Art and Design
Curriculum Intent
At St Bernadette’s, we value Art and Design as an important part of our children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Art and Design enables pupils to become creative and reflective learners who can express themselves fluently and confidently in a variety of different ways. We aim to ensure all pupils produce creative, imaginative work by providing children with opportunities to develop and extend skills as they study an artist or craft maker and also express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas. St Bernadette’s recognises the importance of developing the whole child and by using the experience and enthusiasm of teachers and teaching assistants, the curriculum we offer will provide our children the chance to develop their emotional expression through art to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development.
At St Bernadette’s, we recognise the positive impact of opportunities to be creative upon children’s well-being. Our Art and Design co-ordinator works alongside class teachers, to plan engaging lessons where children can be imaginative and express themselves. Teachers provide scaffolding for less-confident artists and challenge more-confident artists, whilst also developing thinking strategies to facilitate higher level independent learning and engagement.
Our Art and Design weeks engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. Children will become confident and proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, sculpting, as well as other selected craft skills such as weaving and tie dying.
As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically, evaluate and analyse whilst developing a more rigorous understanding of Art and Design. We aim to allow our pupils opportunities to express their own view points through their sketch books and also understand how Art and design both reflects and shapes our history and contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
Curriculum Implementation
The teaching and implementation of the Art and Design curriculum at St Bernadette’s is based on the National Curriculum and it is a curriculum driver as well as often being linked to topics to ensure a well-structured and immersive approach to this creative subject and curriculum.
With the introduction of an Art and Design week within each term, it ensures the children are immersed in Art and Design. Areas covered include sculpture, printing based on topic work, portrait studies, painting, mosaics, pop art, cubism and the works of the impressionist artists.
Our aim is to ensure that all pupils produce creative work, explore their ideas and also record their experiences through their sketch books. The immersive curriculum allows our pupils to understand the background and inspiration of the artist and as a result, it allows our children to express their creative imagination, as well as practise and develop in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.
Curriculum Impact
The impact of our Art and Design Curriculum can be seen not only in our children’s sketch books and topic books but also through classroom displays and the school environment.
Summative assessments take place throughout the year using end of unit assessments and teachers record the progress and attainment against the National Curriculum expectations of attainment. Teachers use this information to inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately. Further information is gathered through staff and pupil voice questionnaires; highlighting strengths and achievement and any improvements, knowledge and skills that still need to be embedded.
CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
LONG TERM PROGRESSION ~ SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
