Intent Statement
At Wingate Primary School, we value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Art and Design provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas. Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high- quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
Implementation
Our Art and Design curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum states that ‘pupils should be 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.’ Our Art and Design curriculum has been structured in a cross-curricular way to effectively facilitate this and to provide maximum inspiration to our artists and designers. Art projects may be linked to a class topic to enhance the pupils’ understanding of the key historical or geographical concepts covered. Where appropriate, Art and Design projects may also be linked to a community or cultural issue to engage our artists in the world around.
At Wingate Primary School, each of our artists/designers has their own sketch book, in which they can record ideas, practise new techniques and to further refine their skills. These sketchbooks give our artists the opportunity to study an existing piece of art, create a constructive and reflective critique of this work and to use these ideas to develop their own piece of related art work, enabling pupils to show perseverance and dedication to complete any project to the best of their ability. Artists form different eras are studied throughout the school to give our artists a balanced knowledge and understanding of Art concepts and skills. School visitors and trips are facilitated where appropriate to enhance the pupils’ understanding and skills.
Impact
Artwork produced is of high quality and children take pride in what they produce. The content of art lessons is meaningful to pupils and enriches work in other areas across the curriculum.
Pupils’ sketch books demonstrate that control and technique with media such as pencil, pastel and paint improve over time. They provide a journal to record observations and are used to review and revisit ideas. Sketch books contain experimentation of skills, photographs and reflections, showing ideas and development rather than final pieces which are displayed throughout school. Editing and improving are an essential part of the learning process and mistakes are used to plan for the next step.
7 Elements of Art
The promotion of a language rich Art and Design curriculum is essential to help children think and learn in a creative and innovative way. Children have access to key skills, language and meanings to help them better understand the key threads within our Art and Design curriculum. Our art curriculum is made up of seven elements which are line, shape, form, space, value, colour and texture. These elements are the essential components, or building blocks, of any artwork.
Pupil Voice
Celebrating Art
