Art at North Scarle Primary School

It is our intent at North Scarle Primary School to provide pupils with a high-quality art curriculum which develops creativity, challenges thinking and engages and inspires children. Our curriculum is designed to equip them with the knowledge and skills to experiment and create their own works of art, craft and design.

Art is a vehicle for creativity and individual expression. It is important to the development of pupils’ well-being, appreciation of the world and understanding and empathy of others. We aim to give all children the confidence to express themselves through a range of chosen mediums.

Our curriculum provides children with an opportunity to experience all art forms: drawing, painting, textiles, 3D designs and print making, and pupils are encouraged to experiment with a range of different materials and techniques to bring their ideas to life. Opportunities to practise art and design techniques when using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space are embedded across the Art curriculum through the use of individual sketchbooks. Children are given the opportunity within lessons to work on their own and collaborate with others, on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales.

We intend for children to be able to look at an image or a piece of art and have an understanding of it as well as being able to express their reaction to it. We equip them with the skills required to understand the language of art and design. This enables them to describe what they see in detail and to provide evidence for their observations.

Our four key threads are our vision and weave through everything we do at North Scarle Primary School:

Inclusivity: We want our children to know how Art has contributed to our culture, our history and our understanding of the world. Our art curriculum includes the study of diverse, carefully selected artists from both past and present day to ensure that children see themselves in the units we study while gaining an insight into the lives of others. Children are encouraged to take inspiration from artists and to develop their artwork in a style unique to them.

Enriched: Our enriched art curriculum provides children with opportunities to take artistic inspiration from the work of artists as well as the local environment and the natural world.

Aspirational: Our high expectations and progressively planned curriculum ensure that all children see themselves as artists and are supported to achieve their artistic potential.

Inspirational: Our varied choice of artists and stimulus excite children to learn and explore new artistic methods and techniques. Children learn about artists, their sources of inspiration and the development of their techniques.
 

How is art taught at North Scarle?

Our art curriculum is built around our substantive and disciplinary concepts developed from the National Curriculum. Our art curriculum begins in our Class 1 (EYFS/Y1) class where elements of the KS1 national curriculum are taught alongside the EYFS ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ statements.

Children then progress into Class 2 (Year 2/3), where they begin to develop their use of individual sketchbooks to develop and practise techniques and present their ideas. Within Class 1 and Class 2, units of study are arranged in an A/B cycle format. Children then progress into Class 3 (Y4/5/6) where units of study are sequenced in an A/B/C cycle.

Learning sequences are carefully planned to ensure that children revisit each element of art in each class to embed and deepen key substantive, disciplinary and vocabulary knowledge. Children will revisit three main concepts within each unit of work:

• Develop ideas
  This concept involves understanding how ideas develop through an artistic process.
• Master techniques
  This concept involves developing a skill set so that ideas may be communicated.
• Take inspiration from the greats
  This concept involves learning from both the artistic process and the techniques of great artists and artisans throughout history.

Key knowledge and vocabulary are revisited regularly, and links are made within and between units which support children in remembering their learning through spaced repetition. Teachers provide opportunities to retrieve previously taught content within lessons and through a weekly POP quiz.

What is our intended impact for art?

By the time our Year 6 children leave for secondary school, we intend for them to have an impressive knowledge and understanding of other artists, craft makers and designers and the ability to use visual language to make observations and convey insights.

We intend for children to have the ability to think and act like artists by using their knowledge and understanding to; inform, inspire and interpret ideas, observations and feelings. They will have independence, initiative and originality which they can use to develop their own pieces.

As part of this, children will be able to explore and invent marks, develop and deconstruct ideas and communicate perceptively and powerfully through purposeful drawing. They will be able to select and use materials, processes and techniques skilfully and inventively to realise intentions and capitalise on the unexpected.

We intend for all children to have a passion for and a commitment to the subject and an ability to reflect on, analyse and critically evaluate their own work and that of others.