Art & Design
Our Vision
To deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage and national curriculum in the spirit it was written, including for all children to:
- Explore, experience and be inspired by a wide range of artists and artistic platforms on a local, national and global level.
- Have opportunities to broaden and develop their own creativity and learn crucial skills to build artistic expertise.
- Be outward-looking to find inspiration in different creative and cultural ways.
- Be confident to experiment, evaluate and improve to meet their artistic potential.
All children enjoy a rich range of art experiences including art museum visits and opportunities to see and work with a range of artists in school across the different art forms. We promote local arts festivals and events.
Art display at Pennington also plays an important role by providing an inter-active, educational and stimulating environment in our classrooms, corridors, hall and outdoor classroom.
Intent
Pennington C of E Primary School Primary’s art and design scheme of work aims to inspire pupils and develop their confidence to experiment and invent their own works of art.
We have adopted Kapow as our chosen scheme, it is designed to give pupils every opportunity to develop their ability, nurture their talent and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learning about art and artists across cultures and through history. Our scheme supports pupils to meet the Early Year Foundation Stage Early Learning Goals and national curriculum end of key stage attainment targets.
It inspires children to create, experience, and participate in great arts and culture. At Pennington we enthuse learning by maximising outdoor activities in our school grounds and through the promotion of educational visits and visitors.
Implementation
At Pennington our scheme of work is designed with five strands that run throughout. These are:
- Generating ideas
- Using sketchbooks
- Making skills, including formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)
- Knowledge of artists
- Evaluating and analysing
Units of lessons are sequential, allowing children to build their skills and knowledge, applying them to a range of outcomes. In line with the national curriculum the formal elements are also woven throughout units. Key skills are revisited continually with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Units in each year group are organised into four core areas:
- Drawing
- Painting and mixed-media
- Sculpture and 3D
- Craft and design
Our national curriculum mapping shows which of our units cover each of the national curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands. Our Progression of Knowledge and Skills document shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these will develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each Key Stage. Our units fully scaffold and support essential and age appropriate, sequenced learning, and are adapted to form cross-curricular links with other curriculum areas.
Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded into our units, supporting our pupils in learning how to make their own creative choices and decisions, so that their art outcomes, whilst still being knowledge-rich, are unique to the pupil and personal. Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning with pupils using sketchbooks to document their ideas. Differentiation is available in every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are also available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key knowledge and techniques learned, encouraging recall of skills processes, key facts and vocabulary.
Our curriculum supports teachers who may lack confidence in their own artistic abilities. Pupil videos created by subject specialists help pupils to see art techniques modelled by experts, to ensure the delivery of Art is of the highest quality.
In each year group four units of art and design are timetabled over four half terms, ensuring a balance with other curriculum areas over the year. Quality resources are available and stored centrally to allow staff to implement the scheme of work. Whole school Family Days and outdoor learning opportunities are used to enhance the art and design curriculum and creativity. At Pennington we promote extra-curricular and/or enrichment activities for example a watercolour after school club and the promotion of local arts festivals and events, to raise the profile of art and design.
Impact
At Pennington, our curriculum is designed in such a way that children are involved in evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make.
By taking part in our regular discussions and decision-making processes, children not only know facts and key information about art, but they are also able to talk confidently about their own learning journey, have higher metacognitive skills and have a growing understanding of how to improve.
The impact of our scheme is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives which are displayed and shared in sketchbooks.
The children are involved in their own assessment and evaluation of these learning objectives as they progress.
Our aim is that all pupils leave our school equipped with a range of techniques and the confidence and creativity to form a strong foundation for their art and design learning at Key Stage 3 and beyond. The expected impact of following the Art and design scheme of work is that all children will:
- Produce creative work, exploring and recording their ideas and experiences.
- Be proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using subject-specific language.
- Know about great artists and the historical and cultural development of their art.
- Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for art and design and be confident to enter their secondary education and beyond.