Art and design - our intent

At Checkendon Primary School, we are dedicated to providing our students with a comprehensive and ambitious art curriculum that is rich in knowledge. Our art curriculum is designed to offer a wealth of information on artists, architects, and designers, including the artistic concepts that relate to their work, across various art forms and styles. Our aim is to provide meaningful opportunities for our students to express themselves creatively, and to learn and understand their unique artistic identity. We want all our students to focus on the different concepts of art elements such as line, visual texture, tone, form, shape, and colour. They will learn how an artist uses these different elements to produce art in different styles, such as realistic or abstract. We strive to master the foundational concepts first, which is why we introduce students to different art concepts as early as reception class. Opportunities to explore different media used to make art, such as sculpture, architecture, and painting, are woven throughout our art curriculum.

Art and design - our implementation

Our art curriculum fulfils the requirements of the National Curriculum for England. Art at Checkendon is taught within each class following a two-year cycle. It is timetabled each week and given the necessary time required within the curriculum to be taught effectively. Units of work in the curriculum are ambitious and focus on the different concepts in art and different types of art. Pupils are given opportunities to explore different subject matter (e.g. portraits, landscapes or history painting) and different artistic movements, historical periods or geographical cultures (e.g. impressionism, Anglo-Saxon art and Chinese painting) across our art curriculum. We ensure a gradual progression in terms of skills (painting, drawing, 3D form, collage, textiles, printmaking and mixed media) and knowledge of different concepts and types of art. For example, Style in Art and Narrative Painting are studied in year 1, and then revisited in year 3 in History Painting and in year 5 in Style in Art. Our art overview and progression documents ensure coverage of both the required knowledge and the subject specific skills. Pupils are encouraged to apply their existing skills while developing new ones as progression is achieved throughout school. The structure of our planning also provides for progression in terms of process in art, both in terms of critical analysis of others’ art and the necessary observation, exploration and evaluation needed for the children to create their own art. Activities pupils are directed to undertake in lessons are designed with an eye to the importance of learning and practising process.

Each class enjoys the opportunity to work with Mrs Lovegrove, a local artist, for two projects each year.

In reception our pupils explore and use a variety of media and materials through a combination of child initiated and adult directed activities. They have opportunities to learn to:

• Explore the textures, movement, feel and look of different media and materials
• Respond to a range of media and materials, develop their understanding of them in order to manipulate and create different effects.
• Use different media and materials to express their own ideas
• Explore colour and use for a particular purpose
• Develop skills to use simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately
• Select appropriate media and techniques and adapt their work where necessary

Key stage 1 Pupils are 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.

Key stage 2 Pupils are taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design. Pupils are taught:

• 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 [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
• About great artists, architects and designers in history

Art and design - our impact

Our Art Curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and to stimulate creativity. Our pupils are clear about what the intended outcomes are and have a means to measure their own work against this, as a means of expression or to explore the styles of other artists that inspire our own work. In Art, children are reflective and evaluate their own and each other’s work, thinking about how they can make changes to keep improving. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes;

• Pupil discussions about their learning; which includes discussion of their thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work
• Teacher monitoring (for example book looks and learning walks)
• Partnership monitoring (alongside partnership primary schools)
• Pupils love of the subject