Art and Design

The aim at Harvey Road Primary School is to provide an art and design curriculum which enthuses and challenges all pupils. Involvement with arts and culture is crucial to imagination, self-expression and creativity in young people. At Harvey Road, children are given the opportunity to develop their own unique creative ideas, observing and responding to their community and the world around them. 

Children experience a range of materials and tools, developing skills in drawing, painting, 3D work, collage, photography and textiles. They gain an understanding of key artists, crafts people and designers and can apply this knowledge to their own work. They have the opportunity to evaluate their own work and that of others in a constructive manner using the language of art, craft and design. Each child has their own sketchbook in which they can collect, develop, research and review their work.

Along their art journey, they will become critical thinkers and develop a secure understanding of art and design. They will leave us knowing that art and design plays an important part in shaping our history and contribute to the culture and creativity of the world we live in.  They will become critical thinkers and develop a secure knowledge and understanding of art and design through carefully planned key concepts and progression of skills covering at a minimum, the aims stated in the National Curriculum.

Aims

The National Curriculum for Art aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
• Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
• Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
• Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Implementation

Art is taught in Nursery to Year 6, based around the Kapow scheme and the Harvey Road Curriculum, which develops children’s knowledge and skills, as they progress through the school. 

In Nursery and Reception classes the children will access the expressive art and design aspect of the Development Matters curriculum. The children will focus on exploring and using different materials, linking to exploring textures and senses. This includes materials and media from other cultures. They will also learn about colour and colour mixing and making meaningful marks. The aim for children is to be able to safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function in a way that they can express themselves through creativity and imagination.

As the children move through the school, they use knowledge organisers and graphic organisers to ensure that the knowledge they are being taught is recapped each lesson and through the use of images they remember more. Through our standardised planning (Kapow), we ensure that key vocabulary is taught, learnt and revisited each session to support with the children’s knowledge and understanding. Children develop their oracy skills throughout each lesson whilst demonstrating their knowledge and understanding. All children are able to access the Art curriculum and in instances where more personalised learning needs to occur, teachers make every effort to scaffold children appropriately be this through tailoring materials, resources, the learning, pre-teaching or through providing further support through adults or peers. For those children who need more challenge, we provide this through different ways, for example critical thinking opportunities or changing our outcome's specifications, purpose or audience.

In Key Stage 1 the children will learn to use a range of different materials creatively to design and make products. A progression of skills has been devised to ensure coverage over the years. They will draw, paint, print and sculpture materials such as clay to develop techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. Key concepts are mapped out over the years and highlighted in each lesson to allow the children to make links in their learning, deepen their understanding and remember more. This work will be complemented by learning about the work of a range of artists, craft-makers and designers that have been carefully selected to represent and inspire the children in our context. All children will use a sketchbook to record research, develop knowledge and ideas and to evidence their skills.

Building on this, the children in Key Stage 2 will learn to improve their mastery of art and design techniques by learning specific skills for each area of the art curriculum explored in Key Stage 1. The children will use technology to produce images, patterns and decorative pieces of work. They will record their observations and ideas and use them to review and evaluate improvements.

Harvey Road follows the Kapow curriculum scheme, however, the children will also explore the great artists, architects and designers in history, which have again been carefully chosen to reflect the children in our school community in order to inspire them. When art is being taught, teachers deliver an art lesson every week as we feel the children benefit from being exposed to knowledge and skills throughout the term and keep building on these. Our final outcomes are then displayed or presented, for example at an ‘Art Gallery’ on our ‘Art Day’ in the Spring Term.

Impact

On leaving Harvey Road Primary School a successful learner in this subject will: 

• Know that there are different artistic styles and techniques and have experience of producing art in those styles
• Be able to analyse works of art so that they can describe, discuss and write about them
• Have had experience of using different artistic mediums including: painting, drawing (including charcoal) printing, clay, computer art, sculpture, tie-dyeing, weaving, sewing and collage
• Know how to appreciate and use formal artistic skills including: line, tone, texture, pattern, colour and shading, composition and perspective
• Know how different aspects of photography, including: photomontage, truisms, macro photography and self-portraits, have been used by artists
• Understand how personal expression can be seen in particular types of art including graffiti
• Develop techniques involved with drawing and designing still life
• Know that many forms of art have an intended design purpose. Children will have opportunities to produce art to these parameters
• Know that art can be used for different purposes including: political persuasion; upholding British Values including liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect for and tolerance of others; symbolism
• Know that art can be found in a wide range of different things including: ancient monuments; pre-historic art, architecture; religion; fantasy and the abstract

To ensure our art planning and provision is accessible and appropriate for our children we measure the impact of our curriculum by:

• Reflecting on the child’s ability to show an awareness of and demonstrate they can use a skill suitable for their age
• Using Knowledge Organisers to retrieve previously learnt information and transfer learning from the working memory to the long term memory
• Tracking the progression of specific skills through assessment pieces across the academic year, also recapping and revisiting our key concepts and ensure progression across the key stages.
• Holding pupil discussions, low stakes quizzing and other assessment for learning strategies about their knowledge and understanding of the key concepts in our art curriculum.
• A final piece of work at the end of the unit, demonstrating skills they have been taught.

Involvement with arts and culture is crucial to imagination, self-expression and creativity in young people. Children will leave Harvey Road with a set of skills that will enable them to feel confident in exploring creative prospects in the wider world.