and perspective. The opportunity for children to refine and develop their techniques over time is supported by effective lesson sequencing and progression between year groups. This supports children in achieving age related expectations in Art and Design at the end of each academic year whilst giving them plenty of opportunities to enjoy and flourish in this exciting and important subject.