ART
“Art has the role in education of helping children become more like themselves instead of more like everyone else” (S.G.Clemens)
Intent
At Prince Albert Primary School, we want to nurture, foster and instil a love and passion for art and design. Our carefully planned curriculum is designed to engage, inspire and challenge pupils, whilst equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own pieces of work. We also aim for our pupils to have the breadth of knowledge that enables them to critically evaluate a piece of art. We want our pupils to understand the wider impact of art by exploring how art and design shapes our history, and how it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. Therefore, pupils learn about unique and diverse artists, craft makers and designers to show children the limitless opportunities and careers that art and design can provide and to foster a lifelong passion for art.
Implementation
At Prince Albert Primary School, we have designed our own progressive curriculum that enables pupils to develop the key elements and components that underpin the art curriculum which are line, shape, form, texture, colour and value. The foundations for art are laid in our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). In EYFS, children begin to learn the fundamental skills of drawing, printing, painting and sculpture. They begin to experiment with different tools and textures. As they move in KS1, they build on these initial skills in these areas of art and they also learn about collage and digital media in KS2. Our art curriculum develops pupils’ interests and curiosity about art and design through a cross curricular approach which focuses on specific themes such as the Stone Age and World War 2.
At Prince Albert Primary School, each of our pupils has their own sketch book which demonstrates their creative journey within each unit. These books are used to record ideas, practise new techniques and further refine their skills. These sketch books also give our pupils the opportunity to study and critique existing pieces of art/artists and use these ideas to develop their own pieces of related art work. Also, we ensure our children have access to a wide variety of art resources and have opportunities to use a range of media. Pupils are taught to be reflective and evaluate their work, thinking about how they can make changes and keep improving. Pupils have the opportunity to showcase and exhibit their work throughout the school, either in classrooms or during art exhibitions.
We have a highly knowledgeable leader of art who ensures that the curriculum is regularly reviewed and refined. Art skills are assessed throughout a unit of learning and this assessment is used to drive future retrieval and learning opportunities.
Impact
Due to the nature of this curriculum area, art monitoring takes various forms. A key component of this is pupil voice; school leaders use pupil voice as an effective tool to assess pupils’ ability to express themselves through a range of different mediums. Pupil voice demonstrates that through discussion and feedback, pupils talk enthusiastically about their art lessons and show a genuine curiosity and interest in the areas they have explored. Along with this, senior leaders and the art leader regularly conduct learning walks and look at sketch books to ensure progression of skills is evident. Monitoring and pupil voice shows that our pupils leave Prince Albert school with a range of art skills, a passion for art and a knowledge of a range of artists.