Art Statement

Intent

The aim of our curriculum at St Michael’s is for children to have the skills to be successful, independent, motivated and resilient learners in preparation for the next stage of their education. In relation to the Art curriculum, our intention is that all children become creative thinkers allowing them to appreciate different art work and artists. This supports them to become more artistically literate, for example pottery, colour, shade.

The skills that the children acquire are linked to cross-curricular topics, allowing children to use their art skills to reflect on and explore topics in greater depth; for example, by sketching historical artefacts in detail, researching geographical locations to support their work on landscape painting or using art as a medium to express emotion and thought to enhance their personal, social and emotional development. Many areas of art link with mathematical ideas of shape and space; for example when printing repeating patterns and designs and thinking about 3D shapes to support structures. It is paramount that art work be purposeful; be this as a means of expression or to explore the styles of other artists that inspire our own work. Pupils should be clear what the intended outcomes are and have a means to measure their own work against this.

In Art, children are expected to be reflective and evaluate their work, thinking about how they can make changes and keep improving. This should be meaningful and continuous throughout the process, with evidence of age-related verbal and written reflection. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project.

Implementation

The curriculum lead has worked alongside subject leaders to ensure knowledge and skills are mapped out accordingly for each year group, showing progression across the school. All staff aim to deliver interesting and inspiring Art lessons that allow children’s natural curiosity to blossom.

• Teachers plan lessons to ensure children make connections across a variety of subjects as Art is often used as a medium to get children involved in other subjects.
• The children take part in Dot Art competition each year with the our specialist Art teacher – this involves other areas of the curriculum and allows children to explore and appreciate local art work and artists.
• The curriculum is planned thoroughly, starting with the children’s current knowledge and skills, so that real progress can be made and measured.
• Each term there are a variety of visits and visitors planned in each year group to enrich the learning and create memories via real life experiences – all of which are linked to local artists to inspire the children  
• Children’s prior knowledge is assessed at the beginning of a topic and learning planned accordingly.
• At the end of each topic, pupils are assessed based on the knowledge and skills that have been acquired.

Impact

Our Art curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression and develop a love of Art. Over time many children in our school develop a real love and appreciation of the artistic world. We know this because they are keen to enter a range of competitions and events and they will talk about these with lots of enthusiasm. The children apply their artistic skills to our outdoor environment and have been responsible for designing our gardens, creating willow statues and designing the outside of our bus. Children develop their skills across the Art curriculum including painting, colour, sketching etc.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Assessing the knowledge and skills learnt across the topics
• Reflecting on the standards achieved against planned outcomes.
• Celebrating the learning at the end of each topic, where children demonstrate the knowledge they have gained.
• Sampling children’s learning across the school.
• Pupil discussions.
• Annual tracking of standards linked to the National Curriculum.

For further information about the Art and Design curriculum, please visit…

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-art-and-design-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-art-and-design-programmes-of-study