Art

Curriculum Statement

We want to engage, inspire and challenge our children: equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As our children progress through the year groups, they will be able to think more critically and be able to develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design.

Intent

• To have very high expectations in art across the whole school.
• To provide a skills and vocabulary based art curriculum which is progressive and sequenced.
• To teach our children new knowledge about a variety of artists and their culture and creativity develop an appreciation of these.
• To produce very high quality work in sketch books.
• To offer our children new and exciting opportunities and experiences.
• To promote our school values which are closely linked to British Values.
• To offer children new and exciting opportunities.
• To prepare our children for the next steps in their learning journey.

Implementation

The skills taught within our Art and Design curriculum are introduced in Early Years and are built on throughout Key Stage One and Key Stage Two. This allows children to develop their skills and build a bank of knowledge of a variety of artists and their artistic styles.

In Key Stage One, children start to record their creative journey through the use of sketch books. They are taught how to observe, draw and paint their ideas and how to use a variety of materials. The children are expected to use artistic vocabulary to comment on the works of famous artists and designers.

In Key Stage Two, children continue to use their sketch books to record ideas as well as to use as a point of reference to revisit skills previously taught and works of artists. In upper Key Stage Two, the children continue to master the skills previously covered and are encouraged to develop their own unique style drawing on their learning experiences.

Across school, children are given the chance to visit galleries and museums helping to support the children in learning about different artists and further providing them with opportunities to experience different forms of culture.

At Nicol Mere, our Art and Design curriculum offers children a range of artistic styles to explore. Each unit of work is taught through a 4 stage process.

This is taught as follows:

Exploring and Developing

In this stage, children are given a starting point to explore. They will use their drawing and sketching skills to record their initial ideas. From this, they are introduced to a variety of artists and designers and they are given the opportunity to further research the work of other artists and to find out more about them or the artistic style.

Skills

During this stage, he children are given the opportunity to develop their initial ideas further. They are taught specific skills to enhance their work. As well as this, children are encouraged to experiment with different techniques and to apply them to materials and processes.

Application

After children have practised and developed their skills, they are given the opportunity to design and create their final piece, applying the skills that have been previously taught.

Evaluating Work

Throughout the making of their final piece, children are given time to review and reflect on their own and others art work. This allows them to identify what they think or feel about it or how they would adapt it. After completion of their final piece, children evaluate their achievements and how they can further develop future work.

Impact

At Nicol Mere, we recognise the diverse needs of each child and support them in reaching their full potential. The impact of our Art and Design curriculum is measured by the experiences and confidence children display when creating their own pieces of art work: they become competent artists.

Nicol Mere Art Curriculum and Knowledge Organisers